Emerging Processing Technologies for Sustainable Food Ingredients
A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Engineering and Technology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026 | Viewed by 187
Editors
2. Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
Interests: fouling and cleaning; microbubble technology; cold plasma; electrodialysis; life cycle assessment; food system sustainability; agri-food waste valorization
Interests: food chemistry; digestibility and bioaccessibility; foodomics; human health; emerging processing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The global food industry is rapidly evolving in response to increasing demand for high-quality, nutritious, safe, and sustainable foods, alongside the need for efficient and resilient production systems. Sustainable ingredients derived from alternative proteins, microalgae, and agricultural by-products are gaining broad acceptance as solutions to global nutrition and environmental challenges, and advanced processing technologies play a critical role in enhancing their functionality and scalability, bridging the gap between innovation and industrial application.
Innovative methods such as cold plasma, electric fields, sonication, and high-pressure processing can modify the structural and functional properties of food macromolecules, improving digestibility, bioavailability, product quality, and shelf life. These non-thermal technologies are increasingly integrated with automation, robotics, and smart processing systems to enhance efficiency, reduce energy and water consumption, and minimize food waste at an industrial scale.
In parallel, nanosensors and advanced monitoring tools are emerging for real-time assessment of food safety and quality, supporting both industrial applications and research while ensuring consumer protection.
For this Special Issue, we invite the contribution of original research and review articles on emerging processing technologies that support sustainable food ingredients and smart manufacturing systems, including technological innovations, underlying mechanisms, industrial applications, and integration with automation and quality monitoring systems.
Prof. Dr. Jen-Yi Huang
Dr. Armin Mirzapour-Kouhdasht
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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods 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 2900 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.
Keywords
- emerging food processing technologies
- sustainable food ingredients
- smart processing systems
- food quality and safety
- food waste reduction
- energy- and water-efficient processing
- microalgae-derived ingredients
- novel extraction technologies
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