Food Fraud and Food Authenticity Across the Food Supply Chain—Volume II: Rapid and Innovative Methods for Food Authenticity and Food Integrity

Dear Colleagues,

The concept of the “integrity” of foods is of primary interest for worldwide consumers and is strictly correlated with food fraud and food safety issues. The awareness of food origin and authenticity from the consumer’s perspective (but also from that of the food producer, distributor and retailer) has become increasingly strategic during the last 10 years. Moreover, when the idea of the “circular economy” took hold (particularly regarding the re-use and valorization of by- and co-products), the ability to trace food ingredients/complex foods and their origin became a strict necessity. The capacity to track and authenticate ingredients/foods across the food supply chain using analytical and molecular tools (often coupled today with the use of the advanced statistical post-analysis processing, as well as with the use of the artificial intelligence-based approaches) is currently considered the right process to trace quality and safety along food chains. In addition to the process based on the blockchain idea, the application of analytical and biotechnological solutions protects the rights of consumers, in terms of the availability of food characterized by high quality and safety, combatting food fraud.

Considering all these findings, the development of novel rapid methods (including both analytical and molecular approaches) is strictly required, also considering developing rapid methods useful for at-line and on-line measurement and testing. The micro-/nano-sensor area is another key area of intervention.

This issue focuses particularly on the following topics: the set-up, validation and application of rapid methods for food integrity and traceability, in an attempt to combine analytical science, food science, technology and molecular sciences in a holistic approach.

Prof. Dr. Marco Arlorio
Dr. Matteo Bordiga
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.