Edible oils industry is using synthetic and natural antioxidants to enhance the oxidative stability of bulk edible oils. Due to safety concerns of BHA, BHT and TBHQ, there is an ongoing effort to find an effective and safe replacement. Finding a safe antioxidant or its synergistic mixture, which delays, retard or prevent the oxidation of bulk oil without changing the colour or flavour upon addition is a challenge. In this review, a brief account of chemical basis of oxidative deterioration of the stored oil is given. The effectiveness of most widely experimented antioxidants such as tocopherols, carotenoids, ascorbic acid and its derivatives, lignan compounds, flavonoids, polyphenols and phenolic acids in various edible oils have been reviewed. Further, the synergistic and antagonistic combination of these antioxidants in controlling oxidative degradation of edible oils has been discussed.

Use of antioxidants (natural and synthetic) can retard oxidative degradation of fish oil having n‐3 PUFA. The performance of each antioxidant is found to be affected by the composition of the oil, presence of impurities and storage condition. Hence an attempt was made to find the efficacy of catechin, resveratrol, β‐carotene, caffeic acid, sinapic acid, ellagic acid, ferulic acid, vanillic acid, quercetin, rutin, TBHQ, BHA, and BHT at a concentration of 0.9 mM in the bulk fish oil, stored for 50 days exposed to air at 25°C under darkness. The extent of primary and secondary oxidation of the stored oil was determined every 5 days and were compared. The efficacy of TBHQ followed by BHA and BHT was found to be highest among all the antioxidants studied. Among the natural antioxidants, resveratrol and catechin were found to exhibit superior efficacy, whereas β‐carotene was found to exhibit proxidant behavior. Novelty impact statement This is the first comprehensive study carried out to find the most effective antioxidant involving ten natural and three synthetic antioxidants in n‐3 PUFA containing fish oil. TBHQ exhibited superior efficacy among all the antioxidants tested and at a concentration of 0.9 mM, the change in TOTOX value by the end of 40 days of storage was about 80%. None of the other antioxidants studied here, exhibited such superior stability. Among the natural antioxidants, resveratrol and catechin were found to be superior.

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