Sustainable Food Systems: Innovations in Production and Waste Management for a Greener Future
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Food".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2026 | Viewed by 2161
Special Issue Editors
Interests: food safety; mycotoxicology; environmental contaminants; food additives; risk assessment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to invite you to contribute to a Special Issue of Sustainability entitled ‘Sustainable Food Systems: Innovations in Production and Waste Management for a Greener Future'.
The global food system faces significant challenges, including climate change, resource depletion, and food waste. This Special Issue emphasizes innovative solutions to develop more sustainable food systems that are environmentally friendly, economically viable, and socially equitable. We must urgently address these challenges to ensure food security and a healthy planet for future generations.
This Special Issue invites original research articles and reviews that investigate innovations throughout the food value chain, encompassing production, consumption, and waste management. We particularly welcome studies on sustainable agricultural practices, cutting-edge food processing technologies, new strategies for food waste reduction and valorization, and Circular Economy models within the food sector. The aims of this Special Issue closely align with the thematic priorities of the Sustainability journal. Our goal is to gather at least ten high-quality articles that make substantial contributions to the sustainable food systems field. If this target is met, this Special Issue may also be published in book format.
We welcome original research articles and reviews on topics including, but not limited to, the following:
- Trends in sustainable agriculture: Integrating innovative technologies and data analytics to enhance farming methods, focusing on maximizing inputs like water and fertilizers to increase crop yields while minimizing environmental effects.
- Sustainable packaging: Highlighting the need for packaging materials that are environmentally friendly, biodegradable, or recyclable, with the goal of minimizing waste and pollution associated with traditional packaging methods.
- Food waste valorization technologies: Involving methods and systems that convert food waste into valuable products like biofuels, animal feed, or compost, thus aiding in waste reduction and minimizing environmental harm.
- Consumer behavior and sustainable food choices: Gaining insights into consumer food selection can improve efforts to encourage sustainable eating practices, including choosing local, seasonal, and organic items that have reduced environmental impacts.
- Life cycle assessment of food products: Evaluating the environmental effects of a food product from production to disposal. This process identifies opportunities for enhancing sustainability across the entire supply chain.
- Sustainable use of natural resources: Highlighting the responsible management of land, soil, water, and biodiversity to ensure that ecosystem services are preserved for future food production.
- Food processing and supply chain innovations: Exploring the adoption of innovative technologies in food processing, the transition to more sustainable practices, the impact of blockchain technology on security and transparency, and the increasing utilization of cultured/in vitro meat.
- Megatrends and trends shaping the food system: Climate change, malnutrition, urbanization, demographic shifts, migration, resource scarcity, increased energy consumption, and economic globalization.
- Managing food waste and non-food waste streams: Effective management practices for food waste and related wastes (such as packaging), ensuring proper disposal and recycling while minimizing environmental impacts.
Dr. Dragan R. Milicevic
Dr. Nataša Kilibarda
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
- sustainable food systems
- food waste
- Circular Economy
- precision agriculture
- sustainable packaging
- food security
- food safety
- climate change
- life cycle assessment
- innovation
- waste management
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