Effect of Varieties and Planting Conditions on Key Volatile Components of Virgin Olive Oil Based on Gas-Phase Ion Mobility Spectrometry Technology

Analyzing 30 virgin olive oil samples from 15 planting sites, our results suggest that both variety and environment were associated with the volatile compositions observed. Specifically, ‘Laixing’ tended to accumulate higher aldehyde levels than ‘Ezhi No. 8’ under identical conditions, whereas ‘Ezhi No. 8’ showed a higher proportion of esters and alcohols. Notably, debris-flow alluvial fan soils were associated with a higher relative share of aldehydes in ‘Laixing’; because aroma-precursor pools were not measured, this is stated at the level of the volatile profile. Our results suggest that, in this dataset, varietal differences were apparent and environmental conditions were associated with distinct volatile metabolome patterns; however, cultivar and environment effects could not be fully decoupled in this sampling design. Because the site-level contrasts were based on single composite samples with technical replicates only, these findings should be regarded as exploratory; they nonetheless offer a preliminary reference for guiding regional cultivation strategies toward olive oils with distinct flavor profiles, pending confirmation in future replicated trials.