Current EU legislation provides for objective criteria aimed at classifying the various types of olive oils (virgin, clear, refined, etc.).
These criteria are explained by the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/2104 and 2022/2105 of 29 July 2022.
Assigning each oil to the correct class it belongs to is of fundamental importance for:
- Guarantee the commercialization of olive oils that meet the characteristics declared on the label
- Avoid potential adulteration, even of a malicious nature
- Protect the health and interests of the final consumer.
The regulation define the analytical methods relating to the quantification of the parameters of interest; many of these involve laborious sample preparation, large quantities of solvents and consumables, as well as the use of qualified operators for a long time.
SRA Instruments, in collaboration with the Sas Biochemical Analysis Center, has conducted an in-depth study of the methods in use, coming to offer the market a series of analytical solutions based on the GERSTEL platform, able to fully automate the sample-prep phases, resulting in savings in terms of time, solvent and materials.
The robotic stations developed are able to fully automate the sample preparation process and subsequent analyzes aimed at determining, respectively, the content of:
- Alkylesters and waxes
- Sterols, triterpene dialcohols and aliphatic alcohols
- Stigmastadienes.
The use of robotic stations also allows you to greatly limit the possibility of incurring random errors, as well as keeping the process under control by inserting a large number of QCs within a batch; in this way, not only high productivity is guaranteed, but also an extremely reliable final data in terms of precision and accuracy.
The portfolio of SRA solutions for the analysis and characterization of oils includes: