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Sustainable Development in Food Quality and Safety

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Food".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 December 2025 | Viewed by 1963

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Management, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Interests: food quality; certification; LCA; ISO 14000; food sustainability; environmental impacts analysis; life-cycle assessment; life-cycle costing; carbon footprint; food safety
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Guest Editor
Department of Management, Sapienza University of Rome, Via del Castro Laurenziano 9, Rome, Italy
Interests: life-cycle assessment; social life-cycle assessment; life-cycle costing; LCA; life-cycle thinking

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The sustainability and quality of agri-food systems are critical for ensuring food security, environmental health, and economic viability. Sustainable agri-food systems integrate practices that protect ecosystems, improve soil fertility, and reduce carbon footprints, thereby addressing climate change and resource depletion. Quality in these systems is not only about nutritional value and food safety but also encompasses ethical considerations, such as fair labor practices and animal welfare. Innovative approaches, such as precision and organic farming, aquaponics, and hydroponics, are transforming traditional farming methods in ways that make them more sustainable and efficient. These practices could contribute to the resilience of food systems by promoting biodiversity, reducing waste, and improving water management. On the other hand, in the food industry, integrating circular economy principles, sustainable packaging, minimizing food waste, and choosing renewable energy sources could help create a system that provides benefits, both to producers and consumers. In addition, sustainability can be verified through a life-cycle-oriented approach by using various tools, such as the life-cycle assessment (LCA), life-cycle costing (LCC), and social life-cycle assessment (S-LCA), according to a holistic view that combines the three dimensions of sustainable development: environmental, economic, and social.

Prof. Dr. Giuliana Vinci
Dr. Marco Ruggeri
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. 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 quality
  • food safety
  • sustainable food production
  • life-cycle analysis
  • responsible consumption

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

14 pages, 1797 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of Possible Contaminants from Sustainable Materials Intended for Food Contact
by Olimpia Pitirollo, Maria Grimaldi, Edmondo Messinese, Marco Fontanarosa, Monica Mattarozzi and Antonella Cavazza
Sustainability 2025, 17(1), 178; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17010178 - 29 Dec 2024
Viewed by 1593
Abstract
The ecological transition is leading industry towards the use of materials of natural origin, which are often proposed for food contact materials as a sustainable solution to reduce plastic use. They are perceived as safe by consumers; however, a strict control on potential [...] Read more.
The ecological transition is leading industry towards the use of materials of natural origin, which are often proposed for food contact materials as a sustainable solution to reduce plastic use. They are perceived as safe by consumers; however, a strict control on potential contaminants able to migrate to food and beverages is necessary to assess safety. Thus, the development of analytical methods for the detection and the identification of potentially occurring harmful substances is strongly encouraged, and the combination of different techniques can be a solution to obtain complementary information. In this work, GC-MS, HPLC-MS, ATR-IR and ESEM have been exploited with the aim of monitoring both volatile and non-volatile compounds, and to control surface composition and morphology. Extraction with solvent and migration experiments with simulants were performed on 11 commercial samples, including plates, caps, and wooden coffee stirrers. Global and specific migration studies were carried out, and possible differences before and after use were explored. Analysis after solvent extraction confirmed the presence of additives, and of Non-Intentionally-Added Substances (NIAS) that were also found in migration studies. Data on morphological characterisation were useful to control the item composition, and to check the stability of the materials after repeated use. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development in Food Quality and Safety)
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