Submit to Molecules Review for Molecules Propose a Special Issue

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser

Advanced Food Analysis: “Food Omics” Approaches toward Food Safety, Quality, and Traceability

Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 November 2021) | Viewed by 19570

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Radmila Pavlovic

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
Interests: metabolomics; lipidomics; food safety; High Resolution Mass Spectrometry; High-Performance Liquid Chromatography; medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry; biochemistry; analytical chemistry; natural product chemistry

Dr. Luca Chiesa

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Health Animal Science and Food Safety Research center for the study of residues in foods of animal origin, University of Milan, Via Celoria, 10-20133 Milano, Italy
Interests: food safety; food inspection; high-resolution mass spectrometry; metabolomics; gas chromatography

Dr. Sara Panseri

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Dipartimento di Scienze Veterinarie per la Salute, la Produzione Animale e la Sicurezza Alimentare, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy
Interests: food safety; food inspection; high-resolution mass spectrometry; metabolomics, gas chromatography

Prof. Dr. Emanuela Zanardi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, Parma, Italy
Interests: food hygiene; food safety, chemical contamination; One Health approach
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Advanced analytical strategies based on different omics technologies, including those of metabolomics, genomics, proteomics, and ionomics, have been used to elucidate the biochemistry and basic metabolic alterations that take place in living systems, including microorganisms, plants, animals, and humans. Food Omics (FO) can be defined as the application of omics platforms in the food sector for purposes including safety, quality, processing technology, and nutrition. The study of FO has increased gradually in the recent years. However, the integration of all omics technologies is required for further development in the field of food chemistry in general and for when determination of chemical profile is used for evaluation of food safety, quality, and traceability in particular. A special focus should be directed to chemical alternation during the food processing, where FO may contribute to better explain the changes occurring in native food during the application of different technologies and their impact on food characteristics. Food resource production is a further issue to be addressed, in particular taking into account the influence of the environmental and genetic factors that favor sustainable food supply and consumption. Moreover, FO could provide new highly specific chemical markers useful for food traceability and authentication.

In this Special Issue, we invite authors to submit innovative research papers and cutting-edge reviews on the FO approach applied along the whole agro-food chain and addressing the chemical profiling of food, its safety, quality and traceability.

Dr. Radmila Pavlovic
Prof. Luca Chiesa
Dr. Sara Panseri
Prof. Emanuela Zanardi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Food metabolomics
Food genomics
Food proteomics
Food ionomics
Food chemistry
Food safety
Food traceability
Food authentication

Published Papers (5 papers)

Download All Papers

Research

Jump to: Review

10 pages, 877 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Quantitative Estimation of Protein in Sprouts of Vigna radiate (Mung Beans), Lens culinaris (Lentils), and Cicer arietinum (Chickpeas) by Kjeldahl and Lowry Methods

by Nayab Batool Rizvi, Samina Aleem, Mohammad Rizwan Khan, Sadia Ashraf and Rosa Busquets

Molecules 2022, 27(3), 814; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27030814 - 26 Jan 2022

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 6424

Abstract

Protein scarcity is the most vital cause of long-lasting diseases and even untimely deaths in some developing nations. The application of protein in food is advantageous from the point of view of non-toxicity, biocompatibility, and dietary benefits. This study aimed to determine the protein contents of the sprouts of Vigna radiates (mung beans), Lens culinaris (lentils), and Cicer arietinum (chickpeas) using the Kjeldahl and Lowry methods. The results obtained from the Kjeldahl method identified protein concentrations of 2.54, 2.63, and 2.19%, whereas the Lowry method results identified protein concentrations of 2.96%, 4.10%, and 1.6% in mung beans, lentils, and chickpeas, respectively. In both the methods, lentils were found to have the highest amount of protein followed by mung beans and chickpeas. Both the Kjeldahl and Lowry methods demonstrated good protein values and low variation in the protein amount in the analyzed samples. Furthermore, the methods had greater sensitivity and comparable experimental variability. The outcomes revealed that assays can be applied for protein analysis in legumes. In the context of a lack of suitable standard procedures for evaluating legumes’ compositions, the present study is suitable for food control laboratories. In addition, the studied samples represent a significant source of protein and can be used to fulfil the daily requirements for protein intake and other food applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Food Analysis: “Food Omics” Approaches toward Food Safety, Quality, and Traceability)

► Show Figures

Graphical abstract

12 pages, 1790 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Raw Milk Microbiota from Semi-Subsistence Farms Characteristics by NGS Analysis Method

by Bartosz Hornik, Jakub Czarny, Justyna Staninska-Pięta, Łukasz Wolko, Paweł Cyplik and Agnieszka Piotrowska-Cyplik

Molecules 2021, 26(16), 5029; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26165029 - 19 Aug 2021

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 2270

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the microbiome of raw milk obtained from three semi-subsistence farms (A, B, and C) located in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. The composition of drinking milk was assessed on the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequencing using the Ion Torrent platform. Based on the conducted research, significant changes in the composition of the milk microbiome were found depending on its place of origin. Bacteria belonging to the Bacillus (17.0%), Corynebacterium (12.0%) and Escherichia-Shigella (11.0%) genera were dominant in the milk collected from farm A. In the case of the milk from farm B, the dominant bacteria belonged to the Acinetobacter genus (21.0%), whereas in the sample from farm C, Escherichia-Shigella (24.8%) and Bacillus (10.3%) dominated the microbiome. An analysis was performed using the PICRUSt tool (Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States) in order to generate a profile of genes responsible for bacterial metabolism. The conducted analysis confirmed the diversity of the profile of genes responsible for bacterial metabolism in all the tested samples. On the other hand, simultaneous analysis of six KEGG Orthologs (KO), which participated in beta-lactam resistance responsible for antibiotic resistance of bacteria, demonstrated that there is no significant relationship between the predicted occurrence of these orthologs and the place of existence of microorganisms. Therefore, it can be supposed that bacterial resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics occurs regardless of the environmental niche, and that the antibiotic resistance maintained in the population is a factor that shapes the functional structure of the microbial consortia. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Food Analysis: “Food Omics” Approaches toward Food Safety, Quality, and Traceability)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 3352 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Metabolomic Approach to Beer Characterization

by Nicola Cavallini, Francesco Savorani, Rasmus Bro and Marina Cocchi

Molecules 2021, 26(5), 1472; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26051472 - 08 Mar 2021

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3649

Abstract

The consumers’ interest towards beer consumption has been on the rise during the past decade: new approaches and ingredients get tested, expanding the traditional recipe for brewing beer. As a consequence, the field of “beeromics” has also been constantly growing, as well as the demand for quick and exhaustive analytical methods. In this study, we propose a combination of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and chemometrics to characterize beer. ¹H-NMR spectra were collected and then analyzed using chemometric tools. An interval-based approach was applied to extract chemical features from the spectra to build a dataset of resolved relative concentrations. One aim of this work was to compare the results obtained using the full spectrum and the resolved approach: with a reasonable amount of time needed to obtain the resolved dataset, we show that the resolved information is comparable with the full spectrum information, but interpretability is greatly improved. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Food Analysis: “Food Omics” Approaches toward Food Safety, Quality, and Traceability)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

11 pages, 2145 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Fungi on Metabolite Changes in Kimchi During Fermentation

by Seung-Ho Seo, Seong-Eun Park, Eun-Ju Kim, Kwang-Moon Cho, Sun Jae Kwon and Hong-Seok Son

Molecules 2020, 25(21), 5040; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25215040 - 30 Oct 2020

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2862

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of fungi on kimchi metabolites during fermentation. A gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) based metabolite profiling approach in combination with principal component analysis (PCA) is performed to differentiate metabolites produced by fungi or bacteria. To avoid bacterial growth, kimchi is treated with 100 μg/mL of ampicillin every three days from 30 to 50 days of fermentation. The relative content of the major fungi at 50 days of fermentation, between the control group and the ampicillin treatment group, was not significantly different. The administration of ampicillin changed the metabolites in kimchi by affecting the growth of kimchi bacteria. Based on the pattern of change of each metabolite, the changed metabolites are grouped into four categories: (1) metabolites produced or consumed by fungi, (2) metabolites involving both fungi and bacteria, (3) metabolites produced or consumed by bacteria, and (4) metabolites of undetermined origin. Alanine, thymine, galacturonic acid, and malonic acid can be regarded as the metabolites produced by fungi between 30 and 50 days of fermentation. In contrast, malic acid, oxaloacetic acid, galactitol, glucose, and mannitol are presumed to be the metabolites mainly consumed by fungi. This study is meaningful as the first study conducted by inhibiting growth of bacteria to identify the metabolites contributed by fungi or bacteria in the kimchi fermentation process. These results could be used to make customized kimchi that controls the production of desired metabolites by selectively controlling the formation of microbial communities in the kimchi industry. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Food Analysis: “Food Omics” Approaches toward Food Safety, Quality, and Traceability)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

27 pages, 1469 KiB

Open AccessReview

Omics-Based Analytical Approaches for Assessing Chicken Species and Breeds in Food Authentication

by Goh Dirong, Sara Nematbakhsh, Jinap Selamat, Pei Pei Chong, Lokman Hakim Idris, Noordiana Nordin, Fatchiyah Fatchiyah and Ahmad Faizal Abdull Razis

Molecules 2021, 26(21), 6502; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26216502 - 28 Oct 2021

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3408

Abstract

Chicken is known to be the most common meat type involved in food mislabeling and adulteration. Establishing a method to authenticate chicken content precisely and identifying chicken breeds as declared in processed food is crucial for protecting consumers’ rights. Categorizing the authentication method into their respective omics disciplines, such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, lipidomics, metabolomics, and glycomics, and the implementation of bioinformatics or chemometrics in data analysis can assist the researcher in improving the currently available techniques. Designing a vast range of instruments and analytical methods at the molecular level is vital for overcoming the technical drawback in discriminating chicken from other species and even within its breed. This review aims to provide insight and highlight previous and current approaches suitable for countering different circumstances in chicken authentication. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Food Analysis: “Food Omics” Approaches toward Food Safety, Quality, and Traceability)

► Show Figures