Jose S. Torrecilla
Complutense University of Madrid
 Spain
Title: Application of neural networks to monitor extra virgin olive oil degradation
Biography
Biography: Jose S. Torrecilla
Abstract
Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is the only fat which comes from the juice of fruits, more specifically, from the olive. For this reason, olive oil is one of the healthiest kinds of oils. As a general concept, the degradation of olive oil negatively affects the beneficial characteristics it provides. EVOO normally degrades because of the oxidation of the chlorophyll it contains. Chlorophyll suffers from degradation due to different causes such as light, time, and/or temperature. These phenomena oxidize chlorophyll, which loses its containing magnesium atom, originating the loss of green intensity of the olive oil. This physicochemical process can be characterized through UV-Visible spectroscopy, as changes appear reflected in the absorption spectra as the oil is degraded. In this study, a series of EVOO samples, from both pure varietals and binary mixtures, have been monitored through absorption studies during 45 days to evaluate the effect of time and light on the samples. The data obtained was used to estimate the degradation time that the EVOO samples have undergone using a mathematical model based on artificial neural networks, which provided a mean absolute error of less than 5.5%. These algorithms have enabled the design of a tool that can be employed to evaluate the quality of an EVOO, and to determine how it has been treated since its departure from the olive mill.
