A study of the dynamic changes of stability taking place during virgin olive oil storage period examined by mesh cell-FTIR spectroscopy

Abstract

Virgin olive oil (VOO) stability needs to be controlled to guarantee that the oil keeps the quality declared on the label during distribution. However, the stability is changing as storage progresses and its estimation under moderate conditions are difficult to accomplish, due to the challenge of implementing rapid stability evaluation under the environmental variables given in long storage periods. The main objective of this work was to study the dynamic changes of VOO stability taking place during storage. For this purpose, a realistic storage approach of 27 months was designed. The stability of the oils was evaluated at different months by incubating the oil on mesh cell and scanning FTIR spectra during this incubation (mesh cell-FTIR). Although the storage of the oils did not show remarkable spectral changes, the spectra from mesh cell incubation showed variations at different months, which evidenced a change in the stability as the oil aged. The results revealed that the stability changes were abrupt during VOO ageing. In general terms, the results showed that these changes mainly occurred during the first 6 months. The incubation in mesh cell-FTIR spectroscopy is able to detect the minor chemical changes occurring in VOO during storage under moderate conditions.