Chemical Fingerprinting for Food Integrity: Safety, Quality, and the Circular Bioeconomy
A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Quality and Safety".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 September 2026 | Viewed by 1146
Editor
Interests: food chemical fingerprinting; agri-food by-product valorization; wine and horticultural science; volatile organic compounds (VOCs) analysis; food safety and contaminants; heavy metals; sensory and organoleptic analysis; chemometrics and multivariate data analysis; circular economy
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The modern agri-food sector is undergoing a strategic shift toward a circular bioeconomy, requiring robust analytical frameworks that simultaneously address food safety, sensory quality, and waste valorisation. This Special Issue focuses on chemical fingerprinting as an integrated approach to ensure food integrity throughout the entire supply chain, from raw materials to processed products and their by-products. The objective is to move beyond isolated analyses by exploring the synergy between advanced analytical platforms (GC-MS, LC-MS, ICP-MS) and chemometrics. We invite original research and reviews that utilize chemical profiling to address three interconnected pillars:
- Food Safety and Toxicology: Monitoring contaminants, heavy metals, and trace elements to ensure rigorous risk assessment.
- Sensory Identity and Bioactivity: Characterizing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and phenolic profiles that define food quality and authenticity.
- Sustainability: Facilitating the valorisation of agri-food residues and biomass into high-value resources through detailed chemical characterization.
By bridging the gap between analytical chemistry, food toxicology, and environmental sustainability, this Special Issue provides a unified perspective on the challenges and innovations in modern food science.
Dr. Georgiana-Diana Gabur
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-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
- chemical fingerprinting
- food safety and toxicology
- circular bioeconomy
- agri-food by-products
- volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
- heavy metals
- bioactive compounds
- waste valorization
- chemometrics
- mass spectrometry
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.