Oxidation stability is an important parameter defining the quality of tea. It also provides information about the long-term stability of the naturally included antioxidants and thus the stability of the product. However, tea cannot be measured directly with the Rancimat method, as no evaluable induction time is obtained. The reason for this is that no measurable oxidation product is formed. However, using polyethylene glycol (PEG) as carrier material, many of these samples can be directly and reproducibly measured without any sample preparation. This is due to the antioxidants that are naturally present in the sample matrix, which stabilize the induction time of the PEG. The induction time can therefore be directly related to the oxidation stability of the sample.
A reproducible and accurate determination of the oxidation stability is feasible using the 892 Professional Rancimat. In this Application Notes the oxidation stability of different teas is determined in this way.