A CHEMOMETRICS STUDY OF ANALYTICAL PANELS IN VIRGIN OLIVE OIL - AN APPROACH FOR EVALUATING PANELS IN TRAINING

A mathematical procedure including Canonical Correlation, Factor and cluster analysis and Multiple Regression was designed to study whether two different sensory panels, with different levels of training, could be considered as a unity. Among others, correlations between each attribute of both panels, matrices of partial correlations, variance explained by the most important factors and similarity among clusters were computed as the procedure to evaluate if a Panel in training works as well as an expertise. In addition, every one of the factors was correlated with the final evaluation of quality for analysing the interrelationship between the profile notes and the grading table of virgin olive oil quality from a mathematical point of view. Finally, a stepwise multiple correlation analyses how the panels modelled the evaluated samples. Promising directions for future research are also suggested.