Fatty acids ethyl esters (FAEEs) are markers for virgin olive oils obtained from olives of poor quality or not
adequately stored before being processed. FAEEs can also be considered as indirect markers in detecting the
illegal treatment of soft deodorization that can be applied to slightly defective olive oils, as they are difficult to be
removed from the oils at the conditions reached during this technological process. The official FAEEs determination
(EU Reg. 61/2011) suffers some drawbacks in terms of amount of solvents and long time of analysis, linked with the
preparative procedure to isolate these compounds.
The aim of this work is to study the application of an HPLC-UV as a rapid alternative approach to the traditional
liquid chromatography applied in the preparative phase. After the set up of the most appropriate working conditions
(eg. mobile phase, flow, injection volume), some validation parameters (eg. precision, accuracy, LOD and LOQ,
recovery) have been evaluated, in order to check the effectiveness of the proposed method. Moreover, considering
the GC-FID step, the use of a PTV (programmed temperature vaporizer) injector as an alternative of the on-column
one was evaluated.
This work is developed in the context of the project OLEUM \u201cAdvanced solutions for assuring authenticity and quality
of olive oil at global scale\u201c, funded by the European Commission within the Horizon 2020 Programme (2014\u20132020,
GA no. 635690). The information expressed in this abstract reflects the authors\u2019 views; the EC is not liable for the
information contained therein
