Geographical characterisation of virgin olive oils of the denomination of protected origin les garrigues by their fatty acid profile

Main fatty acid composition from Les Garrigues (Lleida. Spain) virgin olive oils were evaluated in three consecutive harvests (1995/96 to 1997/98). Results show that the variability is due to climate events and geographical area of production. Principal Components Analysis was applied to fatty acid composition of olive oil classified in two agroclimate geographical zones. The two first principal components accounting for 80 percent of the variance. A stepwise selection algorithm in discriminant analysis was used to obtain one discriminating function amongst the two zones. Above 83 % for the 188 observations used to fit the model were correctly classified. To verify the model, 20 additional oil samples from 1998/99 harvest were added to the data set and 84,6 % were correctly classified.