Essential Oils from Herbs and Spices as Natural Antioxidants: Diversity of Promising Food Applications in the past Decade

Current consumers continuously demand safer and higher quality products in the global market. Essential oils derived from plants and spices have gained importance as natural replacers of compounds of synthetic origin. They provide clean labels that satisfy consumer trends and function to mitigate one of the main mechanisms of food deterioration: lipid oxidation. This work aims to present an overview of the sources, extraction methods, and studies assessing the antioxidant capacity of essential oils, emphasizing their applications in diverse food matrices. The review focuses on studies from 2010 to present towards providing recent information on the direct addition of these natural antioxidants in oils, meat, dairy products, and other foods.