Gels for Plant-Based Food Applications (2nd Edition)

Dear Colleagues,

Plant-based foods are foods made from raw plant materials (including algae and fungi) or their products, as sources of protein, fat, etc., through a certain process. They may contain other ingredients with a similar texture, flavor, morphology, and quality characteristics to some animal-derived foods. Globally, consumers are becoming increasingly interested in plant-based foods for health, improved nutrition, environmental sustainability, and animal welfare reasons. From 2017 to 2019, the sale of plant-based foods grew by nearly 29%, and their market value reached about USD 4.98 billion. Recently, many commercial products have been developed, including plant-based meat products, dairy products, egg products, frozen drinks and ingredients, and other plant-based foods. Gels are polymeric materials that combine large amounts of water, air, or oil in their 3D networks and are widely used in food production. Gels made from proteins, polysaccharides, and lipids play a significant role in the quality improvement of plant-based foods. A comprehensive exploration of the network structure, gelation mechanism, and design of gels in plant-based foods is needed to construct plant-based foods with particular physicochemical, functional, and sensory properties. Thus, this Special Issue focuses on “Gels for Plant-based Food Applications”, including a wide range of gel processing methods, structural analyses, and property characterizations; plant-based food application; low- and high-moisture extrusion technology; shear cell technology; self-assembly; spinning (wet-spinning and electrospinning); and freeze-casting.

Prof. Dr. Qiang Wang
Dr. Jinchuang Zhang
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Gels is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2100 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.

• proteins
• polysaccharides
• lipids
• gel structural analysis
• gel properties characterization
• characterization methods
• extrusion technology (especially high-moisture extrusion)
• plant-based foods
• quality improvement