Antioxidants are food additives that retard oxidation and also scavenge oxygen.
They therefore play an important economic role in the processed food industry by
increasing shelf life and maintaining the organo-leptic properties, vitamin content
and the eye-appeal of foods.
Many antioxidants are phenolic compounds which inhibit formation of fatty
free radicals, which are fundamental to lipid oxidation, thus blocking the
oxidation at the initial step. When antioxidants are thoroughly mixed with
fat or oil, the onset of the final stages of autoxidation when rancidity becomes
evident, is delayed. Natural antioxidant developed over the past decade included
rosemary extract and vitamins C & E.
In this survey we review the applications of synthetic and natural
antioxidants in food and feed, producers, output, market, price & trends.
In a final section the outlook and projected market by 2015 is determined.
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L. Hepner & Associates Ltd