Metabolomics Approach for Organic Agriculture to Assess Nutritional Quality and Build Consumer Trust

Program of Agrotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture UNS, Jl. Ir. Sutami No.36A, Jebres, Kec. Jebres, Kota Surakarta, Jawa Tengah 57126, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: mercybientri_fp@staff.uns.ac.id

Abstract

Organic farming plays an important role alongside conventional farming in the global food supply. Organic systems offer a sustainable alternative in agriculture. However, maintaining the nutritional consistency and build consumer trust of organic products remains a challenge. Metabolomics can help distinguish organic products from conventional products by analysing the biochemical composition of plants. This study used a simple systematic approach involving a search for scientific articles on Google Scholar over the past ten years (2014-2024). This review aims to examine the extent of metabolomics' role in contributing to organic farming, focusing on its comparison with nutritional studies and consumer perceptions. The results show that publications on metabolomics related to nutrition average 19,457 per year, metabolomics related to consumer perceptions average around 5,445 per year, and metabolomics related to organic farming average around 457 per year. Compared to metabolomics research related to nutrition, the contribution of metabolomics research to organic farming studies is only about 2.35%. Compared to metabolomics research related to consumer perceptions is only about 8.39%. This confirms that the use of metabolomics in the context of organic farming is still largely unexplored. In fact, organic farming is in dire need of scientific evidence regarding nutritional quality as well as building a more positive consumer perception. This study brings a new perspective for organic agricultural farmers to also focus on elaborating a metabolomics approach to improve the quality aspects that complement crop production quantity. The integration of metabolomics will strengthen nutritional claims, scientific transparency, credibility, and consumer trust.