The application of metabolics approach in the Investigation of Safety and Quality of Food Products – Review

Abstract

This review concentrates on the application of the chemometric methods in the investigation of metabolomics in food science, particularly on the analysis of data produced from mass spectrometric techniques. Its purpose is to discuss the essential developments in metabolomics due to the combination of modern chemical analysis techniques with statistical and chemometric data analytical strategies. It investigates the potential of the chemometric methods in the analysis of a variety of different food products. Spectrometry (MS)-based
methods including gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC) enable the precise quantification and qualification of metabolite profiles because of their sensitivity and good resolution. Such data results are subjected to the metabolomic interpretation using various multivariate tools such as principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares (PLS), partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) or hierarchical clustering. They offer huge potential in the analysis of food products in terms of guaranteeing safety for human consumption.