24Dietary assessment methods including food-frequency questionnaires and food diaries are 25 associated with many measurement errors including energy under-reporting and incorrect 26 estimation of portion sizes. Such errors can lead to inconsistent results especially when 27 investigating the relationship between food intake and disease causation. To improve the 28 classification of a person's dietary intake and therefore clarify proposed links between diet 29 and disease, reliable and accurate dietary assessment methods are essential. Dietary 30 biomarkers have emerged as a complimentary approach to the traditional methods and in 31 recent years, metabolomics has developed as a key technology for the identification of new 32 dietary biomarkers. The objective of this review is to give an overview of the approaches 33 used for the identification of biomarkers and potential use of the biomarkers.
34Over the years a number of strategies have emerged for the discovery of dietary biomarkers 35 including acute and medium term interventions and cross-sectional/cohort study approaches.
36Examples of the different approaches will be presented. Concomitant with the focus on single 37 biomarkers of specific foods there is an interest in development of biomarker signatures for 38 the identification of dietary patterns. In the present review we present an overview of the 39 techniques used in food intake biomarker discover and the experimental approaches used for 40 biomarker discovery and challenges faced in the field. While significant progress has been 41 achieved in the field of dietary biomarkers in recent years a number of challenges remain.
42Addressing these challenges will be key to ensure success in implementing use of dietary 43 biomarkers. 44 45 48 research. One of the areas with great expectations is the field of dietary biomarkers or food 49 intake biomarkers. The interest in these biomarkers stems from the need for objective 50 measures of dietary intake. The traditional methods such as food frequency questionnaires 51 (FFQs), 24 h recalls and food diaries are all associated with a number of well-defined 52 limitations including under-reporting, recall errors and difficulty in assessment of portion 53 sizes (1)(2)(3) . Currently dietary biomarkers include 24h urinary sodium, nitrogen and 54 sucrose/fructose for estimation of salt, protein and sugar intake (4)(5)(6)(7) . In recent years, the 55 concept of biomarkers reflecting specific food intake has emerged. To date a number of 56 putative biomarkers exist for the intake of a range of foods including but not limited to red 57 meat, coffee, nuts, wine, vegetables, legumes, citrus fruit, tea, sugar sweetened beverages (7-58 11) . While some confusion exists in the literature over classification of biomarkers into 59 recovery or concentration biomarkers we prefer to use the newly defined flexible 60 classification scheme for biomarkers related to food intake (12) . Food intake biomarkers are 61 single metabolites, or a combination of metabolites, reflecting ...