In recent years, new formula milk (FM) products based on milk from farms that strictly adhere to the “organic farming” practices became available. However, little is known about the differences in nutritional profile of these organic formulae with respect to traditional ones. We comprehensively evaluated the metabolite profiles of FM with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabolomic analysis. Five commercial brands of organic and nonorganic formula liquid milk for infants (0–12 months) and toddlers (1–3 years) were analyzed, together with human milk (HM) samples. Proton NMR (¹H NMR) spectroscopy mapped molecular characteristics of FM linked to different production techniques, and identified differences between FM and HM samples. We performed a metabolic fingerprint analysis using multivariate and univariate statistical techniques. A clear distinction is found among different commercial brands of the FM samples. In addition, several differences in metabolomic profiles of FM have been found in comparison with HM for the first time. Notably, it was possible to identify, both in the formulations for toddlers and for infants, metabolites that vary in concentration between the formulae produced with milk obtained according to organic farming techniques, and those produced using nonorganic milk. In particular, organic and nonorganic formulations are differentiated by the levels of glucose, methionine, o-phosphocholine, butyrate, hippurate, creatine, and dimethyl sulfone. Importantly, the HM appeared to differ from both organic and nonorganic brands in a context of metabolites. These findings inform efforts to design FM in ways that closely mimic HM, and guide research to differentiate organic and traditional FM.

中文翻译：

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基于核磁共振的母乳与婴幼儿有机和传统配方奶品牌的代谢组学比较。

近年来，已经出现了严格遵循“有机耕作”做法的，基于农场牛奶的新型配方牛奶（FM）产品。但是，人们对这些有机配方食品相对于传统配方食品的营养状况了解甚少。我们基于核磁共振（NMR）的代谢组学分析全面评估了FM的代谢物谱。分析了五个针对婴儿（0-12个月）和幼儿（1-3岁）的有机和非有机配方液态奶的商业品牌，以及人乳（HM）样品。质子NMR（¹1 H NMR）光谱绘制了与不同生产技术相关的FM分子特征，并鉴定了FM和HM样品之间的差异。我们使用多变量和单变量统计技术进行了代谢指纹分析。FM样品的不同商业品牌之间有明显的区别。此外，首次发现与HM相比，FM的代谢组学谱存在一些差异。值得注意的是，在用于婴儿和婴儿的配方中，都可以鉴定出根据有机耕作技术生产的牛奶和使用非有机牛奶生产的配方之间浓度变化的代谢产物。具体而言，有机和非有机配方的区别在于葡萄糖，蛋氨酸，邻磷酸胆碱，丁酸盐，马尿酸盐，肌酸和二甲基砜。重要的是，HM在代谢产物方面似乎不同于有机和非有机品牌。这些发现为以类似于HM的方式设计FM做出了努力，并指导了区分有机和传统FM的研究。