Sustainable Food Systems and the Reuse of Food Waste
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Food".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 8
Special Issue Editors
Interests: food waste; functional foods; bioactive compounds; green extraction; antioxidants; fermentation
Interests: green chemistry; food science; pharmacology; organic chemistry; biotechnology; waste management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue addresses the pressing challenge of agri-food waste management in a circular food economy. Large volumes of side streams remain landfilled or underused, driving greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient losses, and avoidable costs. We seek contributions that convert these liabilities into assets through resource-efficient valorization: green extraction of high-value compounds (polyphenols, dietary fibres, proteins/peptides, lipids, pigments); microbial and enzymatic conversions to biochemicals, biopolymers, biofertilizers, and bioenergy; and integrated biorefinery strategies that cascade products and close loops. We also welcome work on fermentation of side streams with probiotic or starter cultures; synbiotic designs coupling probiotic strains with prebiotics recovered from wastes (e.g., pectins, arabinoxylans, resistant starch); process solutions to preserve viability (encapsulation, gentle drying) and tailor functionality (postbiotics, metabolites); and evaluations of safety, stability, and efficacy.
Key topics include feedstock characterization and pretreatment, process and reactor design, low-impact separation and purification, quality of recovered ingredients, and integration with food and feed supply chains, alongside techno-economic and life-cycle assessments.
By incorporating advances from laboratory to industrial practices, this Special Issue aims to catalyze interdisciplinary dialogue and actionable solutions that reduce waste burdens, recover critical resources, and build resilient, sustainable food systems
Dr. Marta Sánchez
Dr. Pedro Ferreira-Santos
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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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. Sustainability 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 2400 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 waste
- resource recovery
- physicochemical pretreatment
- fermentation
- green extraction
- bioactive compounds
- biomaterials
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