The Maillard Reaction in Food Processing and Storage
A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Physics and (Bio)Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026
Special Issue Editors
Interests: food processing and health; food flavor analysis; food perception; food biotechnology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: NaCl reduction; quality preservation; control of harmful substances
Interests: food processing and health; analytical chemistry; food safety detection; nanomaterials application
Interests: food chemistry; food quality and control; meat processing; meat preservation; meat product development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The Maillard reaction plays a dual and crucial role in food processing and storage. While it is essential for developing desirable sensory attributes such as flavor, aroma, and color in a wide range of heated and stored foods, it can also lead to the formation of various potentially harmful compounds. These include acrylamide, furans, heterocyclic amines, and advanced glycation end products (AGEs), raising significant nutritional and safety concerns.
This Special Issue aims to gather the latest research advances on the complex chemistry of the Maillard reaction. We welcome contributions that explore the reaction pathways, the simultaneous formation of flavor compounds and undesirable products, and the factors influencing their generation in different food matrices. Studies focusing on novel detection methods, mitigation strategies, and the assessment of these compounds during processing and storage are particularly encouraged.
We invite the submission of original research articles, reviews, and short communications on related topics.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Wei Quan
Dr. Yawei Zhang
Dr. Chaoyi Xue
Dr. Zongshuai Zhu
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. 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
- Maillard reaction
- food processing
- flavor
- harmful products
- acrylamide
- furan
- advanced glycation end products (AGEs)
- mitigation strategies
- food safety
- reaction kinetics
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