Advanced Analytical Strategies for Contaminant Control in Agri-Foods

Dear Colleagues,

The rapidly expanding global markets for agri-food products and plant-derived health products have created increasing demands for rigorous quality and safety assessments. Agricultural matrices may be vulnerable to contamination at multiple stages, including cultivation, harvesting, processing, extraction, formulation, storage and distribution. Organic, microbiological and inorganic contaminants represent a particularly important concern. Pesticide residues, mycotoxins, persistent organic pollutants, process contaminants, plasticizers, adulterants, residual solvents, veterinary drug residues and emerging environmental contaminants may coexist with inorganic hazards such as toxic elements and heavy metals. Their occurrence may compromise product quality, regulatory compliance, consumer safety and confidence in health-promoting agricultural products. Advances in chromatography, mass spectrometry, elemental analysis, spectroscopy, high-resolution screening, metabolomics, chemometrics, biosensors and data-driven technologies are providing new opportunities, including the application of AI, for comprehensive contaminant surveillance and quality control.

This Special Issue aims to bring together cutting-edge research on the detection, identification, quantification, risk assessment, authenticity evaluation and control of organic, microbiological and inorganic contaminants in agricultural products and plant-derived ingredients. We welcome original research articles and comprehensive reviews addressing advanced analytical methodologies, sample-preparation novel strategies, multi-residue and multi-contaminant screening, exposure and risk assessment, authenticity and adulteration, regulatory quality control and emerging technologies applicable throughout the agricultural-to-consumer value chain. Particular attention will be given to studies that bridge agricultural production, analytical chemistry, safety, phytochemical characterization, toxicology and quality assurance, thereby contributing to the development of safer and health-promoting products.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following: advanced analytical methods for contaminant detection; contaminants; safety assessment; production; quality and safety of botanical and herbal products; Pesticide and agrochemical residues; mycotoxins and fungal secondary metabolites; heavy metals and toxic elements; persistent organic pollutants; emerging environmental contaminants; process contaminants; packaging-derived contaminants and plasticizers; multi-residue and multi-class contaminant analysis; LC-MS/MS and high-resolution mass spectrometry; GC-MS-based contaminant profiling; ICP-MS and elemental analysis; spectroscopic and sensor-based detection technologies; non-targeted screening; metabolomics and contaminant fingerprinting; chemometrics, machine learning and AI-assisted contaminant detection; rapid and portable analytical platforms; sample preparation, extraction and clean-up technologies; authentication and adulteration detection; contaminant occurrence and exposure assessment; quality assurance and industrial quality control; regulatory compliance; contaminant monitoring across agricultural supply chains; effects of cultivation, processing, storage and formulation on contaminant profiles.

Prof. Dr. Antonello Santini
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• analysis of agri-food products
• organic contaminants
• inorganic contaminants
• regulations
• application of AI in agriculture
• novel analytical applications to agri-food area
• botanical products
• mass spectrometry new approaches
• heavy metals
• mycotoxins
• pesticide residues
• non-targeted screening
• risk assessment
• food authenticity
• safety in agriculture
• quality control