Background

Food antioxidants play a critical role in the food industry, and have become one of the most widespread methods of conserving food. Their cheapness and ease of use have made them a part of virtually all foodstuffs. Although different, all groups of food antioxidants have a same common objective, to conserve food for the longest possible time without altering it, conferring taste or color. Consumer trends have shifted the industry to find natural antioxidants for conservation, and although synthetic additives have been the mainstream, their natural counterparts have been gaining interest.

Scope and approach

This review focuses of the different antioxidant groups, describing their properties, function and applicability, as well as indexing the relevant legislation in order to be a guide for academia and industry.

Key findings and conclusions

The wide number of antioxidant additives allowed by the different countries if of synthetic origin, and consist of pure molecules. Although consumers are leaning toward natural additives, this offer is still quite limited despite the permission of rosemary extract within the European Union. There is still much work to be done in order to completely demystify the importance and safety of antioxidants as well as to harmonize legislation worldwide.

中文翻译：

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抗氧化剂：审查化学，食品应用，立法和作为防腐剂的作用

背景

食品抗氧化剂在食品工业中起着至关重要的作用，并已成为保存食品的最广泛的方法之一。它们的便宜和易用性使它们几乎成为所有食品的一部分。尽管不同，所有组的食品抗氧化剂都有相同的共同目标，即在不改变食品的前提下，尽可能长时间地保存食品，从而赋予其口味或颜色。消费者的趋势已经改变了行业，以寻找天然的抗氧化剂来进行保护，尽管合成添加剂已成为主流，但它们的天然对应物却引起了人们的兴趣。

范围和方法

这篇综述着眼于不同的抗氧化剂基团，描述了它们的性质，功能和适用性，以及对相关法规进行了索引，以作为学术界和工业界的指南。

主要发现和结论

如果是合成来源的，则由不同国家/地区允许使用的大量抗氧化剂添加剂，并且由纯分子组成。尽管消费者倾向于使用天然添加剂，但尽管欧盟内部已批准迷迭香提取物，但此报价仍然非常有限。为了完全揭开抗氧化剂的重要性和安全性并协调全球立法，仍有大量工作要做。