2021 Supelco AOCS Research Award Lecture

2021 Supelco AOCS Research Award Lecture presented by Dr. Eric Decker. The presentation will be livestreamed at https://annualmeeting.aocs.org/watch-the-livestream

Please note: This presentation was rescheduled to April 1, 2021, at 9:30 a.m. CDT (Chicago; UTC-5).

Why Does Lipid Oxidation in Foods Continue to be Such a Challenge?

Oxidation of lipids continues to be a challenge in many foods even after over 200 years of research. The inability to solve the problems of rancidity indicates that the process of lipid oxidation is extremely complex as it is influenced by many factors. One example is oxygen whose removal in foods that are in direct contact with oxygen is an effective antioxidant strategy while in other foods where oxygen is dissolved in the food matrix, oxygen is difficult to remove and thus is not an effective antioxidant strategy. The role of transition metals in oxidation are also complex as in some cases they have low reactivity (e.g. low moisture foods) and in others they are the major prooxidants (e.g. oil-in-water emulsions) and thus need to be the focus of antioxidant strategies. Metal reactivity is further complicated as their reactivity is dependent on their physical location, ability to be redox cycled and solubility with the later two being influenced by other food components. The efficacy of antioxidant is also hard to predict because their activity is influenced by physical location as well as their mode of action, stability and interaction with other food components. Finally, the relationship between lipid oxidation and shelf-life is very difficult to predict which makes it difficult to develop effective antioxidant technologies. This is because lipid oxidation typically has a lag phase where off-flavors are not present followed by an exponential increase in oxidation products were sensory detection of oxidation occurs quickly. Therefore, in order to be able to predict shelf-life dictated by oxidation, more research is need on oxidation reactions during the lag phase such as loss of antioxidant and formation of early fatty acid oxidation products. By better understanding these and other factors, novel technologies can be developed to decrease food spoilage by rancidity.