Abbreviation for thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS). Name applied jointly to malonaldehyde and the other substances formed during lipid oxidation, as measured in terms of thiobarbituric acid values (TBA values) determined from reaction with thiobarbituric acid (TBA). TBARS values are expressed as mg malonaldehyde equivalents per kg of sample. Care must be taken when comparing TBARS values between different studies because of the many variations that have been developed for performing the TBA test.