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Sustainability
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Agricultural Product Quality Safety and Sustainable Development, 2nd Edition
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Agricultural Product Quality Safety and Sustainable Development, 2nd Edition

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 8080

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Gang Liang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Quality Standard and Testing Technology, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Science, Beijing 100097, China
Interests: food safety; environmental risk assessment; analysis method of emerging contaminants; nanomaterial sensors; bioanalysis and functional nucleic acid biosensor
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Wenshen Jia

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Quality Standard and Testing Technology, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Science, Beijing 100097, China
Interests: food safety; electronic nose; authenticity assessment method
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Rui Feng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Water Conservancy and Environment, University of Jinan, Jinan 250022, China
Interests: environmental bioanalysis; electrochemiluminescence sensors; product-quality biosensing method
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

High agricultural product quality is fundamental for economic and social development, as food safety is currently one of the world’s most pressing concerns due to rapid urbanization and the continuously increasing population, especially in developing countries. According to the reports of the World Health Organization (WHO), food regulations and safety measures have been taken into account with regard to global health concerns. Additionally, governments around the world have deeply reformed the agricultural structure and direction, aiming to improve the quality of agricultural products. However, there are still some challenges when it comes to the safety of agricultural products, as food safety incidents still frequently occur, such as the occurrence of pesticide residues, heavy metal/toxin pollution, and other problems (e.g., meat adulteration, production and sale of fake agricultural products), which lead to severe health, economic and even social problems. All these events alert us to the importance and urgency of guaranteeing food safety, stimulating our interest in detection and analysis methods to ensure acceptable quality levels and the nutritional quality of agricultural products. Except for relevant policies and laws concerning food safety, the detection of food contaminants has attracted much attention over the past few decades. Food detection approaches must ensure the safety of food at every point in the food supply chain by monitoring and evaluating all hazards from every step of food production. In addition to traditional physicochemical methods (e.g., high-performance liquid chromatography, liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry), many efforts are using novel techniques with the advantages of being simple, rapid, nondestructive, inexpensive, reproducible, and repeatable (e.g., biomolecule-based sensing methods, electronic nose, and molecular imprinting technology). Many data have been produced, but analysis methods still need improving (regarding their selectivity, specificity, accuracy, and anti-interference performance).

This Special Issue will focus on the various aspects of “Agricultural Product Quality Safety and Detecting Techniques”, from quality/pollutant detection methods to authenticity evaluations and geographical origin identification. Authors are invited to submit original research papers, reviews, and short communications. Topics of interest may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. Food safety and risk assessment;
  2. Analysis methods of food contaminations;
  3. Agricultural product quality analysis;
  4. Authenticity assessments;
  5. Geographical origin identification;
  6. Nutritional quality analysis;
  7. The environment of the producing area/agricultural input risk assessment;
  8. Early diagnosis methods of agricultural diseases;
  9. The application of virtual reality (VR) technology to agriculture.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Gang Liang
Dr. Wenshen Jia
Dr. Rui Feng
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 safety
  • agricultural product quality analysis
  • bio-/sensor assay
  • chromatographic detection
  • nondestructive detecting
  • food additives
  • health risk assessment
  • nutritional quality
  • authenticity assessment
  • quality classification

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

27 pages, 31119 KiB  
Article
Hazards in Products from Northern Mediterranean Countries Reported in the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) in 1997–2021 in the Context of Sustainability
by Marcin Pigłowski, Alberto Nogales and Maria Śmiechowska
Sustainability 2025, 17(3), 889; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17030889 - 22 Jan 2025
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1265
Abstract
The European Green Deal attaches great importance to sustainability, including food security, which is also linked to food safety. This is particularly relevant in such a sensitive region as the Mediterranean. The goal of this study was to investigate Rapid Alert System for [...] Read more.
The European Green Deal attaches great importance to sustainability, including food security, which is also linked to food safety. This is particularly relevant in such a sensitive region as the Mediterranean. The goal of this study was to investigate Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) notifications of hazards reported in 1997–2021 (a 25-year period) in products from northern Mediterranean countries considering products and other variables. A two-way joining cluster analysis was used. The most notable hazards in the latter years of the reported period were as follows: ochratoxin A and pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables imported from Turkey and ethylene oxide in various products, as well as Salmonella in chicken, Listeria in cheese, Escherichia coli in cheese and mussels from France, mercury in swordfish from Spain, and Anisakis in seafood from France and Morocco. The increasing number of notifications of ochratoxin A and pathogenic micro-organisms in recent years may be caused by climate change. This also results in the need to use more pesticides and the appearance of related hazards, i.e., residues of such compounds in food products. It is, therefore, vitally important that border posts and control authorities in particular European Union countries are vigilant. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Product Quality Safety and Sustainable Development, 2nd Edition)
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26 pages, 1014 KiB  
Article
Integrated Risk Framework (IRF)—Interconnection of the Ishikawa Diagram with the Enhanced HACCP System in Risk Assessment for the Sustainable Food Industry
by Mirel Glevitzky, Ioana Glevitzky, Paul Mucea-Ștef, Maria Popa, Gabriela-Alina Dumitrel and Mihaela Laura Vică
Sustainability 2025, 17(2), 536; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17020536 - 12 Jan 2025
Viewed by 1601
Abstract
This paper presents a new risk assessment methodology called the Integrated Risk Framework (IRF) through the application of Ishikawa diagrams combined with the enhanced Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system. This risk investigation technique aims to ensure a significantly higher level [...] Read more.
This paper presents a new risk assessment methodology called the Integrated Risk Framework (IRF) through the application of Ishikawa diagrams combined with the enhanced Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system. This risk investigation technique aims to ensure a significantly higher level of quality, safety, and sustainability in food products by using improved classical methods with strong intercorrelation capabilities. The methodology proposes expanding the typology of basic physical, chemical, and biological risks outlined by the ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System standard, adding other auxiliary risks such as allergens, fraud/sabotage, Kosher/Halal compliance, Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed notification, or additional specific risks such as irradiation, radioactivity, genetically modified organisms, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, African swine fever, peste of small ruminants, etc. depending on the specific technological process or ingredients. Simultaneously, it identifies causes for each operation in the technological flow based on the 5M diagram: Man, Method, Material, Machine, and Environment. For each identified risk and cause, its impact was determined according to its severity and likelihood of occurrence. The final effect is defined as the risk class, calculated as the arithmetic mean of the impact derived at each process stage based on the identified risks and causes. Within the study, the methodology was applied to the spring water bottling process. This provided a new perspective on analyzing the risk factors during the bottling operations by concurrently using Ishikawa diagrams and HACCP principles throughout the product’s technological flow. The results of the study can form new methodologies aimed at enhancing sustainable food safety management strategy. In risk assessment using these two tools, the possibility of cumulative or synergistic effects is considered, resulting in better control of all factors that may affect the manufacturing process. This new perspective on studying the dynamics of risk factor analysis through the simultaneous use of the fishbone diagram and the classical HACCP system can be extrapolated and applied to any manufacturing process in the food industry and beyond. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Product Quality Safety and Sustainable Development, 2nd Edition)
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21 pages, 2285 KiB  
Article
Intervention Options for Enhancing Smallholder Compliance with Regulatory and Market Standards for High-Value Fruits and Vegetables in Rwanda and Zambia
by Morris Akiri, Fredrick Mbugua, Rahab Njunge, Charles Agwanda, Negussie E. Gurmessa, Noah A. Phiri, Richard Musebe, Jean Pierre Kalisa, Bellancile Uzayisenga, Monica K. Kansiime and Daniel Karanja
Sustainability 2024, 16(14), 6243; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16146243 - 22 Jul 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2199
Abstract
Agriculture is vital for economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. In Rwanda and Zambia, the sector drives economic output, particularly the horticulture sector, which has emerged as a significant contributor to export revenue and employment for resource-poor rural communities. As agri-food value chains become [...] Read more.
Agriculture is vital for economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. In Rwanda and Zambia, the sector drives economic output, particularly the horticulture sector, which has emerged as a significant contributor to export revenue and employment for resource-poor rural communities. As agri-food value chains become globally connected, there are increasing concerns about food safety and both the social and environmental sustainability benefits of production, which has underscored the need for producers to comply with certain regulatory standards. This paper uses a value chain analysis approach to assess the factors influencing compliance among smallholder fresh fruit and vegetable (FFV) producers in Zambia and Rwanda, and identify practices essential for achieving widespread compliance, to enhance the competitiveness of the sector. The data were gathered from 340 FFV farmers and key informants using structured questionnaires. The results reveal that the value chains for target FFVs are still traditional, predominantly targeting local markets. These markets pose low barriers to entry for smallholders, and often with few safety and quality requirements. As such, there remains a paucity of understanding of market needs and regarding quality and safety standards amongst smallholders, which, coupled with low-input, low-technology farming methods, and inadequate pre- and post-harvest handling, limit the market potential. To bridge these gaps, this study recommends organising farmers into legally recognised entities, to enable access to compliance information, reduce transaction costs, and provide access to high-quality niche markets through public–private partnerships. Countries also need to develop industry codes of practice and quality management systems and support farmers to adhere to them. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Product Quality Safety and Sustainable Development, 2nd Edition)
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12 pages, 926 KiB  
Article
Optimal Shoot Mass for Propagation to Increase the Yield and Quality of Pineapple
by Nguyen Quoc Hung, Le Thi My Ha, Dao Thi Lien, Nguyen Thi Thanh Nga and Vu Phong Lam
Sustainability 2024, 16(13), 5729; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135729 - 4 Jul 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2420
Abstract
This study investigates the impact of shoot mass on the growth, flowering, and yield of pineapple plants in two consecutive crops (2019–2020 and 2020–2021). Four treatments with varying shoot masses (200–300 g, 350–400 g, 450–500 g, >500 g) were analyzed for their flowering [...] Read more.
This study investigates the impact of shoot mass on the growth, flowering, and yield of pineapple plants in two consecutive crops (2019–2020 and 2020–2021). Four treatments with varying shoot masses (200–300 g, 350–400 g, 450–500 g, >500 g) were analyzed for their flowering time, fruit harvesting, and yield parameters. To induce flowering, Ethrel was applied at a concentration of 0.4%. Each shoot was treated with 20–25 mL of Ethrel, resulting in synchronized flowering in the pineapples. The experiment employed a complete randomized block design (RCBD) comprising four treatments. The results reveal that bigger shoot masses lead to earlier flowering and a shorter time for fruit harvesting, ranging from mid-February to early July. Furthermore, this study explored the yield factors, showing that shoot masses of 350–500 g consistently result in higher harvest numbers, fruit weights, and theoretical yields. The influence of shoot mass on fruit quality parameters, including size, biochemical composition, and edibility, was also examined. Notably, smaller shoot masses are associated with higher dry matter, vitamin C, sugar, and brix levels, indicating superior quality. The findings suggest that optimizing shoot mass could significantly impact the pineapple cultivation timeline, yield, and fruit quality, providing valuable insights for pineapple farmers and cultivators. These findings carry profound implications for pineapple cultivation practices and market strategies. By optimizing shoot mass, growers can strategically adjust planting schedules to capitalize on favorable flowering and harvesting periods, potentially enhancing market competitiveness. Moreover, the insights gleaned regarding fruit quality parameters offer avenues for targeted marketing strategies, catering to discerning consumer preferences for superior-quality produce. Thus, this study not only advances scientific understanding but also provides actionable insights that could revolutionize pineapple cultivation practices and market positioning strategies, ultimately benefiting farmers and cultivators alike. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Agricultural Product Quality Safety and Sustainable Development, 2nd Edition)
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