Sustainable Food Systems and Circular Bioeconomy

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will publish contributions about advancements in the sustainability of food systems and the circular bioeconomy and related key topics of high impact. The 20th century saw great achievements in food safety and security, although at the cost of the erosion of natural resources and the dissemination of unhealthy diets, while the 21st century saw an increasing awareness of the threats (such as climate change) and challenges (such as fighting obesity in parallel with malnutrition). In addition, the Covid-19 sanitary crisis exacerbated inequalities with risks of growing food insecurity, antimicrobial resistance, gaps in food safety, and disruption of supply chains. Moreover, there is an urgency in restoring soils and agrobiodiversity, in order to deliver nutritious and safe foods to human populations across the globe, while tackling climate change. As the food system encompasses multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), such threats and challenges need to be approached in a transversal way. In this respect, the Mediterranean diet, which goes beyond the food pattern that inspired newly developed diets (nordic, flexitarian), also encompasses other inspirational dimensions of sustainability, as nature-respectful landscapes, ways of optimizing water management, and cultural and social values that influence behaviors. In improving processes and changing attitudes, the environmental impact of foods must be assessed by adequate and widely adopted metrics that can be clearly communicated and aligned with consumer preferences. This Special Issue will comprise selected papers that cover topics related, but not limited to, the following keywords:

Sustainability metrics; valuing agrobiodiversity; sustainable diets; sustainable food processing; secondary raw materials; food storage and supply chains; food packaging; consumer behavior; economic aspects of circular bioeconomy.

Dr. Amélia Martins Delgado
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized 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.