ABSTRACT
Antioxidants have been known for ages in biological and food sciences owing to their role as inhibitors of oxidative reactions and their undesirable effects on living and food systems. While the oxidation of food components, namely lipids and proteins, leads at times to some positive effects (i.e., development of aroma during meat cooking), oxidative reactions are usually regarded as a threat to food quality. Oxidation is usually linked to the deterioration of numerous quality traits in foods such as the color, the texture, the avor, and the nutritional value. Lipid oxidation leads to the loss of essential fatty acids, causes rancidity in oils and fats and is a leading cause of discoloration in muscle foods (Hammond and White, 2011). Protein oxidation involves the loss of essential amino acids and leads to undesirable changes in the functionality of food proteins (Estévez, 2011; Lund et al., 2011). Oxidative reactions have also been recurrently linked to health risks owing to the injurious impact of reactive-oxygen species (ROS) and other lipid oxidation products formed in the food and in vivo after food ingestion (Pokorny, 2007). Therefore, the increasing interest on antioxidants among food scientists and consumers lies on the potential health-promoting effects of certain antioxidants (Finley et al., 2011).
