Applications of Natural Terpenoids as Food Additives

Food additives are widely used in the food industry in order to ensure the quality of products during processing, storage, packaging and subsequent reaching the consumer's table. The growing concern and doubt of the consumer market regarding artificial additives and their possible harmful effects on public health and safety have caused the demand for the use of natural additives to increase. Consequently, these natural additives have been increasingly sought by the food industry and consumers due to health, safety and sustainability issues. In this framework, terpenoids have great potential to be used with this function because they are a very extensive class of compounds, with wide chemical diversity and several proven applications in foods, mainly as anti-oxidants, anti-microbials, dyes, flavors, sweeteners and nutraceuticals. Therefore, this paper aims to make a literature search on the use of terpenoids as food additives, highlighting the main compounds used and the benefits associated with their use, ranging from the raw material to its extraction and subsequent application in food products.