Explain the term Antioxidants
You must have at some point of time tasted a stale deep fried snack prepared at home or bought from a local sweet shop. Do you remember its foul flavour and how you probably had to spit it out? What do you think may have been responsible for he foul flavour? The culprit are the unsaturated organic molecules in foods'mostly fats, pigments, vitamins and other nutrients, which are highly unstable towards ritmospheric oxidation. -These undergo a variety of chemical and physical changes and form obnoxious taints and odours in stored foods. Also the products based on meat, fish, milk and egg which are rich in fats, especially the polyunsaturated fatty acids, are more prone to spoilage and need protection. Auto-oxidation in stored foods not only spoils the flavour but also depletes them of essential fatty acids and vitamins.
Secondly, products of oxidation react with the proteins of the food leading to the loss of essential amino acids, digestibility, flavour, aroma, texture and basically a lowered nutritional value of the food.