Fresh Produce Safety

Dear Colleagues,

Consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables is important for a balanced diet and healthy life-style. However, contamination of fresh produce is emerging as a major food safety challenge. In recent years, contaminated produce has been implicated in many foodborne outbreaks worldwide. Several groups of microorganisms can colonize or contaminate fruits and vegetables at any point throughout the food supply chain. Pathogenic microorganisms, such as E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes and norovirus, are commonly associated with contaminated fresh produce. Various types of fresh produce including cantaloupe, strawberries, mangos, leafy green, lettuce, salad mixes, sprouts, cabbage, cut celery and radishes are important vehicles for transmission of human pathogens. Therefore, it is important to understand the nature of fresh produce contamination, its sources, risks to the consumer, and approaches to eliminate or reduce contaminant levels. There has been a rapid growth in scientific knowledge in this important area of food safety. This Special Issue of Foods on ‘Fresh Produce Safety’ invites manuscripts on aspects of safe supply and consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Dr. Malik A. Hussain
Prof. Dr. Ravi Gooneratne
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.