In recent years, omic sciences have been increasingly employed in a multitude of research fields
thanks to their high-throughput capabilities and holistic approach.
Among the omic sciences, metabolomics and foodomics have recently emerged in the investigation
of food and nutrition and their relation to the individual health and wellness status (Chapter 1).
The analytical platforms used are ideal for non-targeted analysis, due to their capability of
detecting and identifying a large set of variables (or metabolites) in complex biological samples.
The most employed metabolomics techniques are mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic
resonance spectroscopy (Chapters 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3), which can reach high analytical power in the
non-targeted realm thanks to the advent and advancement of multivariate data analysis (Chapter
2.4).
This thesis, which is the result of three years of PhD studies carried out both in Italy and in
Denmark, outlines the analytical pipeline of the foodomic approach and highlights the current
challenges in the field (Chapter 2.3). The thesis traces the path of modern foodomics and
metabolomics from the definition and description of food quality (Chapters 3 to 6), to the profiling
of the metabolome (Chapters 7 to 8.5), and finally the investigation of the impact of food on the
human health, the prevention of diseases, and the identification of biomarkers of health status
(Chapters 8.6 and 8.7).
The impact of factors such as genetic modification or farming method was investigated in grapes,
defining the specific changes in the fruit metabolism correlated with these factors (Chapter 4). For
example, a linear decrement in the content of malic acid in GM grapes in relation to the number of
transgene copies inserted was observed, showing a shift in the plant metabolism due to the
increased fruit yield. Moreover, the impact of the food matrix and digestion processes on the
stability and bioaccessibility of specific, beneficial molecules was assessed (Chapters 5 and 6).
The animal metabolome was also investigated as a model of the human body. In one of the studies
reported, the effect of antibiotic treatment on necrotizing enterocolitis was investigated (Chapter
7.2), proving that the employment of the selected drugs successfully treated the condition and
impacted on the gut microbiota. This model can be of great help in the investigation of the