Fast ultrasound-assisted method for the determination of the oxidative stability of virgin olive oil

A method for accelerating the determination of the oxidative stability of virgin olive oil by use of ultrasound energy is proposed. The most influential variables on the acceleration of the process were those characteristic of the ultrasound probe, namely irradiation time, duty cycle and pulse amplitude, and they were exhaustively optimized. The ultrasound device, a cylindrical titanium alloy microprobe (3 mm diameter), was immersed into the olive oil sample contained in a 5 cm long test tube where the ultrasound waves were applied directly. The oxidation process was monitored at 270 nm. Twelve samples of virgin olive oil with known oxidative stability, ranging between 19 and 129 h, calculated by the Rancimat method, were analyzed and the results obtained showed an excellent correlation (r=0.9961) with those provided by the Rancimat method. The proposed method drastically decreased the time required for the determination of this parameter, e.g. a virgin olive oil with oxidative stability 129 h, as calculated by the Rancimat method, required only 50.5 min, thus decreasing the determination time 110 times. The method was applied to the determination of the stability of five extra virgin olive oils from different varieties of olive seeds. The values obtained were interpolated in the correlation plot for the calculation of the values corresponding to the Rancimat method. They coincided with those calculated previously with this method, thus demonstrating the validity of the proposed method.