Quality changes of extra virgin olive oil packaged in coloured polyethylene terephthalate bottles stored under different lighting conditions

In this paper, the influence of light storage and the exposure on quality parameters of a monovarietal extra virgin olive oil packaged in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles were investigated. Coloured PET bottles (clear, green, orange, white and blue) were stored under different artificial lighting conditions in order to simulate the market environment (one fluorescent cool white lamp) and to perform an accelerated test (four fluorescent cool white lamps); storage in the dark was considered as a control. Total peroxide value, polyphenols, chlorophyll and carotenoids contents were, among the ones tested, the quality indexes most affected by lighting and were useful to investigate the bottle colour influence. Concerning the global quality of olive oil, under one fluorescent lamp, the best performances were obtained using blue and white PET bottles; whereas under accelerated conditions, the differences in the protection efficacy offered by the differently coloured bottles were reduced.