Analytica 2024: Recent Developments in Foodomics

At Analytica 2024 in Munich, Germany, an afternoon oral session took place titled, “Foodomics: Omics Approaches for Food Chemistry.” During the session, experts presented four talks that covered the latest developments in foodomics.

The first talk was titled, “Metabolomics for Rationalizing Grape Vine Adaptation to Contrasted Climate Conditions.” It was delivered by Regis Gougeon of the Université de Bourgogne. Gougeon’s research group focuses on the chemistry of wine stability and aging, including research on barrier properties of closures, and in the development and applications of targeted and non-targeted analytical tools to understand the mechanisms at the origin of the long-lasting oxidative stability of great wines. His talk also discussed the collaborative research project he worked on involving the concept of oenolomics.

Healthy food clean eating selection: fruit, vegetable, seeds, superfood, cereal, leaf vegetable on gray concrete background | Image Credit: © Natalia Lisovskaya - stock.adobe.com

The second talk was titled, “Quality, Authenticity and Safety of Food Revealed Through Detailed Lipid Analysis,” was given by Simon Hammann of Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. In his talk, Hammann stressed the importance of lipids in foods, because they can serve two purposes: 1) as a source of energy and 2) as a precursor for characteristic flavor compounds (1). Analyzing lipids allows us to better understand the authenticity and overall quality of the food we consume, Hammann said. Hyphenated techniques are the most effective for lipid analysis because of the complexity of lipid fraction, Hammann said. He also presented results of a study that used gas chromatography–high resolution mass spectrometry (GC–HRMS) and liquid chromatography–ion mobility spectrometry–HRMS (LC-IMS-HRMS) to conduct detailed analysis of lipids for milk, dietary supplements, and food products (2).

Next, Gerardo Álvarez-Rivera of the Institute of Food Science Research (CIAL, UAM-CSIC) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) delivered a talk titled, “Uncovering the Neuroprotective Potential of Agri-food Wastes: Bioguided Approaches and Metabolomic Strategies.” Álvarez-Rivera demonstrated the potentials of dietary phytochemicals as neuroprotective agents. He discussed how he and his team constructed a complete methodology of in vitro assays that tested the antioxidant capacity, anti-inflammatory activity, and anticholinergic potential of several byproducts from the agri-food industry (3). These byproducts included seeds and skin of tropical fruits and olive leaves, to name a couple.

Finally, to conclude the session, Pascal Fuchsmann of Agroscope Federal Department of Economic Affairs gave a talk titled, “Volatilomics in Human Nutrition Research - The Analytical Challenges of Studying Biomarkers of Dairy Intake in Biological Fluids.” Fuchsmann’s talk focused on a new technique based on dynamic headspace in-tube extraction (DHS-ITEX) that can extract volatile compounds from biological fluids such as serum and urine. He concluded, in his talk, that the results obtained help us understand the metabolome after dairy intake (4).

References

(1) Tietel, Z.; Hammann, S.; Meckelmann, S. V. et al. An Overview of Food Lipids Toward Food Lipidomics. Compr. Rev. Food Sci. Food Saf. 2023, 22, 4302.

(2) Hammann, S. Quality, Authenticity and Safety of Food Revealed Through Detailed Lipid Analysis. Presented at Analytica 2024, in Munich, Germany, April 9th, 2024.

(3) Álvarez-Rivera, G. Uncovering the Neuroprotective Potential of Agri-food Wastes: Bioguided Approaches and Metabolomic Strategies. Presented at Analytica 2024, in Munich, Germany, April 9th, 2024.

(4) Fuchsmann, P. Volatilomics in Human Nutrition Research - The Analytical Challenges of Studying Biomarkers of Dairy Intake in Biological Fluids. Presented at Analytica 2024, in Munich, Germany, April 9th, 2024.