Quality Assessment of Five Mono-cultivar Virgin Olive Oils Produced in Longnan (China) from 2013 to 2017

The aim of this work was to evaluate the quality of the five mono-cultivar (Frantoio, Leccino, Picholine, Coratina and Ezhi-8) virgin olive oils (Mc-VOOs) produced in Longnan (China) from 2013 to 2017 through analysing the organoleptic quality, physicochemical properties, phenolic contents, antioxidant activity and fatty acid composition. The leading principal components for assessing the quality of Mc-VOOs were extracted by principal component analysis (PCA). The results indicated that the five Mc-VOOs showed obvious differences (p < 0.05) in flavour and substance composition with the variation of cultivar and production year; however, the same cultivar of VOO displayed certain homogeneity in five consecutive years of assessment. The five Mc-VOOs were rich in phenolic compounds and unsaturated fatty acids such as oleic acid. The quality of VOO was mainly determined by the genetic characteristics of olive cultivar, meanwhile, fruit maturity, soil and climate factors also affected its quality. The content of phenolic compound, DPPH· scavenging rate, proportion of unsaturated fatty acids and iodine value of Coratina were the highest, on the contrary, Ezhi-8 was the lowest in general. The results of PCA showed that the five leading principal components to evaluate the quality of Mc-VOOs were oleic acid, linoleic acid, acid value, total phenol and trace components (such as C20:1 and squalene) successively. In conclusion, the five McVOOs from Longnan show excellent quality and have certain uniformity in different production years.