Metabolomics for empirical delineation of the traditional Korean fermented foods and beverages

Background: The umpteen varieties of traditional Korean fermented foods, condiments, seasonings, and beverages deliver a wallop of savor, aroma, nutrients, probiotics, and functional bioactives. However, our surprisingly limited comprehensions of the associated metabolomes, related phenotypes, and health effects maneuvered through the perplexing interplay of fermentative microflora turns their empirical analyses a non-trivial undertaking. Scope and approach: The economy data indicates that the shipment values for traditional Korean fermented foods per se stood a miraculous 4 billion USD in 2013 with burgeoning 71% increase in domestic food industries in last decade (statistical yearbook, Korea Food and Drug Administration, 2014). Quintessentially, the consumers now expect the highest possible standards of food manufacturing with insights of their molecular contents and associated health effects. A range of analytical platforms, based on chromatographic separation coupled with spectrometric or spectroscopic detection, enables the metabolomic snapshots for fermentative bioprocesses and underlying biotransformation mechanisms. However, a technological void still exist which restrict the generic use of analytical methodologies owing to the complexity of diverse metabolomes. Key findings and conclusions: This review outlines the metabolomic perspectives for the traditional Korean fermented foods and beverages. We discuss the current trends towards the application of metabolomics and related methodologies to probe their metabolite contents and functionality. Moreover, the crucial bottlenecks associated with fermentative bioprocess and microbial transformations are also addressed in the context of artisanal and industrial manufacturing processes. Further, the article proposes a rational metabolomic approach towards the discernment of palatability and insalubrities associated with fermented foods. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.