Lipid oxidation is also a major concern for meats, as it leads to deleterious flavor, texture, and color, as well as nutritional changes. The spatial and temporal changes due to lipid oxidation in beef steaks were monitored by MALDI imaging during 14 days of storage in different packaging conditions (high oxygen, atmospheric, and vacuum) (Dyer et al., 2014). Lipid oxidative degradation was shown to be spatially heterogeneous across the meat subsections, with the relative abundance of PCs (PC 16:0/18:2e, PC 16:0/18:1 and PC 18:0/18:2) rapidly declining under high oxygen conditions. This was in stark contrast to PC 18:1/18:0, which exhibited relatively high oxidative stability (Dyer et al., 2014). These results demonstrate that MALDI imaging is a valuable tool for the evaluation of meat quality, processing, packaging, and storage. In contrast to traditional approaches using bulk solvent extraction and separation, in situ imaging analysis minimizes modification of the endogenous lipid forms.