Descriptive Profiling of Flavor Attributes of Turkish Virgin Olive Oils from Different Olive Cultivars

Abstract

The flavor attributes of 2006 production virgin olive oils from different olive cultivars: 'Ayvalik' (11 samples) and 'Memecik' (11 samples) cultivated in the Aegean region of Turkey were investigated by using decriptive flavor profile analysis technique. The intensity of each sensory attribute were evaluated on a 50-mm unstructured scale. Sensory profiles including aroma and flavor characteristics were provided as spider-web diagrams by plotting the mean values for the sensory descriptors. It was observed that the sensory attributes of virgin olive oil samples consisted of bitter, pungent, oily, olive, green olive, leaf, tomato, pomace, earthy, unripe banana flavors and green olive, olive, oily, ripe banana, fruity, tomato, pomace, leaf, earthy, dust, acid, grass and unripe banana aromas.