In a report conducted by the UC Davis Olive Oil Center, it was found
that more than 65% of the extra virgin olive oil on shelves around the
US is defective due to poor handling or deliberate adulteration with
extraneous, non-beneficial oils.
The most prevalent and identifying
defect in olive oil is rancidity, indicating the absence of expected
health benefits such as antioxidants and polyunsaturated fats.
The
research team engineered a biosensor capable of quickly and cheaply
evaluating rancidity defects in the chemical profile of olive oil,
providing both consumers and retailers with a means of ensuring product
quality.
The project consisted of four components: Protein Engineering,
Electrochemistry, Development of a user friendly potentiostat and signal
processing.
The research team were able to provide proof of concept for each component
of our device. With each component combined, the research team had a fully
functional electrochemical biosensor that could distinguish rancid olive
oil from fresh olive oil.
Project at a Glance
~
Approximately 70% of commercially available olive oil is defective due
to rancidity or adulteration but is labelled as fresh - a possible
ethical violation of consumer rights
~ Olive oil
exposed to oxidation heat, or sunlight becomes rancid. Rancid
olive oil fails to provide important health benefits
~
Olive oil producers and distributors may therefore benefit from
an inexpensive and rapid means of detecting rancid olive oil
~
California has established new state standards to better its
quality of olive oil and to establish a marketable reputation for
quality
~ An inexpensive enzyme-mediated
electrode biosensor was developed to detect a profile of
aldehydes indicative of rancidity in olive oil
~ This reports describes the policy and stakeholder practices issues that guided the development of the biosensor
Read the entire Practice and Policy Report,
Practical Implications for the Development and Deployment of Engineered Biosensors in Olive Oil Production,
primary author Simon Staley and contributors Aaron Cohen, James Lucus,
Lucas Murray, Sarah Ritz, Yeonju Song, and Brian Tamsut, OliView, UC
Davis iGEM, 16 October 2014
here