Although much study has been done assessing activity of antioxidants at ambient and accelerated storage temperatures, the results cannot correctly depict their performance under frying conditions. Due to the stringent conditions imposed, most conventional antioxidative compounds failed under frying conditions, suggesting the need for a continuous modification to improve their effectiveness. Although syntheses and performance evaluation of over a hundred (semi)synthetic antioxidants have been reported in literature, only a small fraction have been specifically designed and/or evaluated under frying conditions. Here, the performance under frying conditions of major natural and synthetic antioxidants is reviewed. The recent trend in the designing of antioxidants for frying applications is also reviewed with the view of stimulating further study in this direction.
Keywords: Natural antioxidants; endogenous minor components; frying stability; synthetic antioxidants.