EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Fats and oils in food are prone to oxidation. These substances react with oxygen to produce peroxides and thus spoil the nutritional value and appearance of food. Antioxidants are added to food to prevent the oxidation of fats and oils and thus increase the shelf life of food.

Detailed explanation-2: -Antioxidants slow down the oxidation rates of foods by a combination of scavenging free radicals, chelating prooxidative metals, quenching singlet oxygen and photosensitizers, and inactivating lipoxygenase.

Detailed explanation-3: -Antioxidants are substances that may protect your cells against free radicals, which may play a role in heart disease, cancer and other diseases.

Detailed explanation-4: -Antioxidants are components which prevent auto-oxidation of oils and fats by giving their hydrogen to free radicals formed in the initiation and propagation stages of autoxidation.

Detailed explanation-5: -Antioxidants are widely used in food and cosmetic industries to prevent oxidation of fats and oils. These compounds minimize oxidation of fats and oils by becoming oxidized themselves or by donating hydrogen to fatty acid free radicals so that free-radical chemical chain reactions can be halted.