Quality indicators of Libyan olive oil for the 2022/2023 agricultural season between the production chain and production regions.

Abstract

The study was conducted at the Olive Oil Quality Laboratory at the Agricultural and Animal Research Center, Sustainable Agriculture Branch, with the aim of identifying the quality level of virgin olive oil produced during the 2022/2023 season in different Libyan regions that are essential for olive plantations and oil production. The research also aimed to compare the quality of olive oil traded between different categories participating in the production chain. During the study, 111 olive oil samples were collected from 11 geographical locations, with 87 samples from farmers, 18 samples from mill owners, and 6 samples from olive harvest teams. All samples were subjected to free acid and peroxide value titrations, and the samples were subjected to sensory evaluation. The paper used analytical statistics to discuss the results and determine statistically significant differences at the P < 0.05 level using Fisher's test to compare averages. The obtained results showed a significant variation in the average percentage of free acidity of the oil of the studied regions, which ranged between 0.8-3.25%. The regions also varied significantly in the peroxide content of their oils, as the peroxide value ranged between 12-33.1 ml active oxygen equivalent/kg of oil, while the production chain categories did not show any significant differences between them, whether in the percentage of acidity or the peroxide value. Sensory evaluation of the studied olive samples showed that only 45.9% of the samples were free of sensory defects, and 54.1% of the samples had one or more sensory defects.