Metabolomics applications for food

The use of improved NMR-derived metabolite profiles and statistical methods to assess the processing traits of potatoes has been discussed. The extraction method developed at Queen's University Belfast removes phospholipids which have wide resonances and would otherwise reduce the quality of the NMR spectra. The improvement and applicability to high throughput methodology increases both the ability to investigate and the range of applications for linking biochemistry to functional traits. The interactions of metabolites in the food matrix can be investigated using a metabolomics-based approach with multivariate statistics. The phospholipids comprise hydrophilic and hydrophobic characteristics that allow it to act as an interface between aqueous and lipid components. The phospholipids, which are soluble in polar solvents, generate broad resonances in NMR analysis and therefore reduce the quality of the spectra that can be obtained that can be overcome by a second extraction step after the methanol-water extraction.