Secondary metabolites are molecules with unlimited applications that have been gaining
importance in various industries and studied from many angles. They are mainly used for their
bioactive capabilities, but due to the improvement of sensibility in analytical chemistry, they are also
used for authentication and as a quality control parameter for foods, further allowing to help avoid
food adulteration and food fraud, as well as helping understand the nutritional value of foods. This
manuscript covers the examples of secondary metabolites that have been used as qualitative and
authentication molecules in foods, from production, through processing and along their shelf-life.
Furthermore, perspectives of analytical chemistry and their contribution to metabolite detection and
general perspectives of metabolomics are also discussed.
The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal)
for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES to the CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020). M.C.
Pedrosa thanks the “PlantCovid” project for her scholarship. S. Heleno andM. Carocho thank FCT for
their individual employment program–contract (CEECIND/00831/2018, CEECIND/03040/2017), and
L. Barros also thanks to the national funding by FCT through the institutional scientific employment
program–contract for her contract.
