The use of reference materials for the sensory evaluation of virgin olive oils by tasters, panel leaders and trainers is a fundamental tool to guarantee the performance of the panel test in meeting regulatory requirements and to protect the quality of the product.
A sensory certification procedure has been established for two recently formulated artificial odour reference materials (RMs) for vinification and rancidity defects in virgin olive oil.
A technical protocol, consisting of different steps to assess the representativeness of the sensory defect, to determine the detection threshold and to estimate the stability over time, was applied by six sensory panels involved in the H2020 OLEUM project (including ITERG).

Publication in International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science, July 2021: "Performance testing of new artificial olfactory reference materials in virgin olive oil sensory assessment".
Authors: S. Barbieri (1), R. Aparicio-Ruiz,(2 3), K.. Brbkic Bubola (4), M. Buca-Miklavcic (5), F. Lacoste (6), U. Tibet (7) , O. Winkelmann (8), A. Bendini (9), DL. Garcia-Gonzalez (2), T. Gallina Toschi (9)
1/ Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, University of Bologna, Cesean, Italy
2/ CSIC, Seville, Spain
3/ Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Seville, Spain
4/ Institute of Agriculture and Tourism, Croatia
5/ Science and Research Center Koper, Slovenia
6/ ITERG, Canéjan, France
7/ Ulusal Zeytin ve Zeytinya, Turkey
8/ Eurofins, Germany
9/ Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijgfs.2021.100402