Lipid oxidation in food science and nutritional health: A comprehensive review

Food provides abundant nutrients for human beings, but also has sensory functions and physiological regulation. Lipids are the main components of food as well as the important structural and functional components of cells. Nevertheless, lipids are easily oxidized by different ways, such as thermal oxidation and air oxidation. Lipid oxidation has adverse effects on food quality and human health. Therefore, efforts should be made to reduce lipid oxidation and improve its stability. This review focuses on important knowledge about lipid oxidation, including the concept of lipids and lipid oxidation, the main pathways and mechanisms of lipid oxidation, factors affecting lipid oxidation, strategies to improve the stability of lipid oxidation, and the recent research progress of lipid oxidation in food science and nutritional health.