An opto-electronic system for in-situ determination of peroxide value and total phenol content in olive oil

Marco Grossi (1) , Giuseppe Di Lecce (2) , Marco Arru (1) , Tullia Gallina Toschi (2) , Bruno Riccò (1)

1 DEI - Department of Electrical Energy and Information Engineering “Guglielmo Marconi”
2 UNIBO - Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna = University of Bologna

The quality of olive oil is essentially determined by the product free acidity and peroxide value, while the total phenol content is also important for a high antioxidant capacity. Generally, these parameters are measured with laboratory analysis, that are expensive and may require a few days. Thus, a cheap and easy technique usable by untrained personnel, ‘‘on-site’’ and producing results ‘‘in real time’’ during production is desirable, particularly as far as small olive oil mills and packaging centers are concerned. This paper describes a technique to determine peroxide value and total phenol content in olive oil, that is based on the measurement of optical density of an emulsion between a suitable chemical reagent and a small quantity of the oil of interest. The optical density is measured by illuminating the sample with a LED with peak wavelength of 569 nm for peroxide value and 835 nm for total phenol content. The experimental results show good correlation (R2 = 0.883 and 0.895 for peroxide value and total phenol content, respectively) between data measured with the standard methodology and the technique of this work, implemented also in the form of a portable embedded system. 20

Mots clés: Sensor Optical density; Peroxide value; Total phenol content; Olive oil

Domaines: Electronique; Optique / photonique; Ingénierie des aliments

Marco Grossi, Giuseppe Di Lecce, Marco Arru, Tullia Gallina Toschi, Bruno Riccò. An opto-electronic system for in-situ determination of peroxide value and total phenol content in olive oil. Journal of Food Engineering, 2015, 146, pp.1-7. ⟨10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2014.08.015⟩. ⟨hal-01276359⟩