FoodProt

Food microbiomes are complex ecosystems that influence the quality, safety and nutritional value of foods, thus playing a vital role in human health. Recent advances in meta-omics technologies have improved our understanding of these microbial communities. Among them, metaproteomics offers deep insight into the functional roles of microbial proteins in food systems. The protein identification in metaproteomics typically relies on a reference protein sequence database. Therefore, building a reference protein sequence database that is thorough yet manageable in size is essential for effective protein identification. As a result, there is an increasing demand for specialized protein sequence databases to enhance performance in metaproteomics research. To meet this need, we present FoodProt, a curated collection of protein sequence databases tailored specifically for food metaproteomics. FoodProt spans 14 distinct food categories and contains 5,808,325 non-redundant protein sequences curated from 10,899 metagenome-assembled genomes. By offering ready-to-use, category-specific databases, FoodProt provides a valuable resource to accurate protein identification and functional characterization in food microbiome studies.