Proteomics in Food Science

Abstract

The close relationship between nutrition and health has led to changes in the habits of consumers, who are demanding products that meet their dietary and nutritional preferences. In light of this demand, both academia and food industries face a new challenge: the need for developing strategies and products that are not only safe, but also contribute to the maintenance of good health and that can even prevent the development of specific diseases. Advances in proteome analysis offer multiple applications that can be used to meet the challenge. These applications can be divided into three main topics: (i) quality and food safety control; (ii) the study of changes in food components as a consequence of food processing; and (iii) nutritional aspects and characterization of new food ingredients with beneficial effects on human health. In this chapter, we illustrate how proteomic tools can be applied to these three main food science topics. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.