Investigation of some quality and purity standards of olive oils produced in Turkey

Olive oil is a naturally occurring food which is significantly important in the human nutrition and health for containing vital nutrients such as oleic acids (OA),vitamins, sterols and phenolic compounds in higher quantities, therebye directly consumed. Olive oil positively impacts on cardiovascular system, digestive system, bone structure, tissue of brain, and nerves. Therefore, it needs to be produced under hygenic conditions along the food chain for the consumers. The objective of this study was to evaluate some quality and purity criteria of a total of 70 different kinds of olive oil (50 extra virgin olive oil and 20 mixture of virgin and refined olive oil)collected from the different regions in Turkey, including Marmara, Aegean, Mediterranean and Southearn Anatolia according to the Guidelines of Turkish Food Codex. The samples were subjected to the analysis for the presence of free acidity, peroxide number and oil acid composition. The results revealed that free acidity results belonging to the riviera olive oil samples completely met the quality criteria as declared by the Turkish Food Codex while 46% of extra virgin olive oil samples were out of the acceptable limits. For the peroxide values, 22% of extra virgin olive oil and 15% of Riviera oil samples were determined to be above the upper acceptable limits. According to fatty acid composition results, linolenic, heptadecanoic and heptadecenoic acid values were not within the limits as specified by the Turkish Food Codex Standard. Overall, 46%, 20% and 9% of all samples were out of the standard limits for free acidity, peroxide value and distribution of fatty acids, respectively. In conclusion, this study indicated that the free acidity, peroxide number and oil acid compozition values of olive oil samples did not exactly meet for the quality and purity standard according to the Turkish Food Codex Standard. Keywords: Olive oil, Quality, Purity