Development of a complete and validated method for the quantification of olive oil polyphenols related to the health claim of the European regulation 432/2012

The European regulation 432/2012 about the health claims of olive oil gives the opportunity to a significant number of olive oils to bear a health claim on their label and consequently to achieve a higher price. Up today there is not any complete and officially recognised method for the measurement of the components defined by the EU regulation. Our research group has developed an innovative method based on nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy which achieves a direct and fast measurement. Our method quantifies the major four components bur it can certainly be expanded to all relative compounds and become the most complete and reliable method. In the framework of our collaboration with the University of California Olive center we have the opportunity to complete our method and to validate it in two different laboratories in order to become a reference method that could be adopted by the international certifying organizations.