Abstract:
With the rapid advancement of omics technologies, sensory omics, metabolomics, proteomics, peptidomics, and lipidomics have gained significant attention for their applications in food flavor analysis. This review summarizes the latest progress in applying these omics technologies to decipher food flavors. Sensory omics integrates human sensory evaluation with instrumental detection to reveal the sensory attributes and quality of food flavors. Metabolomics provides comprehensive profiling of metabolites in food, elucidating the metabolic pathways and dynamic changes of flavor compounds. Proteomics and peptidomics work collaboratively to identify flavor-related proteins and peptides, uncovering their roles in flavor formation. Lipidomics primarily focuses on the influence of lipids, particularly fatty acids and alcohols, on food flavor. Despite significant advancements, challenges such as high data complexity, difficulties in technology integration, and the incomplete understanding of the relationship between flavor compounds and sensory perception remain. The integrated application of multi-omics technologies is expected to enable more comprehensive and precise flavor analysis, offering new approaches for flavor optimization and quality control in the food industry.