Horizon Scanning: How Will Metabolomics Applications Transform Food Science, Bioengineering, and Medical Innovation in the Current Era of Foodomics?

Abstract

Food and engineering sciences have tended to neglect the importance of human nutrition sciences and clinical study of new molecules discovered by food engineering community, and vice versa. Yet, the value of systems thinking and use of omics technologies in food engineering are rapidly emerging. Foodomics is a new concept and practice to bring about "precision nutrition" and integrative bioengineering studies of food composition, quality, and safety, and applications to improve health of humans, animals, and other living organisms on the planet. Foodomics signals a three-way convergence among (1) food engineering; (2) omics systems science technologies such as proteomics, metabolomics, glycomics; and (3) medical/life sciences. This horizon scanning expert review aims to challenge the current practices in food sciences and bioengineering so as to adopt foodomics and systems thinking in foodstuff analysis, with a focus on possible applications of metabolomics. Among the omics biotechnologies, metabolomics is one of the prominent analytical platforms of interest to both food engineers and medical researchers engaged in nutritional sciences, precision medicine, and systems medicine diagnostics. Medical and omics system scientists, and bioengineering scholars can mutually learn from their respective professional expertise. Moving forward, establishment of "Foodomics Think Tanks" is one conceivable strategy to integrate medical and food sciences innovation at a systems scale. With its rich history in food sciences and tradition of interdisciplinary scholarship, the Silk Road countries offer notable potential for synthesis of diverse knowledge strands necessary to realize the prospects of foodomics from Asia and Middle East to Europe.