From Sea to Table: The Power of Metabolomics in Marine Food Science and Facing Challenges

Marine food science has gained increasing attention owing to its potential to offer valuable bioactive compounds beneficial for human health aside from nutritive value. Metabolomics, a cutting-edge analytical technology aims to provide a comprehensive insight into the chemical composition of marine food systems, ensuring quality and safety. This review explores the integration of metabolomics in marine food science, emphasising its ability to profile metabolites for quality control, authentication, and safety assessment in seafood products. Metabolomics can aid in identifying geographical origin, detecting contaminants, and monitoring freshness levels in seafood. Additionally, it plays a critical role in advancing aquaculture by monitoring the health and nutritional quality of farmed fish species. The use of advanced spectroscopy, exemplified by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS), enables the discovery of novel bioactive compounds with therapeutic potential, thereby enhancing the nutritional value of seafood. Despite the challenges in data interpretation due to the complexity of marine metabolites and their origin, the combination of metabolomics with other “omics” technologies holds promise to revolutionise our understanding of marine ecosystems. Further research is needed to overcome current analytical challenges and translate these findings into practical applications for the food industry.