Mass-Spectrometry-Based Food Metabolomics in Routine Applications: A Basic Standardization Approach Using Housekeeping Metabolites for the Authentication of Asparagus

The low reproducibility of non-targeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based metabolomics approaches represents a major challenge for their implementation in routine analyses, because it is impossible to compare individual measurements directly with each other, if they were not analyzed in the same batch. This study describes a normalization process based on housekeeping metabolites in plant-based raw materials, which are present in comparatively constant concentrations and are subject to no or only minor deviations as a result of exogenous influences. As a model, an authenticity study was selected to determine the origin of white asparagus (Asparagus officinalis). Using three model data sets and one test data set, we were able to show that samples that have been measured independently of one another can be correctly assigned in terms of origin after the normalization with housekeeping metabolites. The procedure does not require internal standards or the measurements of further reference samples and can also be applied to other matrices and scientific issues.