To fight counterfeiting and develop a transparent labeling, the CRA has proposed a database of Italian Olive Oil. The Council for Research and Experimentation in Agriculture (CRA), supervised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, has developed a project which is based on two complementary approaches, the one chemical and the other, that follows, biomolecular.
Project: institutions, objectives, costs to track the Italian oil
The project should be conducted by CRA and other scientific institutions with specific competences
and sould have a duration of three years.
The aim, "is precisely to create a database of Italian oil through the development of mathematical-statistical models, capable of classifying varieties, areas, production, cultivations, using data on the isotopic ratio of carbon, on the volatile substances, on fatty acids, on the traces of metals and on NMR data. "So Enzo Perri explains, director of the Centre for Research on the olive colture and olive oil industry (CRA-oils), to the Press Office of Sol & Agrifood, the International Exhibition of Quality Agriculture and Food in program from 7 to 10 April at VeronaFiere.
Perri also added "With the validation of the method and models Nas and ICQRF (Institute for quality control and fraud prevention) could use them in anti-fraud services. But first, the methodology will be tested. " In fact, once mapped the Italian oil, it becomes easy to identify the origins of foreign oil, even in mixtures, that is why three years of time are needed.
To complete the experimentation 900 thousand Euro are needed.
Other Ways?
The CRA has also advanced the hypothesis of the molecular approach through the genetic markers that are present in the oil:
"A much more complex procedure, not yet reproducible - Perri said - because specific markers of cultivation have to be identified." An extremely complex approach, "because the oils are obtained from olives grown with open pollination and DNA fragments are sometimes very meager."
Yet, with the aim of a clear and complete traceability, the right way seems to be the one indicated by the Director of CRA-oils.
Source: Veronafiere
To Sol & Agrifood, scheduled at VeronaFiere from 7 to 10 April with Vinitaly and Enolitech
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04/04/2013
