J Am Oil Chem Soc DOI 10.1007/s11746-015-2778-1 1 3 ORIGINAL PAPER Protected Designation of Origin Extra Virgin Olive Oils Assessment by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Multivariate Statistical Analysis: “Terra di Bari”, an Apulian (Southeast Italy) Case Study Laura Del Coco 1 · Donato Mondelli 2 · Giuseppe Natale Mezzapesa 3 · Teodoro Miano 2 · Sandra Angelica De Pascali 1 · Chiara Roberta Girelli 1 · Francesco Paolo Fanizzi 1 Received: 8 June 2015 / Revised: 9 December 2015 / Accepted: 12 December 2015 © AOCS 2015 classify commercial “Terra di Bari” PDO EVOOs by com- parison of the declared cultivar and geographical origin with a reference dataset of genetically characterized micro- extracted monovarietal oils. In conclusion, the effect of the pedoclimatic micro-areas of origin on the Coratina cultivar, which is the main component of the “Terra di Bari” PDO, has been studied in order to improve the traceability of the raw material used to produce this valuable food. Keywords EVOOs · PDO · NMR spectroscopy · MVA analysis · PCA · OPLS-DA Abbreviations BIT Bitonto CDM Castel del Monte EVOOs Extra virgin olive oils MTG Murgia dei Trulli e delle Grotte MVA Multivariate analysis PCA Principal component analysis PDO Protected designation of origin PLS Partial least-squares discriminant analysis OPLS-DA Orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analysis Introduction In recent years, chemometric methods have been used in several studies for oil classification, since among cultivated plants, the olive (Olea europaea L.) represents one of the most important foodstuffs of the Mediterranean diet [1–4]. Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is the fifth most important oil crop in the world behind wheat, rice and coarse grains [5]. Presently, due to the beneficial nutritional and sensory prop- erties and its high economic value, EVOO availability and Abstract We report a study on the chemical characteri- zation of 102 monovarietal micro-extracted and genetically characterized extra virgin olive oils (EVOOs) from Coratina, Ogliarola Barese and Cima di Mola cultivar, according to “Terra di Bari” (Apulia, southeast Italy) PDO requirement. Three additional geographical mentions, all belonging to the same Bari district (Bitonto, Castel del Monte and Murgia dei Trulli e delle Grotte), were studied and potential micro- climate differences were evaluated. Our results indicate the possibility of distinguishing EVOOs from the same “Terra di Bari” PDO with respect to different cultivars and (to some extent) different subareas. In particular, two cultivars (Ogli- arola Barese and Coratina), obtained from the same Bitonto area, and a single cultivar (Coratina), obtained from Bitonto and Castel del Monte subareas, were compared to investi- gate the micro-area pedoclimatic effect. Finally, 1 H NMR data were found significant for classification purposes of unknown EVOO samples, the results of which were included in the model space, as they were correctly predicted by the OPLS-DA obtained by 1 H NMR data. This work aims to Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11746-015-2778-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Francesco Paolo Fanizzi fp.fanizzi@unisalento.it 1 Di.S.Te.B.A., Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche ed Ambientali, Università del Salento, Prov.le Lecce-Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy 2 Di.S.S.P.A., Dipartimento di Scienze del Suolo, della Pianta e degli Alimenti, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, via Amendola 165/A, 70126 Bari, Italy 3 CIHEAM - Istituto Agronomico Mediterraneo di Bari, via Ceglie 9, 70010 Valenzano, BA, Italy