ABSTRACT
Lipids are among the major components of food of plant and animal origin. Lipid oxidation is one of the major reasons that foods deteriorate and is caused by the reaction of fats and oils with molecular oxygen resulting in off-flavours that are generally called rancidity. Two types of termination reactions are involved in the process of breaking of repeating sequence of propagating steps, they are radical–radical coupling and radical–radical disproportionation a process during which two stable products are formed from A• and B• by an atom or group transfer process. Antioxidants retard the onset of natural action, thereby extending the shelf-life of fats and oils and nutrient, however cannot stop it. Light can accelerate auto-oxidation by favouring the formation of free radicals in the initiation step, acting as a catalyst for hydrogen abstraction and in the decomposition of hydroperoxides. The speed of oxidation increases exponentially with temperature.
