Thermal stability of some commercial natural and synthetic antioxidants and their mixtures

The thermal stability of some commercially available antioxidants alone or in binary or ternary mixtures was investigated in order to find the optimal combination of antioxidants for food processing. The synthetic antioxidants used were butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), propyl gallate (PG) and tertiary-butyhydroquinone (TBHQ). Other antioxidants such as ascorbyl palmitate (AP), mixed tocopherols (TOCO) and monoacylglycerol citrate (MGC) were also employed The effectiveness of these antioxidants and their combinations was assessed using the Rancimat test by measuring the induction period for the oxidation of sunflower oil after heating at 180C for 1 h and comparing it to the oxidation kinetics of the oil without added antioxidants. All antioxidants and their binary or ternary mixtures showed different degrees of thermal instability. TBHQ individually, among all the examined antioxidants, showed the highest thermal stability. On the other hand, AP as an antioxidant in sunflower oil exhibited low stability during heating. The thermal stability of AP could be enhanced by the addtion of BHA or BHT in binary mixtures at a ratio of 1:3 (w/w). In addition, the ternary mixture of AP, TOCO and MGC (65:25:10) in sunflower oil also showed a higher stability to thermal inactivation. However, the ternary mixture containing 0.13% AP, 0.05% TBHQ and 0.02% MGC provided the optimal protection during thermal treatment. Although a combination of 0.13% BHT, 0.05% AP and 0.02% MG was very effective synergistically at room temperature, it showed a higher susceptibility to thermal inactivation. It was concluded that the interaction between antioxidants could lead to a negative or positive synergism during the high-temperature treatment depending on the type and concentration of individual components in the mixture. Synthetic antioxidants such as TBHQ, BHA and BHT could be added at relatively low levels to retard loss of natural antioxidants during heating.