Chilling Truth: The Effects of Storage Temperature on the Metabolic Profiles of Food
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ABSTRACT: Food is a chemically complex matrix comprised of macronutrients, micronutrients, and thousands of small, bioactive metabolites. Emerging omics technologies have revealed that these metabolites influence flavor, nutritional quality, and human health. Yet, many bioactive small molecules associated with beneficial health outcomes are chemically labile, making appropriate sample preservation critical. Following existing standards from clinical research, storage at -80 C is widely used in foodomics to minimize enzymatic activity and metabolite degradation. Yet, the viability of these conditions to the biological and chemical diversity of food has yet to be rigorously evaluated.
This study investigates how storage temperature affects the stability of metabolites in eleven different foods: cocoa powder, milk chocolate, ground beef, apple, carrot, beet leaf, beet root, potato, and both uncooked and cooked rice. Prepared food samples were divided for storage at 25 C, 4 C, and -20 C, with -80 C samples serving as a baseline. Samples were collected at three and six months from each storage condition to assess metabolite stability over time.
Analysis of all samples was performed by nontargeted metabolomics and targeted LC-PDA analysis of carotenoids. Our results showed that metabolite stability was matrix dependent, with some foods (i.e. provide food names) showing significant variation in global metabolome profiles while others (i.e. provide food names) had no observable differences. Collectively, these findings suggest that sample preservation is essential for maintaining metabolite integrity in food matrices and must be carefully considered to ensure accurate characterization of food metabolic profiles.
INSTRUMENT(S): Xevo G2-XS QTof
ORGANISM(S): Bos Taurus (ncbitaxon:9913) Daucus Carota (ncbitaxon:4039) Solanum Tuberosum (ncbitaxon:4113) Oryza Sativa (ncbitaxon:4530) Solanum Lycopersicum (ncbitaxon:4081) Theobroma Cacao Beta Vulgaris Subsp. Vulgaris (ncbitaxon:3555)
SUBMITTER:
Jessica Prenni
PROVIDER: MSV000100777 | MassIVE | Mon Feb 09 12:28:00 GMT 2026
REPOSITORIES: MassIVE
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