Metabolomics Application for Food Authentication and Quality Assessment

A special issue of Metabolites (ISSN 2218-1989). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Metabolomics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2020) | Viewed by 17258

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
Interests: food metabolomics; fermented food; tropical fruits; coffee; cacao; shrimp; quality evaluation; quality improvement

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Guest Editor
Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Suita, Japan
Interests: food metabolomics; fermented food; fermentation; fermentation microorganisms; flavor; food secondary function; sensory evaluation; food ternary function; health-promoting function; nutrition
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Osaka 565-0871, Japan
Interests: mass spectrometry imaging; metabolomics; target and nontarget analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, concerns regarding the safety, quality, and authenticity of food and valuable crops have become the major challenge in the food industry. At present, quality evaluation is commonly performed on the basis of human sensory perception; however, this method tends to be subjective, laborious, and challenging. The exhaustive profiling of metabolites is an advantageous feature for the quality assessment and authentication of agricultural and food products. Metabolites can be directly connected with the phenotype, which is sensitively affected by any type of perturbation or stress. Therefore, metabolomics technologies also allow the investigation of the effect of various post-harvest treatments and food production processes on food quality.

This Special Issue will include articles and reviews about different aspects of food quality, food authentication, as well as discrimination of food based on origin, cultivar, and species.  Investigations of the effects of genotype, post-harvest treatments, environmental conditions, and their interactions on metabolite profiles are within the scope of this Special Issue.

Dr. Sastia Prama Putri
Prof. Dr. Eiichiro Fukusaki
Dr. Shuichi Shimma

Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • Food metabolomics
  • Food quality
  • Food metabolic profiling
  • Mass spectrometry
  • Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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9 pages, 1247 KiB  
Article
Component Profiling of Soy-Sauce-Like Seasoning Produced from Different Raw Materials
by Tomoyuki Yamana, Moyu Taniguchi, Takeharu Nakahara, Yusuke Ito, Natsuki Okochi, Sastia Prama Putri and Eiichiro Fukusaki
Metabolites 2020, 10(4), 137; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo10040137 - 1 Apr 2020
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 3847
Abstract
Soy sauce is a traditional Japanese umami seasoning commonly made from soybeans, wheat, and salt water. Soy-sauce-like seasoning, made from other raw materials, such as rice and peas, has recently been developed. However, differences in the taste of soy-sauce-like seasoning, depending on the [...] Read more.
Soy sauce is a traditional Japanese umami seasoning commonly made from soybeans, wheat, and salt water. Soy-sauce-like seasoning, made from other raw materials, such as rice and peas, has recently been developed. However, differences in the taste of soy-sauce-like seasoning, depending on the raw materials, have not been evaluated. Component profiling based on GC/MS combined with a paired comparison test were used to investigate the effect of raw materials on seasoning components and umami taste in five grain-based and four bean-based soy-sauce-like seasonings. In a principal component (PC) analysis, grain-based samples and bean-based samples were separated along the PC1 axis (explaining 48.1% of the total variance). Grain-based samples had a higher saccharide content, and bean-based samples had a higher amino acid content. Furthermore, differences in the umami intensity were also observed among sample types. This is the first detailed metabolomics study of the characteristic compounds and umami of a variety of soy-sauce-like seasonings made from different raw materials. Full article
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16 pages, 3731 KiB  
Article
Discrimination of Adzuki Bean (Vigna angularis) Geographical Origin by Targeted and Non-Targeted Metabolite Profiling with Gas Chromatography Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry
by Tae Jin Kim, Jeong Gon Park, Soon Kil Ahn, Kil Won Kim, Jaehyuk Choi, Hyun Young Kim, Sun-Hwa Ha, Woo Duck Seo and Jae Kwang Kim
Metabolites 2020, 10(3), 112; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo10030112 - 17 Mar 2020
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 4514
Abstract
As international food trade increases, consumers are becoming increasingly interested in food safety and authenticity, which are linked to geographical origin. Adzuki beans (Vigna angularis) are cultivated worldwide, but there are no tools for accurately discriminating their geographical origin. Thus, our [...] Read more.
As international food trade increases, consumers are becoming increasingly interested in food safety and authenticity, which are linked to geographical origin. Adzuki beans (Vigna angularis) are cultivated worldwide, but there are no tools for accurately discriminating their geographical origin. Thus, our study aims to develop a method for discriminating the geographical origin of adzuki beans through targeted and non-targeted metabolite profiling with gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry combined with multivariate analysis. Orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis showed clear discrimination between adzuki beans cultivated in Korea and China. Non-targeted metabolite profiling showed better separation than targeted profiling. Furthermore, citric acid and malic acid were the most notable metabolites for discriminating adzuki beans cultivated in Korea and China. The geographical discrimination method combining non-targeted metabolite profiling and pareto-scaling showed excellent predictability (Q2 = 0.812). Therefore, it is a suitable prediction tool for the discrimination of geographical origin and is expected to be applicable to the geographical authentication of adzuki beans. Full article
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10 pages, 1645 KiB  
Article
Identification and Validation of Metabolic Markers for Adulteration Detection of Edible Oils Using Metabolic Networks
by Xinjing Dou, Liangxiao Zhang, Xiao Wang, Ruinan Yang, Xuefang Wang, Fei Ma, Li Yu, Jin Mao, Hui Li, Xiupin Wang and Peiwu Li
Metabolites 2020, 10(3), 85; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo10030085 - 29 Feb 2020
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2971
Abstract
Food adulteration is a challenge faced by consumers and researchers. Due to DNA fragmentation during oil processing, it is necessary to discover metabolic markers alternative to DNA for adulteration detection of edible oils. However, the contents of metabolic markers vary in response to [...] Read more.
Food adulteration is a challenge faced by consumers and researchers. Due to DNA fragmentation during oil processing, it is necessary to discover metabolic markers alternative to DNA for adulteration detection of edible oils. However, the contents of metabolic markers vary in response to various factors, such as plant species, varieties, geographical origin, climate, and cultivation measures. Thus, it is difficult to identify a universal marker for all adulterants that may be present in some authentic samples. Currently, the specificity and selectivity of metabolic biomarkers are difficult to validate. Therefore, this study developed a screening strategy based on plant metabolic networks by developing a targeted analytical method for 56 metabolites in a metabolic network, using liquid/liquid extraction–liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). We identified a chain of 11 metabolites that were related to isoflavonoid biosynthesis, which were detected in soybean oils but not rapeseed oils. Through multiple-marker mutual validation, these metabolites can be used as species-specific universal markers to differentiate soybean oil from rapeseed oil. Moreover, this method provides a model for screening characteristic markers of other edible vegetable oils and foods. Full article
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Review

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21 pages, 1123 KiB  
Review
Metabolomics for Evaluating Flavor-Associated Metabolites in Plant-Based Products
by Shruti Pavagadhi and Sanjay Swarup
Metabolites 2020, 10(5), 197; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo10050197 - 15 May 2020
Cited by 28 | Viewed by 5009
Abstract
Plant-based diets (PBDs) are associated with environmental benefits, human health promotion and animal welfare. There is a worldwide shift towards PBDs, evident from the increased global demand for fresh plant-based products (PBPs). Such shifts in dietary preferences accompanied by evolving food palates, create [...] Read more.
Plant-based diets (PBDs) are associated with environmental benefits, human health promotion and animal welfare. There is a worldwide shift towards PBDs, evident from the increased global demand for fresh plant-based products (PBPs). Such shifts in dietary preferences accompanied by evolving food palates, create opportunities to leverage technological advancements and strict quality controls in developing PBPs that can drive consumer acceptance. Flavor, color and texture are important sensory attributes of a food product and, have the largest influence on consumer appeal and acceptance. Among these, flavor is considered the most dominating quality attribute that significantly affects overall eating experience. Current state-of-art technologies rely on physicochemical estimations and sensory-based tests to assess flavor-related attributes in fresh PBPs. However, these methodologies often do not provide any indication about the metabolic features associated with unique flavor profiles and, consequently, can be used in a limited way to define the quality attributes of PBPs. To this end, a systematic understanding of metabolites that contribute to the flavor profiles of PBPs is warranted to complement the existing methodologies. This review will discuss the use of metabolomics for evaluating flavor-associated metabolites in fresh PBPs at post-harvest stage, alongside its applications for quality assessment and grading. We will summarize the current research in this area, discuss technical challenges and considerations pertaining to sampling and analytical techniques, as well as s provide future perspectives and directions for government organizations, industries and other stakeholders associated with the quality assessment of fresh PBPs. Full article
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