The antioxidant acitivity of synthetic tocopherol (α-T), natural mixed tocopherols concentrate (m-T) and butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) have been investigated for various types of margarines; soft and hard types with or without skim milk, respectively.
Margarines were preserved at 5°C, 25°C for 6 months and compared with development of acid value (AV), peroxide value (POV) and remaining ratio of β-carotene, vitamin A (V.A) and α-tocopherol. Margarines containing skim milk and preserved in cooler place (5°C) were stable for 6 months without antioxidant. However, preserving them at 25°C, hard type margarines were more stable than soft type ones. Those added with skim milk (1.6%) showed relatively high antioxidative effect.
m-T and BHA showed nearly the same antioxidant effect, but α-T showed slightly lower effect than these former two.
The synergistic action for antioxidative effect was observed between skim milk and other antioxidants. The higher POV and AV, the lower the remaining ratioes of β-carotene, V.A, and α-T were. The degradative ratio of β-carotene and V.A, was recognized to be the same but that of α-tocopherol was higher than the former nutrients.
