Innovative Food Products and Technologies within the Horticultural Chain and Circular Economy Framework

Dear Colleagues,

Vegetable crops are widespread worldwide and characterized by different management technologies both pre- and post-harvest, aimed at guaranteeing an appreciable level of technical and environmental sustainability. Conceiving, prototyping, and implementing innovative food products and technologies have increasingly been drawing scientific interest and stimulating related research. Technologies connected with horticultural chains should either improve farming or processing yield, concurrently enhancing product quality.

However, the numerous reports on these topics have not yet addressed all issues, and therefore, in this interesting field of research, plenty of challenges still remain. In this respect, attention should be paid to the interactive dynamics between innovative food products and new advanced technologies to produce food with premium quality characteristics, high functionality, health properties, additional service, and environmental friendliness. In particular, secondary metabolites in edible plant parts have a significant impact on human health and should be the object of special research interest.

In this Special Issue, we warmly welcome articles (original research, reviews, modeling approaches, perspectives, and opinions) that focus on innovative food and technologies and their interaction, leading to vegetable products with a high yield performance and high levels of quality, antioxidant activity, and mineral composition. The handling and valorization of waste are also current important targets, requiring modern technologies which facilitate the extraction of beneficial compounds from waste and/or their conversion into useful energy.

Prof. Dr. Gianluca Caruso
Prof. Dr. Otilia Cristina Murariu
Prof. Dr. Florin Daniel Lipsa
Prof. Dr. Somesh Sharma
Guest Editors

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