Antimicrobial Substances in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Production

Dear Colleagues,

Microbial contamination constitutes one of the biggest threats in agriculture and food production, causing significant loss with economic, social, and environmental impacts. Based on the available data, the greatest problem in agricultural production are toxinogenic filamentous fungi, mainly of the genus Penicillium, Aspergillus, and Fusarium, while in relation to market products, microorganisms such as Salmonella enteritidis, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli, Yersinia enterocolitica or Campylobacter jejuni are responsible for the most common infections. Therefore, providing an adequate level of safety in the food and feed chain with respect to environmental conditions is one of the priority goals in modern agriculture and food production. Today, to achieve the goals of sustainable production, more emphasis is placed on substances or methods which exhibit less or no negative impact on the environment and consumer health conditions. For this reason, there is a constant need to search for new, promising substances such as plant origin compounds or microbial metabolites, which demonstrate antagonism toward different harmful microorganisms. These compounds may be used in agriculture and food production for preventive measures such as plant protection or disinfection. On the other hand, at the post-production stage (storage, distribution, consumption), the use of active packaging or durability indicators seems to be a promising solution. Moreover, implementation of new technologies as well as sustainable recovery of antimicrobial substances from waste materials are also welcome.

We would like to invite and encourage all scientists involved in the search for and research on new antimicrobial substances and their application in agriculture and food production for the control of microbiological hazards in the whole food chain to jointly create this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Daniela Gwiazdowska 
Dr. Katarzyna Marchwińska
Dr. Krzysztof Juś
Guest Editors

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-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences 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 2400 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.