Which vitamin is added to prevent rancidity of butter?!
Question: Antioxidants are used in a wide variety of food products--particularly the large number that contain fats and oils--to prevent rancidity. Antioxidants slow the development of off-flavor, off-odors, and color changes caused by chemical reactions that take place when foods are exposed to oxygen, moisture, heat, or certain enzymes present in many natural fats. The time it takes for fats and oils to become rancid varies with the particular fat and storage conditions. Unsaturated fats have less resistance than saturated fats to rancidity. Vegetable oils contain more unsaturated fats, but also small amounts of naturally occurring antioxidants such as tocopherols.
Although animal fats are more saturated, they have fewer naturally occurring antioxidant substances. Therefore, animal fats generally require added or higher levels of antioxidants than do vegetable oils.
Antioxidants retard oxidation by scavenging oxygen on the surface of the food. These preservatives are not necessarily exotic chemicals. Vitamins C and E are among the 27 compounds added to foods as antioxidants. Even the lemon juice squeezed on sliced apples to keep them from turning dark is technically an antioxidant.
Since so many foods contain fats and oils susceptible to oxidative and other reactions that cause rancidity and off-odors, the food industry considers it important to inhibit these reactions so as to extend the shelf life of the food products.
Answers: Antioxidants are used in a wide variety of food products--particularly the large number that contain fats and oils--to prevent rancidity. Antioxidants slow the development of off-flavor, off-odors, and color changes caused by chemical reactions that take place when foods are exposed to oxygen, moisture, heat, or certain enzymes present in many natural fats. The time it takes for fats and oils to become rancid varies with the particular fat and storage conditions. Unsaturated fats have less resistance than saturated fats to rancidity. Vegetable oils contain more unsaturated fats, but also small amounts of naturally occurring antioxidants such as tocopherols.
Although animal fats are more saturated, they have fewer naturally occurring antioxidant substances. Therefore, animal fats generally require added or higher levels of antioxidants than do vegetable oils.
Antioxidants retard oxidation by scavenging oxygen on the surface of the food. These preservatives are not necessarily exotic chemicals. Vitamins C and E are among the 27 compounds added to foods as antioxidants. Even the lemon juice squeezed on sliced apples to keep them from turning dark is technically an antioxidant.
Since so many foods contain fats and oils susceptible to oxidative and other reactions that cause rancidity and off-odors, the food industry considers it important to inhibit these reactions so as to extend the shelf life of the food products.