ReviewMetabolomics for empirical delineation of the traditional Korean fermented foods and beverages

•Metabolomic perspectives for Korean fermented foods and beverages are reviewed.•Recent advancements in food metabolomics and methodologies are discussed.•Artisanal soy foods, vegetables, seafood, and beverages have health effects.•Metabolites are correlated with fermentative bioprocess and biotransformations.

BackgroundThe umpteen varieties of traditional Korean fermented foods, condiments, seasonings, and beverages deliver a wallop of savor, aroma, nutrients, probiotics, and functional bioactives. However, our surprisingly limited comprehensions of the associated metabolomes, related phenotypes, and health effects maneuvered through the perplexing interplay of fermentative microflora turns their empirical analyses a non-trivial undertaking.Scope and approachThe economy data indicates that the shipment values for traditional Korean fermented foods per se stood a miraculous 4 billion USD in 2013 with burgeoning 71% increase in domestic food industries in last decade (statistical yearbook, Korea Food and Drug Administration, 2014). Quintessentially, the consumers now expect the highest possible standards of food manufacturing with insights of their molecular contents and associated health effects. A range of analytical platforms, based on chromatographic separation coupled with spectrometric or spectroscopic detection, enables the metabolomic snapshots for fermentative bioprocesses and underlying biotransformation mechanisms. However, a technological void still exist which restrict the generic use of analytical methodologies owing to the complexity of diverse metabolomes.Key findings and conclusionsThis review outlines the metabolomic perspectives for the traditional Korean fermented foods and beverages. We discuss the current trends towards the application of metabolomics and related methodologies to probe their metabolite contents and functionality. Moreover, the crucial bottlenecks associated with fermentative bioprocess and microbial transformations are also addressed in the context of artisanal and industrial manufacturing processes. Further, the article proposes a rational metabolomic approach towards the discernment of palatability and insalubrities associated with fermented foods.