Peptides as probes for food authentication

Abstract

The aim of this review is to provide a brief summary of the recent applications of peptide molecules in the food area. Since, in the last few years, there has been growing interest in food authenticity, the role of peptides in this area has assumed greater importance. A fundamental part, as discussed in the article, was played by the growth of innovative analytical techniques, based on mass spectrometry (MS), which allows identifying and quantifying protein fragments in complex mixtures of different components. These procedures have been successfully applied for the identification of peptide markers in food authenticity. Because food‐derived proteins have high variability in chemical and physical properties, it is obvious that an exhaustive proteomic analysis cannot be applied by using a single technique for all objectives. The report shows some examples of various methodologies applied to different food matrices and some trivial aspects are also critically described.

Identification of peptide biomarkers for halal gelatin using bioinformatics techniques

“…This method depends on the analysis of specific peptide sequences derived from proteins. These peptide sequences are analyzed using mass spectrometry [21]. Mass spectrometry is an analytical technique used to identify and quantify sample analytes in gases based on their mass to charge ratio (m/z).…”

Untargeted metabolomics by liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry for food authentication: A review

“…Molecular markers play a critical role in determining the authenticity of food (Medina et al., 2019), which is the prerequisite for most analytical food authentication (Ballin & Laursen, 2019). Genetic markers (Böhme et al., 2019b; Mafra et al., 2008; Rahmati et al., 2016), for example, DNA, and proteinic markers (Ortea et al., 2016; Sentandreu & Sentandreu, 2011; Tedeschi et al., 2018), for example, proteins and peptides, are capable of monitoring food authenticity. Both genetic markers and proteinic markers are suited for species, variety, and other food‐authentication issues concerning biological identity, which can hardly be applied to other food‐authentication topics.…”

“…Both genetic markers and proteinic markers are suited for species, variety, and other food‐authentication issues concerning biological identity, which can hardly be applied to other food‐authentication topics. DNA‐based methods have some limitations related to DNA stability (e.g., the resistance to degradation) and accurate quantitation (Sentandreu & Sentandreu, 2011; Tedeschi et al., 2018), while the DNA extraction procedure is usually complex, time‐consuming, and expensive (von Bargen et al., 2013). Proteinic‐markers‐based methods usually involve intricate multistep operations, including enzymatic digestion, desalting, and peptide fractionation (Ye et al., 2019).…”

Liquid Chromatography–mass Spectrometry Bottom‐up Proteomic Methods in Animal Species Analysis of Processed Meat for Food Authentication and the Detection of Adulterations

“…MS together with bioinformatic tools have revolutionized proteomic studies, making possible the high-throughput analysis of thousands of proteins in one experiment. Most MS approaches for identification and authentication are based on protein pattern profiling (Ohana et al, 2016) or on the identification of specific peptides or proteins to identify the species (Tedeschi et al, 2018). Protein pattern profiling was recently proposed by Ohana's groups (Ohana et al, 2016).…”

“…Several comprehensive reviews have summarized the latest MS-based approaches in the field of food authentication (Ibáñez et al, 2015;Ortea et al, 2016;Vlachos et al, 2016;Iammarino et al, 2017;Korte & Brockmeyer, 2017;Mora et al, 2017;Abbas et al, 2018;Böhme et al, 2019;Monaci et al, 2018). Most recently Tedeschi et al (2018) published a review article "Peptides as probes for food authentication," where they provided a brief summary of the recent applications of peptide molecules in the food area. LC-MS allows to target multiple peptides across various species, allowing the simultaneous detection of many species-specific markers in a single sample.…”