Cations in foods, such as Fe2+ and Cu2+, may induce a diversity of undesirable effects that influence the nutritional quality of foods. Iron actively catalyses lipid oxidation and its presence even in trace amounts has long been recognized as potentially detrimental to the shelf-life of fats, oils, and fatty acids.
Lipid oxidation is one of the major causes of quality deterioration in natural and processed foods. Oxidative deterioration is a large economic concern in the food industry because it affects many quality parameters such as flavour (rancidity), colour, texture, and the nutritive value of foods. Oxidation can occur in both triglycerides and phospholipids of food because lipids are divided into two main classes; polar lipids (phospholipids) and neutral lipids (triglycerides).
Oxidation affects many interactions among food constituents, leading to both desirable and undesirable products. Food lipids are the foods components that are most susceptible to oxidation, therefore oxidation reactions are one of the major sources of deterioration that occurs during manufacturing, storage, distribution and final preparation of foods.
Deterioration in food quality due to lipid oxidation
