Metabolomics in Meat Science from Farm to Fork: A Comprehensive Review of Quality, Safety, and Authenticity Applications

Metabolomics has recently emerged as a powerful tool for evaluating meat quality by characterizing biochemical changes at the molecular level. This review synthesizes metabolomics studies spanning pre-harvest animal factors, post-mortem metabolism, and processing conditions to elucidate the biochemical or metabolic bases of meat quality development. Specifically, this article compiles metabolite classes repeatedly associated with key meat quality characteristics (e.g., color, water-holding capacity, tenderness, flavor, pH, and shelf-life/microbiological traits) influenced by antemortem factors such as animal diet, genetic background, and animal handling and stress, as well as postharvest processing factors including fermentation, dry-curing, smoking, storage/aging conditions. In addition, this review addresses metabolomics profiling of emerging alternative protein products, such as plant-based and cell-cultured meat, and discusses the potential of metabolomics for meat authentication and adulteration detection. Collectively, the reviewed data indicate that meat quality traits, traditionally assessed independently, are regulated by multiple interconnected metabolic pathways, highlighting the importance of integrated pathway-level metabolomic analyses in meat science. Across multiple studies, postmortem energy metabolism is strongly associated with several meat quality traits, reflecting its central role in the rate and degree of postmortem glycolysis, redox balance, and protein-water binding throughout the conversion from muscle to meat. In addition to these advances, this review critically discusses current methodological challenges, limitations, and strengths of metabolomics approaches.