preface: foodomics. the science for discovering

Food Research International 63 (2014) 125

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Food Research International

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Preface: FoodOmics. The science for discovering

The term “FoodOmics” first popped up in the scientific literaturearound 2009. In the same year, the first International Conference onFoodOmics 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 so many scientists would have been interested in the field.

Since then, FoodOmics, like all the other Omics, rapidly evolved dueto the development of novel tools and technologies. This is witnessed bythe many FoodOmics articles that have been published on scientificjournals, and professor Cifuentes has been one of the invited speakersin the Second International Conference on FoodOmics, held in Cesenain 2011.

At the endof 2012,we askedourselves “is it time for the third editionof the Conference?”What is new in this third edition? The most impor-tant 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 now isto share the possibility of the application of the FoodOmics concept (andtechniques) to the different research fields. So, the subtitle of the Con-ference “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 Confer-ence, and this special issue of Food Research International, testify thatthe FoodOmics vision is a reality shared by many researchers. In thisspecial issue of FRI dedicated to the Conference, critical reviews aswell as descriptions of new approaches for use in the analysis and ma-nipulation of food genomes, proteomes and glycomes are presented.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2014.07.0070963-9969/© 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The issue startswith three researchpapers eachdescribing the use ofthemost recentNMR andMS instrumental advances to analyze in depthfoodmetabolomes. These three articles are followed by a section of fivepapers investigating the process of food digestion – the digestome– andthe fate of food constituents across it. The next article extends the fieldof applications to peptidomics and glycomics through the characteriza-tion ofmilk colostrum. The final section in this issue presents six articlesfacing 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 inboth application and scope and this will assist research to reshape ourcurrent understanding of the complex issues related to food, nutritionand health. We are planning the Fourth FoodOmics Conference, hopingto involve an increasing number of participants. At present, we wish tothank all Colleagues who contributed to the 2013 Conference, and tothis special issue devoted to it.

Alessandra BordoniFrancesco CapozziPasquale Ferranti