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Milk thistle-based dietary supplements have become increasingly popular. The extract from milk thistle (Silybum marianum) is often used for the treatment of liver diseases because of the presence of its active component, silymarin. However, the co-occurrence of toxic mycotoxins in these preparations is quite frequent as well. The objective of this study was to investigate the changes in composition of liver lipidome and other clinical characteristics of experimental mice fed by a high-fat methionine-choline deficient diet inducing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The mice were exposed to (i) silymarin, (ii) mycotoxins (trichothecenes, enniatins, beauvericin, and altertoxins) and (iii) both silymarin and mycotoxins, and results were compared to the controls. The liver tissue extracts were analyzed by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry. Using tools of univariate and multivariate statistical analysis, we were able to identify 48 lipid species from the classes of diacylglycerols, triacylglycerols, free fatty acids, fatty acid esters of hydroxy fatty acids and phospholipids clearly reflecting the dysregulation of lipid metabolism upon exposure to mycotoxin and/or silymarin.

Meat adulteration is a significant economic problem as it can result in substantial economic gains and loss of consumers' trust in the food industry. Addition of a bulking agent masking the addition of water into minced meat is a fraudulent practice that is very difficult to detect. The quality of the meat can be assessed by measurement of total net protein, however the methods used to measure such property are not able to cope with the quite sophisticated modern-day adulteration practices. In our study, we assessed the potential of recently introduced Rapid Evaporative Mass Spectrometry (REIMS) technology to discover undeclared additives in chopped pork and chicken meat-based products such as sausages and burgers. The REIMS technique was able to discover such adulterants with a high degree of confidence when more than 2.5% of these substances were added. The results could be obtained within a few minutes. In this context REIMS can be classified as a rapid screening method which could be employed as a front-line testing method to ensure the quality and authenticity of meat products.

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (&omega, 3PUFAs) are introduced into parenteral nutrition (PN) as hepatoprotective but may be susceptible to the lipid peroxidation while olive oil (OO) is declared more peroxidation resistant. We aimed to estimate how the lipid composition of PN mixture affects plasma and erythrocyte lipidome and the propensity of oxidative stress. A cross-sectional comparative study was performed in a cohort of adult patients who were long-term parenterally administered &omega, 3 PUFAs without (FO/&ndash, n = 9) or with (FO/OO, n = 13) olive oil and healthy age- and sex-matched controls, (n = 30). Lipoperoxidation assessed as plasma and erythrocyte malondialdehyde content was increased in both FO/&ndash, and FO/OO groups but protein oxidative stress (protein carbonyls in plasma) and low redox status (GSH/GSSG in erythrocytes) was detected only in the FO/&ndash, subcohort. The lipidome of all subjects receiving &omega, 3 PUFAs was enriched with lipid species containing &omega, 3 PUFAs (FO/&ndash, ˃FO/OO). Common characteristic of all PN-dependent patients was high content of fatty acyl-esters of hydroxy-fatty acids (FAHFAs) in plasma while acylcarnitines and ceramides were enriched in erythrocytes. Plasma and erythrocyte concentrations of plasmanyls and plasmalogens (endogenous antioxidants) were decreased in both patient groups with a significantly more pronounced effect in FO/&ndash, We confirmed the protective effect of OO in PN mixtures containing &omega, 3 PUFAs.

Ambient mass spectrometry is a tool of growing interest for the testing of foodstuffs over the fifteen years since the pioneering techniques of desorption electro-spray ionisation (DESI), direct analysis in real time (DART) and atmospheric pressure solid analysis probe (ASAP) were first demonstrated. In this study, rapid evaporative ionisation mass spectrometry (REIMS) was compared with DART to assess whether either system was capable of correctly identifying poultry raised in one of six distinct production systems.REIMS was able to correctly identify 98%–100% of birds based on their breed. The ability of this platform to identify birds based on their production system ranged from 60% to 100%, depending on the breed and production system involved. Furthermore, it showed 94%–100% accuracy in identifying premium products and shows substantial promise in detecting mislabelling frauds.DART was able to identify 100% of birds based on both breed and production systems, but required extensive sample preparation which impacted throughput, thus DART is a more suitable technique for laboratory based testing as opposed to factory based. This study has shown, for the first time, the capabilities of ambient mass spectrometry as a tool to determine poultry production systems employed.