**Preface to "Recent Advances in OMICs Technologies and Application for Ensuring Meat Quality, Safety and Authenticity"**

OMICs-based approaches, also known as foodomics, are used for the in-depth characterization and better management of numerous food products, including muscle foods. In meat research, foodomics can be described as a discipline combining food and nutrition studies through the implementation of OMICs technologies to improve the quality and ensure the safety of fresh meat and processed meat products, with the objective of guaranteeing the health and well-being of consumers. OMICs technologies are further used to increase our knowledge of the pathways and biological mechanisms underlying the development and determination of intrinsic quality traits of muscle foods, hence advancing our understanding regarding variations in meat quality and the origin of certain meat quality defects and adulterations. Genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, peptidomics, metabolomics and lipidomics, among other OMICs-based technologies, allow for comprehensive and high-throughput information to be obtained regarding the composition, safety, nutritional value, etc., of muscle foods thanks to the large amount of data that can be yielded before applying advanced statistical analyses and bioinformatics. This Special Issue aimed to gather the current advances in and applications of OMICs technologies to guarantee the quality, safety and authenticity of muscle foods.

#### **Mohammed Gagaoua and Brigitte Picard**

*Editors*
