Food Science of Animal Resources (Food Sci. Anim. Resour.) is an international, peer-reviewed bimonthly journal publishing original research and reviews on basic and applied aspects of the use of animal resources including the meat, egg, dairy, and edible insect/worm products. Food Sci. Anim. Resour. is published and distributed by the Korean Society for Food Science of Animal Resources.

The halal status of meat products is an important factor being considered by many parties, especially Muslims. Analytical methods that have good specificity for the authentication of halal meat products are important as quality assurance to consumers. Metabolomic and lipidomic are two useful strategies in distinguishing halal and non-halal meat. Metabolomic and lipidomic analysis produce a large amount of data, thus chemometrics are needed to interpret and simplify the analytical data to ease understanding. This review explored the published literature indexed in PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar on the application of chemometrics as a tool in handling the large amount of data generated from metabolomic and lipidomic studies specifically in the halal authentication of meat products. The type of chemometric methods used is described and the efficiency of time in distinguishing the halal and non-halal meat products using chemometrics methods such as PCA, HCA, PLS-DA, and OPLS-DA is discussed.

Bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is a commercially important and nutritionally rich vegetable crop in the Solanaceae family. Alkaline stress (AS) can disrupt growth, metabolism, and, particularly, nutritional quality. This study aims to evaluate the role of iron oxide nanoparticles (FeNP) in mitigating AS and enhancing plant growth and metabolic functions by conducting experiments under controlled greenhouse conditions with four main treatments: AS (irrigating plants with alkaline salts mixture solution); FeNP (foliar application of Fe3O4 nanoparticles at 100 mg L−¹); AS + FeNP (integrated treatment of AS and FeNP); and CK (control). The results clearly demonstrated that the AS treatment negatively affects plant biomass, photosynthetic attributes, membrane integrity, carbohydrate metabolism, and the balance of the antioxidant system. Additionally, key phenolic and flavonoid compounds decreased under the AS, indicating a detrimental effect on the plant’s secondary metabolites. In contrast, the application of FeNP under the AS not only improved growth and photosynthetic attributes but also enhanced membrane integrity and restored antioxidant balance. This restoration was driven by the accumulation of sugars (glucose, fructose, sucrose) and starch, along with key carbohydrate metabolism enzymes—sucrose phosphate synthase (SPS), sucrose synthase (SuSy), neutral invertase (NI), and vacuolar invertase (VI)—and their associated gene expression. The correlation analysis further revealed a tight regulation of carbohydrate metabolism at both enzymatic and transcript levels in all tissue types, except for SPS in the roots. Furthermore, the AS + FeNP treatment resulted in increased levels of key phenolics (dihydrocapsaicin, capsaicin, p-coumaric acid, sinapic acid, p-OH benzoic acid, p-OH benzaldehyde, and ferulic acid) and flavonoid compounds (dihydroquercetin, naringenin, kaempferol, dihydrokaempferol, and quercetin) compared to the AS treatment, thus suggesting that these secondary metabolites likely contribute to the stabilization of cellular structures and membranes, ultimately supporting improved physiological functions and resilience under stress. In conclusion, the application of FeNP demonstrate potential in enhancing the resilience of bell pepper plants against the AS by improving growth, carbohydrate metabolism, and the levels of secondary metabolites.