CONTAMINATION SOURCES OF VIRGIN OLIVE OILS BY POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS

Wenceslao Moreda (1)

1 Food Quality and Characterization

The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) content in virgin olive oils is due to contamination of both olives in the tree and oils in olive oil mill. Contamination of olive fruits occurs on the olive skin, and it depends directly on the environmental pollution level and inversely on the fruit size. In the olive oil mill, the PAHs content can be increased by contamination of the oil during the extraction process if combustion fumes pollute the environment. Other factors of the extraction process, such as olive washing and talc addition, did not modify the PAHs levels of the oils. Very high concentrations of PAHs in oils were only found as a consequence of accidental exposure to contamination sources, such as the direct contact of olives with a diesel exhaust and oil extraction into a high polluted environment. Determination of 9 PAHs were carried out by isolation of the hydrocarbon fraction and subsequent clean-up by solid phase extraction, followed by RP-HPLC analysis using a programmable fluorescence detector.

Mots clés: Life Sciences

Wenceslao Moreda. CONTAMINATION SOURCES OF VIRGIN OLIVE OILS BY POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS. Food Additives and Contaminants, 2007, 25 (01), pp.115-122. ⟨10.1080/02652030701459855⟩. ⟨hal-00577467⟩