Fiber Optic Device for the Detection of Adulteration of Olive Oil With Palm Oil

ABSTRACT Adulteration of olive oil with palm oil is studied using an optical fiber probe‐based near‐infrared spectroscopy technique, from which four peaks were identified and explained. Then, the peak at around 1550 nm was selected to design a low‐cost fiber optic device to detect adulteration. The demonstrated device shows a power change of 0.09 dBm per 1% volume change of palm oil in olive oil. The total average power change observed in the study was 9 dBm for the adulteration. The experiment was repeated more than 100 times in each volumetric sample to estimate the measurement error, and the average error observed in power measurement was 1.7 ± 0.7 dBm. The device's measurement range was 0%–100% adulteration, and measurement accuracy was at least 20% adulteration without any data averaging; the latter can be improved by signal processing the data acquired by the sensor. The demonstrated low‐cost optical device can detect olive oil adulteration with palm oil non‐destructively, remotely, and instantaneously, showing high potential for commercialization.