Partner Expertise: Plant Metabolomics and Analytical Foodome Characterization

CARC Olomouc is interested in joining a Horizon Europe consortium under this topic as a research partner, contributing expertise in plant genetic resources, phytochemistry, metabolomics and analytical method development. We are particularly interested in projects combining analytical chemistry, foodomics and artificial intelligence to improve the characterization of plant-derived foods.

Vegetables and other plant foods contain complex mixtures of nutrients, specialized metabolites and compounds introduced through production, processing or storage. Many remain unidentified or poorly quantified. AI-based analysis of high-quality chemical datasets could improve compound annotation, identification and concentration estimates, supporting research on food composition, nutritional quality and safety.

An attractive approach would be to connect extensive plant genetic resource collections with foodome research. Comparing vegetable species, edible aromatic plants, varieties, accessions and growing or processing conditions could provide chemically diverse samples for developing and independently validating AI tools. Crop selection, sampling strategies and analytical platforms would be agreed with consortium partners.

The Czech Agrifood Research Center (CARC) is a public research institution headquartered in Prague. Its Genetic Resources of Vegetables and Special Crops team is based in Olomouc and maintains extensive collections of vegetables, medicinal, aromatic and special crops. Our expertise includes plant genetic resource characterization, phytochemistry, metabolomics, crop quality assessment and chromatographic method development and validation. Research employs techniques such as LC-MS/MS, UHPLC-MS/MS and GC-MS to investigate phenolic compounds, flavonoids, alkaloids, amino acids, polyamines, sugars, organic acids, lipids and other metabolites.

Possible CARC contributions and collaborative activities include:

1. Selecting diverse, well-documented plant-food samples representing different species, genotypes, edible tissues and relevant cultivation or processing conditions, subject to applicable material access requirements.

2. Developing and harmonizing sample preparation, quality-control and analytical workflows. Targeted chromatographic and mass spectrometric measurements could provide quantitative reference information, complemented by untargeted high-resolution MS or NMR at partner laboratories.

3. Generating curated chemical reference datasets using authentic standards and validated methods where available, including compound identities, concentrations, analytical metadata and biological context.

4. Supporting AI specialists in training and validating algorithms for spectral annotation, compound identification and concentration prediction from complex foodomics data. AI development would be led by partners with the appropriate computational expertise.

5. Independently checking AI results using representative plant-food matrices, reference measurements and inter-laboratory comparisons, with applications to food composition, nutritional quality, authenticity and potential food-safety signals.

6. Contributing to interoperable and reusable datasets and standardized analytical procedures in collaboration with foodomics infrastructures and industry partners.

Expected outcomes could include quality-controlled plant-food chemical datasets, harmonized laboratory protocols, independently validated AI-assisted characterization methods and practical demonstrations relevant to food quality and safety. Access to genetically diverse plant material could strengthen the robustness of the resulting tools across different food matrices.

CARC Olomouc could contribute a defined scientific task or work package on sample selection, targeted metabolite profiling, analytical validation and interpretation of variation among crop genotypes. We are seeking coordinators and consortium partners with expertise in AI, computational foodomics, untargeted high-resolution mass spectrometry, NMR, spectral libraries, food composition databases and digital research infrastructures. Participation by food manufacturers, SMEs and other industrial users would support practical validation and exploitation.

We would welcome a role as a research beneficiary within an established or developing consortium and are open to adapting our contribution to its objectives and work plan.