Innovative Food Technologies for a Sustainable Future: Bridging Science, Processing, and Circularity

In the face of growing global challenges such as climate change, resource scarcity, and population growth, the transition toward a more sustainable food system has become a scientific and societal imperative. Food technology plays a pivotal role in enabling this transition, offering solutions that can reduce environmental impacts, valorize by-products, extend shelf life, and improve nutritional quality without compromising safety or sensory attributes.

This Research Topic aims to gather cutting-edge studies that focus on technological innovations across the food supply chain—from raw material optimization to final product design—with a specific emphasis on sustainability, circularity, and resource efficiency. It welcomes interdisciplinary approaches that combine food science, processing engineering, packaging technology, biotechnology, and green chemistry to rethink the way we produce, transform, and consume food.

Key subtopics include, but are not limited to:

○ Sustainable processing methods (e.g., cold plasma, HPP, PEF, fermentation, green extraction)
○ Valorization of agri-food by-products and upcycled ingredients
○ Development of clean-label and climate-smart foods
○ Plant-based innovations and novel proteins (e.g., algae, mycoproteins, insects)
○ Advanced food packaging systems for waste reduction and shelf-life extension
○ Sensor-based monitoring and AI applications for process optimization
○ Energy- and water-saving strategies in food production
○ Life cycle assessment (LCA) of food technologies and sustainability metrics

We particularly encourage contributions that provide experimental evidence, case studies, and scalable applications, as well as review papers that map the state of the art and future directions.

By bridging scientific advancement with real-world application, this collection aims to foster a deeper understanding of how food technology can drive the transition toward resilient, equitable, and circular food systems.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: food technology, circular economy, resource efficiency, novel processing methods, by-product valorization, plant-based proteins, clean-label foods, food packaging innovation, life cycle assessment (LCA), sustainable food systems

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.