Emerging LC-MS/MS-based molecular networking strategy facilitates foodomics to assess the function, safety, and quality of foods: recent trends and future perspectives

How to comprehensively and objectively evaluate the quality, safety and efficacy of foods has always been a challenge in the field of food analysis. Molecular networking is an efficient analytical tool used for systematically profiling the components of food samples. It has various significant applications in food metabolomics, including systematic analysis and chemotaxonomic annotation of food ingredients, identification of quality markers of various foods, detection and quantification of toxicants and contaminants in foods, and guiding the development of new food products. Herein, we summarized the recent progress in molecular networking in foodomics. Notably, this review provides an overview of the concepts, workflows, and applications of molecular networking in food and metabolomics. The potential and limitations of molecular networking are also analyzed. Ultimately, the current challenges and future developments of molecular networking in foodomics are briefly discussed. Molecular networking is a valuable tool for monitoring the quality and safety of foods and evaluating food function in food metabolomics, as well as accelerating the development of functional food products. However, further research is needed to validate these laboratory findings and apply them into industrialized food production and real-world applications.