Food Safety, Food Quality, Food Packaging and Sustainable Food Supply Chains

Dear Colleagues,

On the scale of the European Union, one of the largest and more important plans is the European Green Deal, developed by the European Commission, which covers many different sectors of the economy and sets eight basic goals, of which an important element in the context of the food industry is more sustainable nutrition, whose implementation corresponds to the "Farm to Fork" strategy, covering four basic areas: sustainable production of raw materials, sustainable food processing and distribution, sustainable consumption, and prevention of food waste and excessive waste production. Consumers are increasingly aware that the quality of food products is influenced by every stage of the production process, including the supply chain. Improper storage, packaging, and transport conditions may affect not only the quality of the product but, above all, aspects of food safety. The food supply chain is a sequence of stages and processes of production, processing, distribution, and storage of food up to its consumption. From the point of view of an enterprise and a farm, supply logistics and timely delivery of raw materials are very important.

The functioning of the supply chain is essential to ensure food security and trace the origin of products. Thanks to information about irregularities, companies can quickly react, identify the problem, and then remove it. Recently, there has been an increase in interest in edible packaging, which has a positive impact on the natural environment and can additionally make a food product more attractive. Their production often uses food production by-products, which is consistent with the idea of sustainable development. However, critical points of delivery and storage of food packaged in edible coatings should be examined. There is a need to update knowledge about new trends in agri-food production in the context of sustainable development in the product supply chain.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

We invite you to publish original, high-quality scientific articles on key issues of a sustainable agri-food supply chain across a wide range of research areas.

1. Food safety problems at various stages of production and delivery.
2. The influence of storage and packaging conditions on food quality.
3. The use of innovative solutions in the field of edible packaging in accordance with the idea of sustainable development, as well as the safety and quality of these products during storage.
4. The impact of the quality of raw materials used in food production on product quality and supply chain behavior.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Agnieszka Ciurzyńska
Dr. Monika Janowicz
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.

• supply chain
• food safety
• food quality
• food packaging