Nuclear magnetic resonance for foodomics beyond food analysis

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has a long tradition as a powerful platform in the hands of modern food scientists, with several applications related to food safety, traceability and authenticity. The continual advances in instrumental sensitivity and electronic stability, together with rapid growth in new, potent algorithms for multivariate data analysis, facilitate the use of NMR spectroscopy as a competitive, complementary analytical platform for observing the food metabolome. By adapting the holistic views of metabolomics research, foodomics emerges as a new discipline bringing food science and nutritional research closer together. This review mostly focuses on recent efforts dedicated to extraction and interpretation of NMR data, rather than providing technical details about their acquisition. With this aim, we present new trends in the exploitation of the information gained by NMR of food matter. We critically describe and illustrate, via representative examples, the limitations and the counterbalancing advantages of the technique.