Oxidative stability measurement of high-stability oils by pressure differential scanning calorimeter (PDSC)

High-stability oils are used as coatings on food products that require long shelf life. The high stability oils produced from high-oleic oils require less processing and bring additional nutritional benefits such as lower trans and saturated fat contents. Accurate and reproducible oxidative stability measurement of these oils is necessary to assess the performance. The accelerated oxidative stability measurement method often used in the fats and oils industry, the oxidative stability index (OSI, AOCS Cd 12b-92) is unreliable for higher stability oils due to poor reproducibility. This study presents a pressure differential scanning calorimetry (PDSC) method, which is highly reproducible and versatile and applies to oils from low to very high oxidative stability. PDSC has been used in industrial applications such as lubricants (ASTM D 6186-98) and measures the oxidative induction time (OIT) of oils under high temperature and pressure in the presence of pure oxygen. The OITs of a number of hydrogenated oils with different unsaturation and oxidative stability are measured. Unlike OSI data, the PDSC OIT measurement is highly reproducible and precise and requires only a small sample and a couple of hours. The regression analysis of the PDSC data indicated the natural log OIT of all samples linearly correlated with the temperature. The equation derived from this relationship helps to compare the oxidative stabilities of the same or different oils determined at different temperatures. The development of this method into an approved method will benefit the fats/oils and food industry.