Novel Advancements in Food Bioactive Compounds for Controlling Foodborne Pathogens

Dear Colleagues,

Recently, there has been a shift in the food preservation process, from synthetic preservatives and intense thermal processing, which may compromise health and nutritional properties of food, to more natural practices of preservation using milder processes and natural antimicrobial components, which could prevent the growth or survival of foodborne pathogens, without compromising food safety. These natural compounds are often, but not exclusively, of plant origin and include polyphenol-rich and flavonoid-rich extracts, essential oils, and organic acids from different parts of commercially cultivated or wild plants. They may also be substances of microbial origin, such as antimicrobial peptides/bacteriocins, antimicrobial polysaccharides and pigments including melanin, organic acids and salts, and other microbial metabolites. They can also be derived from animals, as in the case of milk peptides or chitosan, which is a product of chitin isolated from crustaceans.   

These natural antimicrobials have different degrees of preservative potential and spectra of activity; they can be applied into a food mixture, a food surface, or used as antimicrobial films and coatings, or even as sanitation/biocontrol and biofilm preventions agents. However, the partial lack of food safety records, legislative framework, organoleptic restrictions, and high production costs limit their applications; therefore, there is a dire need to take measures to ameliorate these problems.

Given this context, the aim of this Special Issue is to collate research addressing all relevant aspects pertaining to the food preservation process.

Dr. Ioannis Giavasis
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-blind 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.