As regards the correlation between the volatiles profile and the EVOO aroma, it should be noted that the volatile compounds have different odour activity (Reiners & Grosch, 1998). Interestingly, the volatile compounds present at higher concentrations are not always the main contributors to oil aroma (Erickson & Covey, 1980).
Our results confirm that olive oil’s characteristic aroma are associated with the C6 compounds produced by the lipoxygenase (LOX) pathway occurring during the crushing of olive fruit and the malaxation of paste.
Good predictors for high SE scores (detailed in Table 1) are (i) high polyphenols content (r = 0.61), and (ii) the (Z)-3-hexenal/(E)-2-hexenal ratio (r = 0.49).
In many cases we found a quantitative correspondence between the amount of a volatile compound and the score of its own aroma obtained by sensory evaluation. Table 4 shows the most strong correlations between sensory attributes and volatile molecular markers. For the sake of brevity, in the following we emphasise only the most important.