Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) Food Contact Materials

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the launch of this Special Issue titled “Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) Food Contact Materials.” Ensuring the safety, quality, and sustainability of food is closely linked to the materials it comes into contact with during processing, handling, storage, and distribution. Food contact materials, including packaging, processing equipment surfaces, edible films and coatings, reusable systems, sensors, adhesives, and labelling components, play a crucial role in protecting food while preserving their integrity. At the same time, global regulatory and consumer expectations are driving the development of materials that are demonstrably safe, environmentally responsible, and fit for a circular economy.

The Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework provides a proactive approach to guiding the development and assessment of food contact materials. SSbD integrates chemical safety, material sustainability, environmental impact, and circularity considerations from the earliest stages of innovation. Although interest in SSbD is rapidly growing, its application to food contact materials is still emerging and requires interdisciplinary research that spans materials science, toxicology, analytical chemistry, food safety, environmental assessment, and regulatory science.

This Special Issue aims to highlight scientific advances and practical methodologies to support the design, evaluation, and implementation of food contact materials aligned with SSbD principles. We welcome studies that address chemical migration and NIAS identification, microbiological and hygienic safety, toxicity and risk assessment, life cycle and circularity metrics, and regulatory readiness. We especially encourage contributions that link materials innovation to real food system performance, including effects on food quality, shelf life, and consumer protection.

Submissions are invited in the form of research articles, reviews, case studies, and methodological papers in areas such as, but not limited to, the following:

• SSbD frameworks applied to food contact materials across processing, packaging, storage, and retail stages.
• Migration behaviour, NIAS detection, and chemical safety assessment.
• Toxicological evaluation, hazard screening, and computational modelling.
• Development and evaluation of sustainable materials, including biopolymers, nanocomposites, fibre-based systems, recycled materials, and reusable formats.
• Environmental performance assessment, including life cycle assessment and circularity indicators.
• Regulatory compliance pathways including EFSA, FDA, PPWR, and related standards.
• Microbiological safety, surface hygiene, and interactions between food matrices and contact materials.
• Effects of emerging food contact materials on food quality and shelf life.
• Analytical methods for contaminants, degradation products, and migration profiles.
• Consumer perception, risk communication, and behavioural aspects associated with new food contact materials.

This Special Issue provides an interdisciplinary platform connecting food science, toxicology, materials engineering, analytical chemistry, sustainability assessment, and regulatory research. These perspectives are essential for advancing next-generation food contact materials that protect public health and support a sustainable, circular food system.

We look forward to your contributions.

Dr. Swarna Jaiswal
Dr. Amit K. Jaiswal
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.

• food contact materials
• migration and NIAS
• chemical safety
• toxicology and risk assessment
• sustainable materials
• biopolymers and nanocomposites
• food packaging systems
• reusable and recyclable materials
• regulatory compliance
• environmental assessment (LCA, circularity)
• food safety and quality
• surface hygiene and microbiological safety
• analytical methods for contaminants