Abstract: Lipid composition varied among different foods. Lipids affect food quality, nutrition and hygiene. As important sources of energy and nutrients, lipids are directly related to the development and progression of many chronic diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes. In-depth studies on lipid nutrition can affect not only food quality and safety, but also many fields such as clinical medicine and agro-pastoral production. Technologies for lipid separation and detection have recently developed rapidly, leading to the birth of lipidomics as an emerging subject for the analysis of lipids. As one of the most important branches of metabolomics, lipidomics has been widely used in the study of food lipids. This paper presents a brief description of the process of lipidomics research with focus on the application of lipidomics in food composition analysis, quality identification, authentication, geographical tracing and safety evaluation. Finally, the limitations for the application of lipidomics in the field of food safety and quality are analyzed. It is hoped that this review can provide useful information for the application of lipidomics in food safety and quality management.

Key words: lipid, lipidomics, mass spectrometry, food safety and quality