Preface: FoodOmics. The science for discovering

The term “FoodOmics” first popped up in the scientific literature around 2009. In the same year, the first International Conference on FoodOmics took place in Cesena. Probably neither us, as the scientific organizers of the conference, nor Alejandro Cifuentes, who first used the term in a scientific paper, thought that somany scientists would have been interested in the field. Since then, FoodOmics, like all the other Omics, rapidly evolved due to the development of novel tools and technologies. This iswitnessed by the many FoodOmics articles that have been published on scientific journals, and professor Cifuentes has been one of the invited speakers in the Second International Conference on FoodOmics, held in Cesena in 2011. At the end of 2012,we asked ourselves “is it timefor the third edition of the Conference?” What is new in this third edition? Themost important news is that we don't need to explain what FoodOmics is anymore, since everybody knows. And it is a big step ahead!Whatwe need nowis to share the possibility of the application of the FoodOmics concept (and techniques) to the different research fields. So, the subtitle of the Conference “A Science for Nutrition, Health and Wellness in the Post- Genomic Era” used in the first two editions was turned to “FoodOmics, the science for discovering” in 2013. The abstract book of the Conference, and this special issue of Food Research International, testify that the FoodOmics vision is a reality shared by many researchers. In this special issue of FRI dedicated to the Conference, critical reviews as well as descriptions of new approaches for use in the analysis and manipulation of food genomes, proteomes and glycomes are presented. The issue startswith three research papers each describing the use of themost recentNMR andMS instrumental advances to analyze in depth food metabolomes. These three articles are followed by a section of five papers investigating the process of food digestion – the digestome– and the fate of food constituents across it. The next article extends the field of applications to peptidomics and glycomics through the characterization of milk colostrum. The final section in this issue presents six articles facing the impact of food bioactive components from the nutritional, clinical and diagnostic sides. What about 2015? Difficult to say, even using “omics” techniques… One thing is certain: the field of FoodOmics will continue to grow in both application and scope and this will assist research to reshape our current understanding of the complex issues related to food, nutrition and health.We are planning the Fourth FoodOmics Conference, hoping to involve an increasing number of participants. At present, we wish to thank all Colleagues who contributed to the 2013 Conference, and to this special issue devoted to it.