Microbiome and -omics application in food industry

The enormous potential of multi-omics approaches to unravel microbiome-related links between food quality, sustainability and safety still requires experimental work and extensive data integration to increase knowledge and understand the biological and ecological processes involved in the assembly and dynamics of microbial communities along the production chains. Data spanning from DNA sequences to transcripts and metabolites need to be integrated in order to be translated at industrial level and literature showed several successful examples. The application of microbiome studies in food systems has shown the potential to improve food quality. Nevertheless, classical microbiological methods are still highly relevant even if isolation and characterization of strains in pure culture is often laborious and time-consuming and requires the use of several specific growth media that take into the account microbial growth characteristics as well as food characteristics. Studies on microbiomes have become a popular topic in the food industry since it can be used as a tool to improve quality and safety in the food chain.