PDO (Protected Designation of Origin): Geographical characterization of Tuscan extra virgin olive oils using high-field H-1 NMR spectroscopy

High-field H-1 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) was used to analyze 42 extra virgin olive oils from three different zones in Tuscany ("Seggiano", "Colline Lucchesi" and "Colline di Arezzo"), in order to evaluate if this technique can be used to determine the geographical origin of olive oil. Selected resonance intensities obtained from H-1 NMR spectra were submitted to two different methods of multivariate statistical analysis: Cluster Analysis and Discriminant Analysis. Extra virgin olive oils of the same geographical area were clearly grouped, indicating that multivariate statistical analysis applied to H-1 NMR data may be a way to check the Protected Designation of Origin (P.D.O.).