Emerging analytical techniques for lipid profiling in food products: insights into processing effects and quality control

Lipids are essential components of foods which include fatty acids, glycolipids, sphingolipids, sterols, vitamin D, isoprenoids, etc. It possesses bioactive properties that exhibit desirable impact on human health. However, understanding the complexity of food lipids, requires sophisticated analytical methods capable of capturing their full spectrum. Lipidomics (LIP), an emerging omics field derived from metabolomics focuses on the complete analysis of lipid molecules within food matrices. Mass spectrometry (MS)-based LIP, exhibit great potential for analysing food lipids. The present review discusses the application of LIP in characterizing lipid metabolites in food, including how food processing, cooking, and storage, influence lipid profiles. Advancement in MS-based LIP enabled the detection of lipid alterations, along with ensuring food quality, authenticity, and safety. Future trends suggest further advancements in MS and separation techniques and application of Large Language Models will emerge as powerful tools in supporting oil processing research and industry practices. These techniques offered innovative predictions for mining significant information from lipidomic related large volumes of scientific and technical literature that will expand the application of LIP, providing deeper insights into lipid metabolism as well as understanding lipids in relation to health and nutrition.