Preliminary observations on veiled olive oil turbidity with regards to wax content

THIS WORK IS A PRELIMINARY CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF THE MATERIAL RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PHYSICOCHEMICAL STATUS OF VEILED OLIVE OIL (DESCRIBED AS SUSPENSION–DISPERSION SYSTEM). TWENTY FOUR OLIVE OIL SAMPLES WITH DIFFERENT CLOUDY APPEARANCES WERE GROUPED INTO THREE CLASSES ACCORDING TO INCREASING TURBIDITY, BOTH BY MEANS OF A VISUAL EVALUATION AND BY SPECTROPHOTO- METRIC OPTICAL DENSITY (ABSORBANCE AT 630 NM). CHEMICAL ANALYSES WERE THEN PERFORMED, I.E. FREE ACIDITY (FA), PEROXIDE VALUE (PV), UV ABSORPTION (UVA), MOI- STURE (MO), IMPURITY, FATTY ACID COMPOSITION (FAC), STEROLS AND WAXES CONCENTRA- TION. THE OIL SAMPLES WERE VERY SIMILAR, I.E. NO SIGNIFICANT OR MINIMAL DIFFERENCES IN FA, PV, UVA, FAC AND STEROLS, WHEREAS LARGE AND SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES WERE FOUND BOTH FOR MO AND WAXES (BOTH TOTAL AND SPECIFIC ESTERS) AMONG THE THREE TURBIDITY CLASSES. IMPURITIES WERE NOT DETECTED IN ANY SAMPLES. AN ADDITIVE EFFECT OF WAXES ALONG WITH OTHER MINOR CONSTITUENTS IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PHYSICOCHEMICAL STATE OF THE VEILED VOO WAS HYPOTHESIZED.