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Metabolomics in Food Authentication: Strategies and Applications
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Metabolomics in Food Authentication: Strategies and Applications

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 July 2021) | Viewed by 27844

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Nikolaos S. Thomaidis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis Zografou, 157 71 Athens, Greece
Interests: emerging contaminants; (bio)transformation products; fate; ecotoxicology; analytical methods
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Marilena Dasenaki

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratory of Food Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Interests: food analysis; food safety; chemical contaminants; mass spectrometry; food authenticity; bioactive molecules
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Food authentication is of interest for a large number of individuals and organizations, including the scientific community, law enforcement, food producers, importers and exporters, and consumers. This field is in a phase of exponential growth and is attracting a high level of attention from authorities and media around the world. Fraudulent acts, such as adulteration with cheaper ingredients and false claims of origin (geographical or varietal), reduce the quality of the products, mislead the consumer, and may even imply a health risk. Thus, food authenticity is a major concern for all involved in the food trade: consumers, consumer protection authorities, and also producers and dealers.

In the last few years, a universal analytical approach called “metabolomics” has experienced a significant increase in interest in food fingerprinting studies. Metabolomics focuses on the study of low molecular weight molecules (<1000 Da) and is used to explore and characterize food constituents, generating a detailed and comprehensive metabolic chemical profile of food. Metabolomic studies mainly involve the detection of metabolites (biomarkers) that can discriminate between sample populations (discriminative metabolomics) and/or the generation of statistical models that are able to classify samples and predict class memberships (predictive metabolomics). Metabolomics approaches can be also classified as non-targeted or targeted analysis; non-targeted approaches look for maximum coverage of metabolites that can be simultaneously identified in a particular food, while targeted approaches are based on the determination and identification of a certain type of metabolites that could belong to the either one or more chemical classes. In every case, as the complexity of the set of metabolites to be analyzed is quite high in both approaches, suitable analytical techniques and sample treatment methodologies are required.

In light of the numerous advances made in recent years on the above points, this Special Issue will extensively cover the topics of novel analytical techniques and metabolomics approaches for the assessment of food authenticity and quality. Scientists are warmly invited to submit their original contributions (reviews, original research papers, short communication) to this Special Issue, which will be of interest to a wide range of readers. In the cases of review articles, an additional brief (1–2 pages) description of the topic, including a draft index, is required. This preliminary step is essential to avoid overlapping of topics.

Prof. Dr. Nikolaos S. Thomaidis
Dr. Marilena Dasenaki
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 authenticity
  • Food adulteration
  • Food quality
  • Analytical methods
  • Hyphenated techniques
  • High resolution mass spectrometry
  • Spectroscopic techniques
  • Isotope and elemental techniques
  • Chemical characterization of foods and beverages
  • Metabolic profiling
  • Metabolic fingerprinting
  • Advanced chemometric techniques

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 3313 KiB  
Article
Composition Profiling and Authenticity Assessment of Camellia Oil Using High Field and Low Field 1H NMR
by Meijun Xing, Shenghao Wang, Jianzhong Lin, Feng Xia, Jianghua Feng and Guiping Shen
Molecules 2021, 26(16), 4738; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules26164738 - 05 Aug 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2051
Abstract
Camellia oil (CA), mainly produced in southern China, has always been called Oriental olive oil (OL) due to its similar physicochemical properties to OL. The high nutritional value and high selling price of CA make mixing it with other low-quality oils prevalent, in [...] Read more.
Camellia oil (CA), mainly produced in southern China, has always been called Oriental olive oil (OL) due to its similar physicochemical properties to OL. The high nutritional value and high selling price of CA make mixing it with other low-quality oils prevalent, in order to make huge profits. In this paper, the transverse relaxation time (T2) distribution of different brands of CA and OL, and the variation in transverse relaxation parameters when adulterated with corn oil (CO), were assessed via low field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR) imagery. The nutritional compositions of CA and OL and their quality indices were obtained via high field NMR (HF-NMR) spectroscopy. The results show that the fatty acid evaluation indices values, including for squalene, oleic acid, linolenic acid and iodine, were higher in CA than in OL, indicating the nutritional value of CA. The adulterated CA with a content of CO more than 20% can be correctly identified by principal component analysis or partial least squares discriminant analysis, and the blended oils could be successfully classified by orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis, with an accuracy of 100% when the adulteration ratio was above 30%. These results indicate the practicability of LF-NMR in the rapid screening of food authenticity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics in Food Authentication: Strategies and Applications)
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19 pages, 3612 KiB  
Article
Development of a Wine Metabolomics Approach for the Authenticity Assessment of Selected Greek Red Wines
by Alexandros Tzachristas, Marilena E. Dasenaki, Reza Aalizadeh, Nikolaos S. Thomaidis and Charalampos Proestos
Molecules 2021, 26(10), 2837; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules26102837 - 11 May 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3285
Abstract
Wine metabolomics constitutes a powerful discipline towards wine authenticity assessment through the simultaneous exploration of multiple classes of compounds in the wine matrix. Over the last decades, wines from autochthonous Greek grape varieties have become increasingly popular among wine connoisseurs, attracting great interest [...] Read more.
Wine metabolomics constitutes a powerful discipline towards wine authenticity assessment through the simultaneous exploration of multiple classes of compounds in the wine matrix. Over the last decades, wines from autochthonous Greek grape varieties have become increasingly popular among wine connoisseurs, attracting great interest for their authentication and chemical characterization. In this work, 46 red wine samples from Agiorgitiko and Xinomavro grape varieties were collected from wineries in two important winemaking regions of Greece during two consecutive vintages and analyzed using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QToF-MS). A targeted metabolomics methodology was developed, including the determination and quantification of 28 phenolic compounds from different classes (hydroxycinnamic acids, hydroxybenzoic acids, stilbenes and flavonoids). Moreover, 86 compounds were detected and tentatively identified via a robust suspect screening workflow using an in-house database of 420 wine related compounds. Supervised chemometric techniques were employed to build an accurate and robust model to discriminate between two varieties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics in Food Authentication: Strategies and Applications)
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21 pages, 3117 KiB  
Article
Honey Phenolic Compound Profiling and Authenticity Assessment Using HRMS Targeted and Untargeted Metabolomics
by Georgios A. Koulis, Aristeidis S. Tsagkaris, Reza Aalizadeh, Marilena E. Dasenaki, Eleni I. Panagopoulou, Spyros Drivelos, Michał Halagarda, Constantinos A. Georgiou, Charalampos Proestos and Nikolaos S. Thomaidis
Molecules 2021, 26(9), 2769; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules26092769 - 08 May 2021
Cited by 33 | Viewed by 5635
Abstract
Honey consumption is attributed to potentially advantageous effects on human health due to its antioxidant capacity as well as anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activity, which are mainly related to phenolic compound content. Phenolic compounds are secondary metabolites of plants, and their content in honey [...] Read more.
Honey consumption is attributed to potentially advantageous effects on human health due to its antioxidant capacity as well as anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activity, which are mainly related to phenolic compound content. Phenolic compounds are secondary metabolites of plants, and their content in honey is primarily affected by the botanical and geographical origin. In this study, a high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) method was applied to determine the phenolic profile of various honey matrices and investigate authenticity markers. A fruitful sample set was collected, including honey from 10 different botanical sources (n = 51) originating from Greece and Poland. Generic liquid–liquid extraction using ethyl acetate as the extractant was used to apply targeted and non-targeted workflows simultaneously. The method was fully validated according to the Eurachem guidelines, and it demonstrated high accuracy, precision, and sensitivity resulting in the detection of 11 target analytes in the samples. Suspect screening identified 16 bioactive compounds in at least one sample, with abscisic acid isomers being the most abundant in arbutus honey. Importantly, 10 markers related to honey geographical origin were revealed through non-targeted screening and the application of advanced chemometric tools. In conclusion, authenticity markers and discrimination patterns were emerged using targeted and non-targeted workflows, indicating the impact of this study on food authenticity and metabolomic fields. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics in Food Authentication: Strategies and Applications)
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11 pages, 1921 KiB  
Article
Analysis and Authentication of Avocado Oil Using High Resolution NMR Spectroscopy
by Fenfen Tang, Hilary S. Green, Selina C. Wang and Emmanuel Hatzakis
Molecules 2021, 26(2), 310; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules26020310 - 09 Jan 2021
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 4394
Abstract
Avocado oil is a food product of high commercial and nutritional value. As a result, it can be a subject of adulteration similar to other high-value edible oils, such as olive oil. For olive oil and many other foods products, NMR spectroscopy has [...] Read more.
Avocado oil is a food product of high commercial and nutritional value. As a result, it can be a subject of adulteration similar to other high-value edible oils, such as olive oil. For olive oil and many other foods products, NMR spectroscopy has been successfully used for authentication and quality assessment. In this study, we apply NMR analysis to avocado oil to differentiate it from other oils including olive, canola, high-oleic (HO) safflower, HO sunflower and soybean oil using commercial and lab-made samples of avocado oils. NMR allowed the rapid analysis of the fatty acid profile and detection of minor compounds, such as sterols, oxidation products, and hydrolysis products, which can be used to assess oil quality and authenticity. The NMR assignment was conducted using traditional 2D NMR and the novel NOAH super-sequences. Combining chemometrics with NMR enabled us to differentiate between avocado oil and other oils. Avocado oil has compositional similarities with other vegetable oils, such as HO sunflower and HO safflower oil, which can be used as potential adulterants. Despite these similarities, NMR-based metabolomics captured differences in the levels of certain compounds including fatty acids, terpenes, sterols, and oxidation products to detect adulteration and for quality control purposes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics in Food Authentication: Strategies and Applications)
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24 pages, 7339 KiB  
Article
Target and Suspect HRMS Metabolomics for the Determination of Functional Ingredients in 13 Varieties of Olive Leaves and Drupes from Greece
by Evangelia Kritikou, Natasa P. Kalogiouri, Lydia Kolyvira and Nikolaos S. Thomaidis
Molecules 2020, 25(21), 4889; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules25214889 - 22 Oct 2020
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 3066
Abstract
The huge interest in the health-related properties of foods to improve health has brought about the development of sensitive analytical methods for the characterization of natural products with functional ingredients. Greek olive leaves and drupes constitute a valuable source of biophenols with functional [...] Read more.
The huge interest in the health-related properties of foods to improve health has brought about the development of sensitive analytical methods for the characterization of natural products with functional ingredients. Greek olive leaves and drupes constitute a valuable source of biophenols with functional properties. A novel ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–quadrupole time of flight tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS) analytical method was developed to identify biophenols through target and suspect screening in Greek olive leaves and drupes of the varieties: Koroneiki, Throumbolia, Konservolia, Koutsourelia, Kalamon, Petrolia, Amigdalolia, Megaritiki, Mastoeidis, Agouromanakolia, Agrilia, Adramitiani and Kolovi. The method’s performance was evaluated using the target compounds: oleuropein, tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol. The analytes demonstrated satisfactory recovery efficiency for both leaves (85.9–90.5%) and drupes (89.7–92.5%). Limits of detection (LODs) were relatively low over the range 0.038 (oleuropein)–0.046 (hydroxytyrosol) and 0.037 (oleuropein)–0.048 (hydroxytyrosol) for leaves and drupes, respectively For leaves, the precision limit ranged between 4.7% and 5.8% for intra-day and between 5.8% and 6.5% for inter-day experiments, and for drupes, it ranged between 3.8% and 5.2% for intra-day and between 5.1 and 6.2% for inter-day experiments, establishing the good precision of the method. The regression coefficient (r2) was above 0.99 in all cases. Furthermore, the preparation of herbal tea from olive leaves is suggested after investigating the optimum infusion time of dried leaves in boiling water. Overall, 10 target and 36 suspect compounds were determined in leaves, while seven targets and thirty-three suspects were identified in drupes, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics in Food Authentication: Strategies and Applications)
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26 pages, 3543 KiB  
Article
Authentication of Greek PDO Kalamata Table Olives: A Novel Non-Target High Resolution Mass Spectrometric Approach
by Natasa P. Kalogiouri, Reza Aalizadeh, Marilena E. Dasenaki and Nikolaos S. Thomaidis
Molecules 2020, 25(12), 2919; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules25122919 - 24 Jun 2020
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 3603
Abstract
Food science continually requires the development of novel analytical methods to prevent fraudulent actions and guarantee food authenticity. Greek table olives, one of the most emblematic and valuable Greek national products, are often subjected to economically motivated fraud. In this work, a novel [...] Read more.
Food science continually requires the development of novel analytical methods to prevent fraudulent actions and guarantee food authenticity. Greek table olives, one of the most emblematic and valuable Greek national products, are often subjected to economically motivated fraud. In this work, a novel ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–quadrupole time of flight tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS) analytical method was developed to detect the mislabeling of Greek PDO Kalamata table olives, and thereby establish their authenticity. A non-targeted screening workflow was applied, coupled to advanced chemometric techniques such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Square Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) in order to fingerprint and accurately discriminate PDO Greek Kalamata olives from Kalamata (or Kalamon) type olives from Egypt and Chile. The method performance was evaluated using a target set of phenolic compounds and several validation parameters were calculated. Overall, 65 table olive samples from Greece, Egypt, and Chile were analyzed and processed for the model development and its accuracy was validated. The robustness of the chemometric model was tested using 11 Greek Kalamon olive samples that were produced during the following crop year, 2018, and they were successfully classified as Greek Kalamon olives from Kalamata. Twenty-six characteristic authenticity markers were indicated to be responsible for the discrimination of Kalamon olives of different geographical origins. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics in Food Authentication: Strategies and Applications)
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14 pages, 2509 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Primary Metabolites in Cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) Varieties Correlated with Antioxidant Activity and Taste Attributes by Metabolic Profiling
by Ryota Mabuchi, Mao Tanaka, Chihori Nakanishi, Nanako Takatani and Shota Tanimoto
Molecules 2019, 24(23), 4282; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules24234282 - 25 Nov 2019
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4380
Abstract
Brassica vegetables, such as cabbage, have many health benefits arising from their antioxidant and anticancer properties. These properties are endowed by the metabolite composition of the plant, and it is therefore important to elucidate the metabolic profile and associated activities in this genus. [...] Read more.
Brassica vegetables, such as cabbage, have many health benefits arising from their antioxidant and anticancer properties. These properties are endowed by the metabolite composition of the plant, and it is therefore important to elucidate the metabolic profile and associated activities in this genus. This study objectively evaluated the characteristics of cabbage varieties using metabolic profiling to identify the primary metabolic components that correlate with antioxidant activity and taste attributes. GC-MS analysis was used to identify the primary metabolites. Antioxidant activity was measured by oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH) scavenging assays, and an electronic tongue was used to quantitate nine taste attributes. Orthogonal projections to latent structures (OPLS) using SIMCA 14 correlated the metabolite components with the taste and antioxidant characteristics. We identified 4-aminobutyric acid, fructose 1-phosphate, adipic acid, 5-oxoproline, N-acetylglycine, O-phosphoethanolamine, and homovanillic acid as important determinants of DPPH scavenging activity and umami, sourness, acidic bitterness, irritant and saltiness, bitterness, astringency, and richness, respectively. These metabolites represent markers indicating breed differences and contribute to differential cabbage functionality. These studies could be extended to measure additional metabolites, as well as to understand the role of growth conditions on the metabolic profile and health benefits of plants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics in Food Authentication: Strategies and Applications)
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