Possibilities on the application of vibrational spectroscopy and data analytics in precision nutrition

The main role of precision nutrition is to personalize nutrition recommendations based not only on historical diet and phenotype data, but also on additional information that includes the genotype or gene expression, the microbiome, proteome, and metabolome of a given individual. In recent years, current advances in the field of digital technologies and data analytics (e.g. sensors, machine learning, mathematical modelling) have allowed for the development of practical and robust analytical tools in the field of personalized nutrition. This review discusses the application, utilization and role of non-destructive techniques based in vibrational spectroscopy combined with data analytics (e.g. machine learning techniques) as analytical tool in precision nutrition. Specifically, this paper focused on the analysis of metabolites and other biomarkers in biofluids other than blood (e.g. saliva, urine) using infrared and Raman spectroscopy in human nutrition applications. •The analysis of human fluids by vibrational spectroscopy provides with useful information about diet and nutrition.•Available research suppors vibrational spectroscopy as a tool to investigate interactions between diet and nutrition.•Vibrational spectroscopy and big data provide with a holistic tool in precision nutrition.