Customized system for vegetable oils quality control based on dielectric spectroscopy analysis

In this work, a dielectric permittivity measurement system, to be used for quality control of edible oils, is presented. The proposed system relies both on low-frequency and high-frequency measurements (performed through and LCR meter and through a time-domain reflectometer, respectively), thus allowing a "broadband" investigation of the dielectric behavior of edible oils. The adoption of a single, specifically-designed probe (used for all the measurements), along with the possibility of using portable instrumentation, makes the proposed system an appealing candidate for the realization of a continuous, on-site system for quality monitoring of edible oils. The proposed system was first validated on materials with well-known dielectric characteristics. Successively, it was used to investigate the dielectric behavior of some autochthonous varieties of olive oils and of seed oils. The ultimate goal of this work is to pave the way for the development of an alternative method of analysis that could be able to distinguish among different kinds of oils, to certify oil quality and origin, and to detect the possible presence of adulterants. © 2011 IEEE.