Quality and Functionality of Plant Foods

Dear Colleagues,

Traditionally, consumers expect a steady increase in the quality, safety, and diversity of food. Consumers’ perception of food quality is a dynamic variable which might focus on products, processes, or management issues, such as social and environmental awareness. Today, the increase in the number of health-conscious consumers has had a significant effect on the food market, creating a new trend of foods, the so-called health promoting foods or functional foods. The definition of “functional foods” is a working concept. Still, the most accepted understanding of the term is that it can be considered to be those whole, fortified, enriched or enhanced foods that provide health benefits when they are consumed at efficacious levels as part of a varied diet on a regular basis. The aggregation of embracing both concepts of quality and functionality is a challenge. There is a need to respond to consumers’ desires, to develop products that have a particular functionality on health and are perceived of having quality. This will create the opportunity to drive consumer engagement in food products that address public health issues through their participation in diet and lifestyle. This Special Issue aims to cover recent studies addressing functional foods and drinks developed under quality and safety standards in a way that aims to inspire consumers to eat mindfully.

Objectives: Physical–chemical, microbiological, and biochemical characterization of plant foods and their components through advanced analytical methods; study of the effect of food processing technologies, both traditional and innovative, on quality and health-promoting compounds, their bioaccessibility, and bioavailability; development and optimization of new functional plant foods and ingredients and shelf-life estimation; study on the potential bioresource for the extraction of nutraceuticals and bioactive compounds and their potential application in plant foods.

Research Lines:

• Quality and functionality of plant foods and their constituents;
• New functional plant foods and ingredients;
• Processing technologies and impact on quality and functionality of plant foods;
• Characterization and optimization of healthy promoting compounds incorporated in plant food;
• Effect of addition healthy promoting compounds on the physicochemical, microbiological, and sensory characteristics of plant foods;
• Functional ingredients from waste food industry.

Skills:

• Evaluation of the quality, physical–chemical, nutritional functionality and safety of plant foods, either fresh or processed, and ingredients;
• Design of new and functional plant foods and ingredients based on consumers’ needs;
• Evaluation of the impact of traditional and innovative technologies in quality and functionality of plant foods, including bioaccessibility and bioavailability studies;
• Development of green extraction technologies for the recovery of added-value healthy compounds and their efficient utilization in development quality plant products;
• Integration and model in functional plant food development.

Dr. Elsa Margarida Gonçalves
Dr. Marta Abreu
Dr. Nuno Bartolomeu Alvarenga
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. Foods 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 2900 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.

• Plant product
• Functional foods
• Food processing effect
• Green extraction technologies
• Healthy compounds incorporation
• Quality and safety