Dear Colleagues,

The International Symposium on Processing of Food, Vegetables and Fruits (ISPFVF) was first organized in 2011 by the University of Nottingham Malaysia. The fifth series of this symposium will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 22–23 June 2023. The symposium aims to attract participants from academia and the industry whom are currently active in various aspects of food processing.

Recently, global food issues have affected many segments of the food industry and have impacted greatly food security. The aim of food processing to mainly preserve and provide important nutrients into the daily diets of consumers is insufficient to meet the diverse demands of consumers and challenges faced by the food industry. Thermal food processing remains crucial to address these issues and also to ensure that the diverse products produced are safe for consumption. Furthermore, technological advancement has digitized the food manufacturing system and the IoT has been revolutionalizing operations in the food industry ever since the introduction of artificial intelligence.

In addition, various investigations have been conducted by researchers worldwide with efforts to address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely, Zero Hunger (Goal 2), Good Health and Well-Being (Goal 3), and Responsible Consumption and Production (Goal 12). Food wastes and unutilized by-products continue to be the key issues faced in the industry. Many studies have been conducted to address this issue through the concept of valorization, which utilizes thermal processing. However, there are still many unexplored materials with great potential that can still be further utilized to create new product categories.

This Special Issue on “Recent Advances in Thermal Food Processing Technologies”, which is being launched in conjunction with ISPFVF 2023, seeks high-quality works (original research manuscripts and comprehensive review papers) focusing on the latest advances and novelties in the field concerning, but not limited to, the following topics:

Heat and mass transfer processes; novel thermal processing; evaporation and separation processes; thermal equipment design; energy efficiency and recovery; process integration; food waste recovery and valorization; drying and dehydration technologies; field-based technologies; thermal degradation; thermal preservation; thermal pretreatment; transport phenomenon modelling; modelling quality and structural changes in food; digital twin and control; systems modelling of food thermal processes; food pasteurization and sterilization; processing by radiation; high-temperature processing; non-conventional measurements of food properties; techno-economics studies; the IoT in thermal processing; sensory evaluation; physicochemical changes and quality; nutritional properties; biological changes; food shelf life; food safety; steam treatment.

Dr. Ching Lik Hii
Dr. Choon Hui Tan
Dr. Meng Wai Woo
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. Processes 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 2000 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.

• heat transfer
• mass transfer
• computational fluid dynamics
• mathematical modelling
• transport phenomena
• process control
• product quality
• food safety
• food valorization
• shelf life
• IoT
• artificial intelligence
• techno-economics
• food nutrients
• energy efficiency
• pretreatment methods
• equipment design
• thermal processes