The quality of fats, oils, and food products in general strongly depends on their oxidation stability. In this contribution a new method for evaluating the oxidation stability of food and pet food products by determining the induction period is introduced. Under accelerated conditions (elevated temperature and pure oxygen pressure) a sample of 5 mL/4 g is examined in a sealed stainless steel test chamber. Typical conditions of the method are temperatures between 80 °C – 140 °C and an initial oxygen pressure of 700 kPa. These conditions initiate a rapid oxidation process, which is monitored by recording the pressure until a predefined pressure drop. It was found that the elapsed time until the pressure drop is directly related to the oxidation stability of the sample. Correlation and precision studies demonstrate the method’s effectiveness. Due to the defined oxygen volume in the closed test chamber, the oxygen consumption can be calculated. Beneficially, the oxidation stability of complex food products can be investigated since even solid samples can be measured without prior sample preparation. Application examples such as investigation of fishmeal demonstrate the broad variety of samples and the effectiveness of the method when it comes to antioxidant screening. The significantly reduced measurement time and a high repeatability of the method represent its major advantages, allowing for quick and direct measurement of the oxidation stability for research, process and test bench control.
