Front-Face Fluorescence Using UV-LED Coupled to USB Spectrometer to Discriminate between Virgin Olive Oil from Two Cultivars

A simple setup using a 365 nm LED coupled to a USB spectrometer through an optical fibre, in a front-face fluorescence configuration, was used to investigate the ability of fluorescence spectroscopy technique to discriminate between varieties of olive oil. To achieve this task, Virgin Olive Oils (VOO) from two major Tunisian olive cultivars known as Chetoui and Chemlali were used. Spectral analysis showed a clear separation between these two VOO varieties. A one-way ANOVA attests that this discrimination is significant. The Principal Components Analyses (PCA) showed that the normalized fluorescence intensities are the good parameters for this discrimination. This observation strengthens the potential of our spectral parameters to perform reliable analysis.