Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
the food and beverage market for antioxidants is a $500 billion industry and is
growing at 5±7% per year, and is expected to grow at that rate through the year
2017. Table 12.4 reveals that the market is 50% larger for naturals than it is for
synthetics, with the market for ascorbates and erythorbates being as large as the
entire synthetic market.
12.5 Natural antioxidants and food applications
Although synthetic antioxidants are demonstrated to be very effective in
delaying oxidation and consequently prolonging shelf-life and maintaining
freshness, the development of alternative natural antioxidants holds considerable
potential in terms of consumer acceptance. After all, petroleum-based synthetic
antioxidants like BHA and BHT were used to protect industrial polymers against
oxidation prior to their introduction to the world of foods and have been in the
human diet for only about 60 years. Natural antioxidant preservatives have been
used for thousands of years in the human diet.
Synthetic antioxidants are much cheaper and readily produced in large
amounts and high purity but the introduction of new ones requires extensive
safety testing in order to fulfill regulatory obligations. This is not the case with
natural antioxidants. In the United States for instance, the use of natural
antioxidants from herbs and spices that are considered GRAS (Generally
Recognized As Safe) is automatically granted and no safety testing is required.
Regulations also limit the usage level of synthetic antioxidants such as BHA,
BHT, TBHQ and EDTA in each type of food application, which is not the case
of extracts derived from plants, where the limitation is generally determined by
the flavor threshold in each type of food. Combinations of natural and synthetic
antioxidants can be very helpful when synthetic antioxidants, alone, used at their
regulatory limit, fail to give the needed level of protection. Adding a natural
antioxidant under these circumstances allows the formulator to further improve
the stability of the food while still taking advantage of the cost savings that a
base-level of synthetics provide. There may be other advantages of such
combinations. Romano et al. (2009) recently reported synergistic antioxidant
and antibacterial activity of rosemary in combination with BHA or BHT.
The use of natural antioxidants has its own set of limitations and dis-
advantages. One common issue is effectiveness, although on the molecular level
natural antioxidants can be as potent as their synthetic counterparts. The active
components usually exist amongst other extract constituents that are not active
in managing oxidation, resulting in a need to use much higher levels of the
overall extract in order to deliver the required amount of antioxidant active
ingredient to the system. This may impair the flavor, aroma and sometimes the
color of the food when the natural antioxidant is used at a high level. With high
usage levels also comes higher cost and natural antioxidants are generally more
expensive to start with, coming from botanical sources with limited availability.
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