The Expanding Role of Metabolomics in Food Analysis, Food Quality, and Personalized Nutrition

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Nutrition".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 755

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy
Interests: metabolomics; food analysis; NMR spectroscopy; biofluid profiling; nutritional biomarkers
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce the launch of this Special Issue, ‘The Expanding Role of Metabolomics in Food Analysis, Food Quality, and Personalized Nutrition’.

Metabolomics is being increasingly recognized as a powerful tool for exploring the chemical complexity of food systems and for assessing how their composition is influenced by agricultural practices, production processes, technological treatments, and storage. These insights are essential not only for ensuring food quality and safety, but also for evaluating the nutritional and health-related properties of foods. Furthermore, metabolomics plays a pivotal role in decoding individual metabolic responses to dietary intake, thereby enabling the development of precision nutrition and personalized dietary interventions.

This Special Issue aims to highlight the growing importance of metabolomics in the field of food science, with a focus on its applications in food analysis, quality assessment, authenticity, and personalized nutrition strategies. Original research articles, reviews, and communications that explore methodological advances, case studies, and innovative approaches involving metabolomics and related omics technologies are welcome.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Metabolomic profiling of foods and beverages;
  • Quality control and traceability using metabolomics;
  • Food authentication and fraud detection;
  • Nutritional metabolomics and personalized nutrition;
  • Integration of metabolomics with other omics platforms in food science;
  • Advances in analytical techniques for food metabolomics.

Dr. Flaminia Cesare Marincola
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • food metabolomics
  • nutritional metabolomics
  • food quality assessment
  • food authenticity
  • precision nutrition
  • omics technologies
  • metabolic profiling
  • food traceability
  • chemometric analysis

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 2802 KB  
Article
Development of a Mixed-Strain Fermentation Process for Sour Pomegranate: An Analysis of Metabolites and Flavor Compounds
by Yuting Yang, Ailikemu Mulati, Xinmeng Huang, Yuanpeng Li, Dilireba Shataer, Haipeng Liu and Jiayi Wang
Foods 2025, 14(21), 3733; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods14213733 - 30 Oct 2025
Viewed by 504
Abstract
Sour pomegranate, a distinctive product of Xinjiang, China, is characterized by its sour and astringent taste, which contributes to a low processing rate. This study utilized single-factor experiments to screen three strains: Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus plantarum, and Lactobacillus acidophilus. Through [...] Read more.
Sour pomegranate, a distinctive product of Xinjiang, China, is characterized by its sour and astringent taste, which contributes to a low processing rate. This study utilized single-factor experiments to screen three strains: Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus plantarum, and Lactobacillus acidophilus. Through uniform design experiments, the mixed-strain ratio of L. fermentum:L. plantarum:L. acidophilus = 45%:31%:28% was determined. In addition, the amount of mixed inoculum was 2%, and the fermentation time was 11 h. Additionally, a mixed inoculation amount of 2% and a fermentation duration of 11 h were established. Utilizing electronic nose, electronic tongue, gas chromatography–ion mobility spectrometry, and non-targeted metabolomics, comparative analyses were conducted on the flavors and metabolites pre- and post-fermentation. The findings indicated that post-fermentation, umami increased by 32%, richness was enhanced by 6%, and the positive aftertaste was significantly extended. Mixed-strain fermentation facilitated the enrichment of alkanes, alcohols, aldehydes, and terpene volatile compounds; notably, the content of hexanal (fresh fruity aroma) and limonene (citrus aroma) increased by 1.95 times and 1.45 times, respectively, thereby augmenting the complexity of the aroma. Furthermore, mixed-strain fermentation significantly upregulated terpenes, amino acids and their derivatives, steroids and their derivatives, and alkaloid metabolites. These results offer potential technical support for the high-value utilization of agricultural products. Full article
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