Classification of different quality virgin olive oils by metal-oxide sensors

The European Union classifies virgin olive oils into three categories, extra virgin, virgin and lampante; lampante being the only oil that cannot be consumed before undergoing a refining process. A mathematical model based on two metal-oxide sensors has been designed and checked in order to detect on-line lampante oils inside the production systems. The model was developed using 114 samples and was successfully tested with an external test set of 55 samples taken from different single varietal olive oils and geographical origins. The model was able to detect 100% of non-lampante virgin olive oils and 89.5% of lampante virgin olive oils.