Josep Rubert

Wageningen University & Research | WUR · Department of Food Sciences and Agrotechnology

The quantification of short-chain and medium-chain fatty acids is becoming more and more relevant in fecal and plasma samples due to their biological impact, which has been associated with colon rectal cancer and fiber consumption. For these reasons, a fast, cost-effective, and reproducible analytical method is highly required. In this research, a...

Dietary patterns, microbiome dysbiosis, and gut microbial metabolites (GMMs) have a pivotal role in the homeostasis of intestinal epithelial cells and in disease progression, such as that of colorectal cancer (CRC). Although GMMs and microorganisms have crucial roles in many biological activities, models for deciphering diet–microbiome–host relatio...

Tryptophan and tyrosine metabolism has a major effect on human health, and disorders have been associated with the development of several pathologies. Recently, gut microbial metabolism was found to be important for maintaining correct physiology. Here, we describe the development and validation of a UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS method for targeted quantificati...

The transient receptor potential (TRP) channels superfamily are a large group of proteins that play crucial roles in cellular processes. For example, these cation channels act as sensors in the detection and transduction of stimuli of temperature, small molecules, voltage, pH, and mechanical constrains. Over the past decades, different members of t...

The life sciences are currently being transformed by an unprecedented wave of developments in molecular analysis, which include important advances in instrumental analysis as well as biocomputing. In light of the central role played by metabolism in nutrition, metabolomics is rapidly being established as a key analytical tool in human nutritional s...

Background Previous studies have shown that microbial communities differ in obese and lean individuals, and dietary fiber can help reduce obesity-related conditions through diet-gut microbiota interactions. However, the mechanisms by which dietary fibers shape the gut microbiota still need to be elucidated. In this in vitro study, we examined how a...

In this perspective article, several internationally recognized experts, members of the editorial team of this journal, discuss a selection of current hot topics identified in Food Science and Foodomics. The topics are comprised of the main areas of Food Science and Foodomics, namely, food safety, food authenticity, food processing, and food bioact...

Neurodegenerative (ND) diseases are debilitating and largely untreatable conditions that affect millions of people worldwide. Despite growing evidence of a link between diet, gut microbiota, and ND diseases, their connection remains unclear1. Tomatoes, one of the most widely produced and consumed vegetables globally, have the potential to contain n...

Background: Previous studies have shown that microbial communities differ in obese and lean individuals, and dietary fiber can help reduce obesity-related conditions through diet-gut microbiota interactions. However, the mechanisms by which dietary fibers shape the gut microbiota still need to be elucidated. In this in vitro study, we examined how...

The pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with abnormalities of liver lipid metabolism. On the contrary, a diet enriched with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3-PUFAs) has been reported to ameliorate the progression of NAFLD. The aim of our study was to investigate the impact of dietary n-3-PUFA enrichment on the...

Scope: Epidemiological evidence suggests that a reduced risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) is correlated with high consumption of fruits and vegetables, which are major sources of fiber and phytochemicals, such as flavan-3-ols. However, it remains unknown how these phytochemicals and their specific gut-related metabolites may alter cancer cell behavi...

Risk-benefit assessment is the comparison of the risk of a situation to its related benefits, i.e. a comparison of scenarios estimating the overall health impact. The risk-benefit analysis paradigm mirrors the classical risk analysis one: risk-benefit assessment goes hand-in-hand with risk-benefit management and risk-benefit communication. The vari...

Complex problems need complex solutions, particularly when tackling the study of diet and host interactions in homeostasis and disease, such as colorectal cancer (CRC). A myriad of factors crosslinking diet, gut microbiome, and genes must be taken into account in order to achieve solid conclusions. Recently, intestinal organoids have significantly...

Scope Several studies suggest that regular coffee consumption may help preventing chronic diseases, but the impact of daily intake and the contribution of coffee metabolites in disease prevention are still unclear. The present study aimed at evaluating whether and how different patterns of coffee intake (one cup of espresso coffee/day, three cups o...

Simple Summary Glioblastoma is the most lethal primary adult brain tumor. The great number of mutations involved and the aggressiveness of glioblastoma render this type of cancer especially difficult to investigate. To address this problem, cerebral organoids have emerged as promising tools to investigate brain biology and to recapitulates the majo...

Due to unique phytochemicals contained, Vaccinum berries are known to have a number of positive health effects. In this context, lingonberries (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) are considered to be the most effective, thus finding many uses. Recently, fraud suspicion on lingonberries-based products has been reported, partial or even total replacement by less...

The authors should like to call your attention to the fact that Figure 5 of the article was taken from the book “Prebiotics and Probiotics in Human Milk” by Sarah S. Comstock and Sharon M. Donovan and printed with the permission from Elsevier. Unfortunately, the right referencing was missing in the original article. The legend should read: Fig. 5 H...

Our daily food intake provides the nutrients to maintain health. However, in addition to the nutritional values, food can promote health and be beneficial in preventing diseases. Human milk is a unique food source that contains essential nutrients in the right balance and other bioactive factors that make it the ideal food for all healthy term infa...

Structures and formation pathways of compounds responsible for blue-green discoloration of processed garlic were studied in model systems. A procedure was developed for isolation of the color compounds and their tentative identification by HPLC-DAD-MS/MS. It was found that the pigment is a mixture of numerous pyrrole-based purple/blue and yellow sp...

Tiger nuts and tiger nut milk are well-known Valencian products, and step-by-step these tubers and the tuber-based beverage are becoming more and more relevant products in international markets. However, the increasing demand and success of Valencian tiger nuts did not allow protected designation of origin (PDO) tuber to supply the domestic and int...

This study was focused on distinguishing of genetically modified organism (Monsanto 89788 variety) and conventional soybeans by employing high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) techniques for non-target screening of sample extracts. Two hyphenated instrumental platforms represented by (i) ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography (U-HPLC) coupl...

In the present work the possibility of using an untargeted metabolomic strategy to discriminate between common and durum wheat lipidome for an authenticity purpose was explored. A first study was conducted by analyzing 52 samples from two durum and common wheat varieties. Afterwards, an extended and independent sample set (173 samples and five vari...

Tiger nut (Cyperus esculentus L.) is a crop traditionally grown in Valencia Region (Spain) and other temperate and tropical regions in the world, where its tubers are commonly consumed as tiger nut milk (horchata). Because of their nutritive potential and original taste, these products are beginning to spread internationally and, as consequence, an...

Pasta constitutes a dominant portion of a standard Mediterranean diet, supplying a large fraction of the needs for energy-rich materials, such as considerable amounts of carbohydrates, proteins, fiber or minerals. As a result, 14.3 million tons of pasta are produced worldwide according to the survey carried out by the Associations of Pasta Manufact...

In this case study, a food supplement with declared content of sea buckthorn oil was investigated since it was suspected to be adulterated by sunflower oil. Polar and non-polar fractions extracted from oil supplement were analyzed and compared with authentic sea buckthorn and sunflower oils examined in the same way. Three different analytical platf...

The authors would like to change the wording of Acknowledgement: The study presented was supported by financial support of Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic LD 12035 (Saffronomics, metabolomics fingerprinting and profiling as a tool for detection of fraud on saffron), Saffronomics COST FA1101 action (EU Framework Program...

Food is essential for life. On the basis of the previous sentence, consumers have a right to expect that the foods they purchase and consume will be safe, authentic and of high quality. On these premises, target compounds, such as mycotoxins, pesticides or antibiotics, have been commonly investigated on the food chain, and subsequently, were regula...

The present study aims to focus on the bioprospecting of marine macroalgae of Turbinaria species, plenteous biomass of the world ocean. Three types of solvents, i.e. water, methanol:water (80:20, v/v) and hexane:isopropanol (50:50, v/v), were used for extraction. Both the biological activity, as well as the pattern of present chemicals were charact...

In order to explore the early detection of mycotoxins in wheat three standardized approaches (Fusarium disease severity, PCR assays for Fusarium spp. identification and mycotoxin quantification) and a novel untargeted metabolomics strategy were jointly assessed. In the first phase of this research, standardized approaches were able to quantify myco...

Hulled, or ancient, wheats were the earliest domesticated wheats by mankind and the ancestors of current wheats. Their cultivation drastically decreased during the 1960s; however, the increasing demand for a healthy and equilibrated diet led to rediscovering these grains. Our aim was to use a non-targeted metabolomic approach to discriminate and ch...

Currently, the interest in microalgae as a source of biologically active components exploitable as supplementary ingredients to food/feed or in cosmetics continues to increase. Existing research mainly aims to focus on revealing and recovering the rare, cost competitive components of the algae metabolom. Because these components could be of very di...

Food authenticity becomes a necessity for global food policies, since food put on market has to be without fail authentic. It has always been a challenge, since in the past time minor components, called also markers, have been mainly monitored by chromatographic methods in order to authenticate the food. Nevertheless, nowadays, advanced analytical...

This study evaluated the presence of bacteria and anisakid parasites in 45 samples of raw anchovies in vinegar, a dish widely eaten in Spain, and in 227 samples of cooked fish and cephalopods served in Spanish food service establishments. Our analysis showed that, according to European and Spanish regulation, 14 to 30% of the prepared fish and ceph...

Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MS) and an alternative technology represented by direct analysis in real time coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight MS were investigated for metabolic fingerprinting of 343 red and white wine samples. Direct injection of pure wine and an extracti...

This article describes the application of an analytical method for the detection of 25 mycotoxins in wheat grain based on simultaneous extraction using matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD) followed by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry, a hybrid triple quadrupole-linear ion trap mass spectrometer (QTrap®). Information Depende...

Algae have demonstrated an enormous range of applications, such as cosmetics, medicine, human nutrition, and biofuels, between others. Recently, algae have shown a potential for preventing diseases caused as a result of oxidative stress. For this reason, antioxidant activity is one of the most studied activities from these algae due to the interest...

In the recent decade, consumers´ interest to support their health through the use of dietary supplements continues to increase. In this context, searching for new sources of biologically active substances with positive health effects realizes a great challenge. Micro-algae have emerged as a significant source of highly valuable molecules, and sever...

This study was carried out to evaluate the microbiological quality of plant-based foods obtained from foodservice establishments. The samples included cereals, legumes, fruits and vegetables. According to the European Commission Regulation (No. 2073/2005 and No. 1441/2007) and Spanish microbiological criteria (No. 3484/2000), vegetables were the pl...

This study was carried out to evaluate the microbiological quality of meat-based dishes purchased from foodservice establishments in Spain. According to the European Commission Regulation (No. 2073/2005 and No. 1441/2007) poultry, pig and beef samples were the groups of meat-based dishes where more samples exceed the legal limits of mesophilic aero...

The history of proteomics dates back to the discovery of two-dimensional gels in the 1970s, which provided the first feasible way of displaying hundreds or thousands of proteins on a single gel. Despite mass spectrometry being restricted for a long time to small and thermostable compounds, the development in the late 1980s of two techniques for the...

The effectiveness of four extraction methods (modified QuEChERS, matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD), solid-liquid extraction (SLE) and solid-phase extraction (SPE) clean-up) were evaluated for simultaneous determination of 32 mycotoxins produced by the genus Fusarium, Claviceps, Aspergillus, Penicillium and Alternaria in barley by ultra high pres...

A survey in African snacks was carried out in order to evaluate the intake of 23 mycotoxins. The African snack samples were purchased from street vendors within Lagos metropolis (Nigeria) and evaluated for the presence of 23 mycotoxins using a modified QuEChERS procedure coupled with liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole linear ion trap mass spec...

This article describes the validation of an analytical method for the detection of 21 mycotoxins in baby food. The analytical method is based on the simultaneous extraction of selected mycotoxins by matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD) followed by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) using a hybrid triple quadrupol...

In this work, an existent solid-phase extraction (SPE) procedure was used to study the occurrence of mycotoxins in different European beers. HPLC-QqQ-MS/MS and ultra high resolution mass analyser have been optimized for the analysis of 18 mycotoxins: the methods were validated according to the EU Commission Decision 2002/657/EC guidelines. In this...

A previous developed matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD) extraction method was applied for the routine analysis of aflatoxins (AFs), ochratoxin A (OTA), fumonisins (FB1 and FB2), beauvericin (BEA), nivalenol (NIV), deoxynivalenol (DON), the toxin T-2 (T-2), toxin HT-2 (HT-2), diacetoxyscirpenol (DAS) and zearalenone (ZEN) in tiger-nuts by liquid c...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the applicability of different calibration approaches in trichothecenes analysis from wheat flour. Concretely eight trichothecenes (five type B trichothecenes and three type A trichothecenes) were analyzed by matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). In...

Recent developments in mass spectrometers have created a paradoxical situation; different mass spectrometers are available, each of them with their specific strengths and drawbacks. Hybrid instruments try to unify several advantages in one instrument. In this study two of wide-used hybrid instruments were compared: hybrid quadrupole-linear ion trap...

This study was carried out to evaluate the microbiological quality of orange juice obtained from squeezing machines in foodservice establishments. The samples included fresh squeezed orange juice and juice which is maintained in metal jugs until consumption. According to the European Commission Regulation (No. 2073/2005 and No. 1441/2007) and Spani...

An existing matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD) method for aflatoxins (AFs) and ochratoxin A (OTA) extraction was extended by further 14 mycotoxins. After it careful optimization, this method was applied to determine the occurrence of these mycotoxins on commercial flour samples (with different cereals composition) collected from local markets. In...

A sensitive and selective liquid chromatography–triple quadrupole–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–ESI–MS–MS) method was developed for the routine analysis of aflatoxins (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2) and ochratoxin A (OTA) in tiger nuts and tiger-nut beverage (horchata). A matrix solid phase dispersion was adapted to eliminate lipidic interferences. The...

A simple and rapid method effective for quantitative determination of deoxynivalenol (DON), T-2 toxin (T-2), HT-2 toxin (HT-2), zearalenone (ZEN), ochratoxin A (OTA), aflatoxins (AFs) B(1), B(2), G(1) and G(2) and fumonisins FB(1) and FB(2) in urine was developed. The urine was diluted with phosphate buffer solution (PBS) and thoroughly mixed. For...

This paper reports the application of liquid chromatography electrospray ionization ion trap-orbitrap mass spectrometry for the determination of 18 mycotoxins (aflatoxins, fumonisins, trichothecenes, ochratoxin A, sterogmatocystin, beauvaricin, zearalenone and zearalenol) in beer. The extraction procedure was carried out by solid phase extraction (...

A method based on Matrix Solid-Phase Dispersion (MSPD) has been developed for the determination of 5 mycotoxins (ochratoxin A and aflatoxins B and G) in different cereals. Several dispersants, eluents and ratios were tested during the optimization of the process in order to obtain the best results. Finally, samples were blended with C(18) and the m...

Toxigenic isolate of Fusarium sporotrichioides was tested for the T-2 toxin production on PDA plates during 10 days under various glucose concentrations. T-2 toxin was determined by LC-MS and confirmed with LC-MS/MS. This analytical method has been applied, for the first time, to an extensive study of T-2 accumulation. Results showed that the produ...

This study was carried out to evaluate the microbiological quality of milk and some dairy products, including 95 lots of warm milk, 95 lots of milk conserved at room temperature, and 75 lots of dairy products collected from restaurants in Spain. According to the European microbiological criteria (92/46/EEC, 93/43/EEC, and Commission Regulation No....