A historical beer, dated to the German Empire era, was recently found in Lübbecke, northern Germany. The location of the find and label reconstructions link it to a local brewery that had a contractually agreed collaboration with a shipping company at the time (1885). Corked, wired and sealed, over 300,000 beers each year were shipped around the world. However, one of the beers brewed for export purposes has never left mainland Germany. This beer’s chemical composition represents a unique source for insights into the brewing culture of the late 19th century when pioneer innovations laid the foundations for industrial brewing. Archeochemical analysis was used to investigate whether biological and molecular signatures can still be found for a brewing process that dates to a time when metabolic pathways, modern food hygiene (Pasteur), industrial filtration (Enzinger), cultured yeast (Hansen) and the ‘refrigeration apparatus’ (Linde) were newly discovered and developed. Complementary analytics including metabolomics (FT-ICR-MS, LC-ToF-MS, TQ-MS/MS and 2D-NMR), microbiological, sensory, and beer attribute analysis revealed the beer’s chemical profile. The historical brewing process and the changes caused by aging could be described on a molecular level. Molecular networking revealed a hitherto unknown diversity of oxidized hops bitter acid derivatives that comes with natural decades-long ageing. The chemistry happening in such a sealed 0.75-liter micro laboratory resulted in numerous lipid oxidation products and undescribed high concentrations of Maillard reaction marker molecules (HMF, furfural). The clear indicators of the ravages of time, however, have not been able to obscure the detailed molecular information about brewing in the late 19th century. Metabolomics certified the unprecedented good storage condition even after 130 years in the bottle. The beer’s original nature was unchanged in many parts. Comparing its chemical signature to that of four hundred modern brews allowed to describe molecular fingerprints, teaching us about technological aspects of historical beer brewing. Several critical production steps such as malting [1] and germ treatment, wort preparation and fermentation, filtration and storage, and compliance with the Bavarian Purity Law [2] left detectable molecular imprints. Using an archeochemical forensic approach, the historical production process of a culturally significant beverage could be traced and the ravages of time made visible [3].

The national infrastructure FoodOmicsGR_RI coordinates research efforts from eight Greek Universities and Research Centers toward research and development (R&D) in the agri-food sector. The goals of FoodOmicsGR_RI are the comprehensive in-depth characterization of foods using cutting-edge omics technologies and the support of dietary/nutrition studies. The network combines strong and complementary expertise in omics sciences with application scientists (foodbiotechnology, nutrition sciences, animal husbandry, apiculture and 10 other fields). Human resources involve more than 80 researchers. State-of-the-art technologies and instrumentation areavailable for the comprehensive mappingof the food composition,the assessment of the distinct value of foods, and the effect of nutritional intervention on the profile of biological samples of consumers and animal models. Theconsortium has the know-how(more than 80 analytical protocols[1])and expertise that covers the breadth of the Greek agri-food sector. Ourteams have developed a variety of methods for profiling and quantitative analysis. The implementation aims to the following research lines: development of database of Greek foods; “omics” technologies to assess domestic agricultural biodiversity, authenticity-traceability control/certification of geographical/genetic origin; highlighting unique characteristics of Greek products, highlightingquality, sustainability and food safety; assessment of diet’s effect on health and well-being; creating added value from agri-food waste. FoodOmicsGR_RI develops new methods to evaluate the nutritional value of Greek foods, study the role of traditional foodsand novel Greek functional foods in the prevention of chronic diseases and supportsquality and health claims of Greek traditional products. FoodOmicsGR_RI provides access to state-of-the-art facilities, unique, well-characterised sample sets, obtained from precision/experimental farming/breeding (milk, honey, meat, olive oil and so forth) along with more than 20 complementary scientific disciplines. The research facility pursues active collaboration with numerous national and international stakeholders.The presentation highlights characteristic examples from the cutting-edge research of the team such as the first determination of “plastic” oligomers in human blood[2], metabolomics analysis in the classification of olive oils [3], grapevine and wine metabolomics[4], virgin olive oil metabolomics [5] and also from the innovation potential that includes generation of novel foods of higher quality and value.

Screening of the authenticity and quality by fast multi-parameter methods has become increasingly popular. As typically several analytical questions can be addressed in just one rather short measurement even relatively expensive spectroscopic methods, such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy have been successfully applied in recent years. However, all analytical techniques applied in such screening applications have strengths and weaknesses. In particular, when entering a new food matrix one would like to know upfront, which technique is most promising and which cost for, e.g., sample preparation are associated with the resulting protocol. We have addressed the question in the course of the BMBF-BLE funded project „AgrOr - Origin of Grains“, where over 1.300 samples of wheat, barley, rye and spelt of different cultivars, different harvest years, different geographical origins as well as different cultivation methods have been systematically investigated within the concept of the analytical ecosystem. As a result, datasets of different analytical techniques, including NIR and NMR, were obtained for all samples. These datasets were subjected to chemometric machine learning using the AI(Omics)n (https://gitlab.com/ai-omics/aiomics) software suite to compare their performance for classifying the samples regarding grain variety, cultivar, geographic origin, year of harvest, and cultivation method. Using identical machine learning approaches is essential here to evaluate the information content of the individual analytical techniques for the various classification tasks. Here, we focus on the comparison of NMR and NIR, both of which have been used successfully for authenticity and quality testing of various foods in the past. In comparison to NMR, NIR has a much lower resolution and lower dynamic range but comes at a lower cost of ownership and - in the particular case of grains - with advantages in sample preparation as well as the possibility to be used close to the point-of-need. Our systematic comparison with this very large dataset reveals that NMR and NIR perform differently for classifications, but for most of the cases differences are small. Only few cases shows a clear advantage for one technique. There is no clear overall advantage for either technique: NMR performs better in approximately half of the cases, NIR in the remaining half. Clear-cut classifications were only possible for a few cases, while in many cases considerable overlap between populations was observed. However, we are able to show that for certain questions the performance of classification tasks can be improved when datasets from different techniques - here NMR and NIR - are combined. Ultimately, it is not possible to predict upfront which technology will perform better for a certain food matrix and a certain classification problem. However, employing different techniques in parallel allows selection of the best solution and even data fusion to increase classification performance.

In a context of societal concern about wine preservation, along with the search for environmentally friendly productions, characterized by low inputs and organic-like managements, innovation for economical breakthroughs relies on the unprecedented understanding of the complex mechanisms involved in the chemistry of preservatives, among which sulfites have played a major role for centuries. Wines stability markedly depends on the stability of each component of the system (microbial and chemical); moreover, destabilization of one component may induce destabilization of the other. In situations where the microbial stability is achieved through various chemical and/or physical processes, the main issue remains the chemical stability against oxidation. This is particularly true for wines, where the high added value relies on their aging potential. Indeed, the reputation of great wines is synonymous to the stability of their aroma flavor as young wines while developing specific varietal nuances during aging. In the particular case of dry white wines, oxidative stability relates to the actual worldwide problem of premature oxidation, which concerns cellar worthy white wines within just a few years after the vintage. In order to gain control of the wine oxidation mechanism, it is clear that a solid fundamental understanding of the fate of major oxidant compounds (i.e. radical species, quinones) produced during the cascade of oxidation reactions is surely needed. Ideally, researchers could approach the control of off-odor formation, in addition to the traditional targeted compound analysis, by searching for native chemical regulators of oxidation mechanism like glutathione. It appears that there are a number of natural wine constituents that may be participating in the oxidation reactions, especially the secondary reactions which are yet unknown. Understanding what these metabolites are, as well as looking at substances that have antioxidant properties in other fermented beverages, will directly allow to assess a wines’s natural resistance against oxidation. This alone will be very valuable in estimating shelf life and understanding aging potential. By applying the combination of powerful and modern analytical approaches (EPR, FTICR-MS based metabolomics), recent studies from our laboratory, established a molecular data base named as: antioxidant metabolome, related to white wines oxidative stability expressed from the very beginning of the winemaking process (Romanet et al., 2021). Moreover, considering the importance of peptides and amino acids on wine antioxidant metabolome, our research team proposed (Romanet et al., 2020) an one step 4-methyl-1,2-benzoquinone derivatization method to enhance thiol ionization capacity and give a better screening of specific S- N- containing functional compounds as part of the white wine’s antioxidant metabolome. UHPLC?QqTOF?MS analysis of up to 92 white wines from different cultivars and vintages (Chardonnay, Sauvignon and Semillon) allowed to putatively identify up to 141 wine relevant nucleophiles, representing the nucleophilic molecular fraction of white wines antioxidant metabolome. In our point of view, following the variations of wines antioxidant metabolome, as defined above, could provide an avenue to better control the winemaking process through the knowledge of how it might be possible to change a wine’s oxidation potential. In addition, the identification of wines antioxidant metabolome allows for the first time to have a detailed understanding of the transient chemical interplays involved in the antioxidant chemistry associated with well-known antioxidants and opens an avenue towards the personalized winemaking