Acknowledged and Emerging Contaminants in Food and Natural Supplements
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Analytical Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2026
Special Issue Editor
Interests: food authentication; beverage; IRMS; vibrational spectroscopy; metabolomics; AI-based omics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Product authentication can be defined as the verification of conformity between a product and its label, which may omit critical information or conceal illicit practices concerning origin, composition, or manufacturing processes. Despite the increasing number of fraudulent cases, a comprehensive legal framework for upholding consumer protection and guarantee authenticity across global supply chains remains limited. Adulteration not only undermines market integrity but also introduces contaminants that pose both immediate and long-term health risks.
This Special Issue encompasses the application of advanced analytical methodologies, combined with supervised statistical approaches and artificial intelligence, for the authentication of food products, including herbs, spices, and dietary supplements, from diverse global contexts. Emphasis is placed on multidisciplinary contributions that integrate product profiling at the molecular level, detecting emerging and acknowledged contaminants, performing risk assessment, and carrying out in vitro toxicity studies that could contribute to consumer safety and regulatory development.
Dr. Dana-Alina Magdas
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 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. Molecules 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 2700 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
- food authentication
- contaminants
- toxicity
- risk assessment
- molecular fingerprint
- metabolomics
- AI-based omics
- consumer safety
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