Ensuring Food Authenticity and Traceability: Innovations and Challenges in Combating Food Fraud
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Food".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (17 August 2024)
Special Issue Editor
Interests: marketing and consumer behavior; food fraud; supply chain analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue addresses the critical area of combating food fraud while ensuring the authenticity and traceability of food in the modern digital age.
In recent years, there has been a remarkable increase in concern about fraud in the food supply chain. The global food market has seen a remarkable increase in food fraud cases, highlighting the potential harm these cases can cause to consumers and the food industry as a whole. Victims of food fraud and counterfeiting can be different actors in the supply chains: distributors, retailers and, most importantly, consumers. The consequences of food fraud are far-reaching and not only result in economic losses, but also expose consumers to health and safety risks when handling or consuming counterfeit products. Food fraud encompasses intentional counterfeiting of authentic food products or their ingredients by substituting cheap, low-quality alternatives that may pose a potential threat to public health. Types of food fraud include, but are not limited to: adulteration, substitution, dilution, illicit alteration, simulation, counterfeiting and misrepresentation. Food fraud undermines all aspects of food quality, including food safety, nutritional value, environmental preservation, geographical origin, local traditions, ethical and social dimensions, animal welfare, and many other factors. Therefore, there is a need for advanced analytical tools to help combat food fraud.
This Special Issue aims to highlight innovative strategies, digital technologies, and advances in food traceability that can help combat food fraud and ensure food authenticity throughout the supply chain. We recognise the critical importance of these issues and their profound impact on sustainability and consumer well-being.
In this Special Issue, we invite the submission of original research articles, opinion articles, and reviews that focus on, but are not limited to, the following topics:
- Food authenticity and traceability;
- Novel analytical methods for detecting food fraud in the agri-food supply chain;
- Food fraud control and food law;
- Modeling and evaluating food fraud risks;
- Exploring perspectives for combating food fraud through data mining;
- Consumer understanding and perceptions of food fraud;
- Consumers' trust and the safety of food supply;
- Geographical indications (GI) as a tool in the fight against counterfeiting and food fraud;
- Food fraud: Economic loss and health hazards.
Prof. Dr. Zeljka Mesić
Guest Editor
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
- marketing and consumer behaviour
- food fraud
- supply chain analysis
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