Prof. Emilia Fornal is an analytical chemist specializing in liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. She is Head of the Department of Bioanalytics at the Medical University of Lublin. She has held research appointments at leading international institutions, including Imperial College London, GlaxoSmithKline R&D and CNRS. Her research focuses on food authentication and the detection of food adulteration. She is also Chair of the Analytical Chemistry Education Team of the Analytical Chemistry Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences, a member of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, and a Royal Society Wolfson Fellow.
Summary
Is LC/MS-Based Foodomics the Future of Food Composition Assessment? Progress, Perspectives, and Challenges
Mass spectrometry and omics technologies are playing an increasingly important role in food authentication by enabling comprehensive characterization of food composition and the detection of inconsistencies related to declared origin, composition, or production method. In particular, LC-MS-based approaches, combined with metabolomics, lipidomics, and proteomics, allow the identification of markers of authenticity and adulteration with high sensitivity and selectivity. In meat analysis, these techniques are used for species and tissues differentiation, verification of geographical origin, detection of undeclared ingredients, and identification of changes associated with processing. In the case of vegetable oils, they support the assessment of metabolic and lipid profiles, detection of adulteration with cheaper oils, and confirmation of the authenticity of high-value oils. During the lecture, the recent progress in this field, as well as its future perspectives and current challenges, will be discussed. The development of foodomics opens new opportunities for food quality and safety control, however, the implementation of these methods in routine analytical practice still requires further standardization and validation.