Extra Virgin Olive Oil to be Sent into Space this Year

A selection of Italian extra virgin olive oils is due to be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) next spring, the Olive Oil Times reported on December 15.  The oils will be brought to the ISS, located about 400 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, by commander of the mission, Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, the report said. Supporters of the initiative hoped to study how the product holds up in space and promote olive oil culture.  
The Italian Space Agency confirmed that the astronauts would consume the extra virgin olive oils with meals. One of the oils will be used to study the impact of being in space on olive oil quality.  “I would not forget to bring olive oil with me, which also gives flavor to anything, even to the rehydrated salads that we eat up here,” Cristoforetti said. High doses of radiation (both cosmic and solar) in space could modify some elements of the oil, according to the report, while the lack of gravity, also called a micro-gravity environment, might also cause the oils to coalesce and aggregate, Olive Oil Times wrote. Cristoforetti’s selection includes three monovarietal extra virgin olive oils, made from the traditional Italian cultivars: Frantoio, Bosana and Biancolilla.
    Unaprol, the Italian olive producers’ consortium and one of the project partners, said four separate mono-varietal extra virgin olive oils would be offered to other astronauts with specific meals. “The seven extra virgin olive oils, three destined to the bonus food and four to astronaut’s meals, have been chosen among tens of tested samples because of their chemical-physical and organoleptic characteristics,” Unaprol general director Nicola di Noia told Olive Oil Times.    
The experiment will allow researchers to study the chemical profile of each oil to understand any changes that occur in space, according to the report, with samples brought back to Earth after six months, 12 months and 18 months on the ISS.