Metabolomics as a tool for the comprehensive understanding of fermented and functional foods with lactic acid bacteria

Metabolomics, also called metabonomics or metabolic profiling, deals with the simultaneous determination and quantitative analysis of intracellular metabolites or low-molecular-mass molecules. The metabolomics field, which has begun a little more than ten years ago thanks to the development of technologies such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS), has been successfully applied in different areas of food science. This review deals with the recent achievements of metabolomics in the comprehensive analysis of fermented foods predominated by lactic acid bacteria, the fermentative capacity of these microorganisms and the beneficial effects of functional foods and probiotics. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.