article · Sustainability
Consumer demand for natural products is driving edible oil producers and food processors to seek plant-based alternatives to synthetic antioxidants. Vegetable oils are vulnerable to oxidation, which degrades quality and nutritional value. Natural antioxidant compounds derived from various plant parts, including seeds, roots, leaves, and flowers, offer a viable solution for maintaining oil stability. Furthermore, recovering functional biomolecules from agri-food processing residues and industrial vegetable wastes provides an environmentally sustainable source of protective additives. Another sustainable strategy involves blending vegetable oils directly with oils extracted from different oil-bearing seeds. While these natural extracts and blending techniques offer promising health and stability benefits, technological, chemical, and safety considerations regarding human health remain essential factors in their adoption. Evaluating both performance and safety ensures that natural enrichment approaches can effectively protect edible oils throughout processing and storage.
Vegetable oils degrade when exposed to oxygen, altering their flavour and nutritional quality. Replacing synthetic preservatives with extracts from plant parts and agricultural residues can improve product appeal while supporting circular economy goals. Understanding the balance between effective oil preservation, environmental sustainability, and consumer health safety helps food processors develop healthier and more sustainable food products.
Food processing companies and edible oil producers can utilise plant extracts, agricultural by-products, and seed oil blending to formulate clean-label products without synthetic antioxidants. Because this work reviews existing literature and identifies chemical, technological, and safety considerations rather than developing a validated production process, the discussed technologies represent an early-stage to applied conceptual framework that requires tailored testing and regulatory safety validation before commercial market adoption.
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To meet consumers’ demand for natural foods, edible oil producers and food processing industries are searching for alternatives to synthetic antioxidants to protect oils against oxidation. Antioxidant compounds extracted from different plant parts (e.g., flowers, leaves, roots, and seeds) or sourced from agri-food industries, including residues left after food processing, attract consumers for their health properties and natural origins. This review, starting from a literature research analysis, highlights the role of natural antioxidants in the protection of edible oils against oxidation, with an emphasis on the emerging and sustainable strategies to preserve oils against oxidative damage. Sustainability and health are the main concerns of food processing industries. In this context, the aim of this review is to highlight the emerging strategies for the enrichment of edible oils with biomolecules or extracts recovered from plant sources. The use of extracts obtained from vegetable wastes and by-products and the blending with oils extracted from various oil-bearing seeds is also pointed out as a sustainable approach. The safety concerns linked to the use of natural antioxidants for human health are also discussed. This review, using a multidisciplinary approach, provides an updated overview of the chemical, technological, sustainability, and safety aspects linked to oil protection.
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DOI: 10.3390/su14020849
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