Mass spectrometry in food proteomics: a tutorial

In the last decades, the continuous and rapid evolution of proteomic approaches has provided an efficient platform for thecharacterization of food-derived proteins. Particularly, the impressive increasing in performance and versatility of the MSinstrumentation has contributed to the development of new analytical strategies for proteins, evidencing how MS arguablyrepresents an indispensable tool in food proteomics. Investigation of protein composition in foodstuffs is helpful forunderstanding the relationship between the protein content and the nutritional and technological properties of foods, theproduction of methods for food traceability, the assessment of food quality and safety, including the detection of allergensand microbial contaminants in foods, or even the characterization of genetically modified products. Given the high varietyof the food-derived proteins and considering their differences in chemical and physical properties, a single proteomicstrategy for all purposes does not exist. Rather, proteomic approaches need to be adapted to each analytical problem,and development of new strategies is necessary in order to obtain always the best results. In this tutorial, the most relevantaspects of MS-based methodologies in food proteomics will be examined, and their advantages and drawbacks will bediscussed.