Natural Antioxidants and Antimicrobials in Food Preservation

Dear Colleagues,

Food spoilage occurs during all phases of the supply chain, including production, harvesting, transport, processing, packaging, storage, marketing, and at home before or after preparation. Food waste due to microbial or oxidative spoilage is increasing by 2–4-fold or more every year around the world. To tackle this issue and extend the shelf-life of food, food industries frequently used chemical additives including sulfite derivatives, resorcinol, butylated hydroxyanisole, butylated hydroxytoluene, etc. However, these chemical additives cause serious health problems in the community upon regular consumption, especially processed food consumption. Hence, it is imperative to replace chemical preservatives with natural compounds.

Natural preservatives can be obtained through plant, microbial, and animal sources. A natural preservative can be any bioactive compound with antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. In addition, different techniques can be employed to enhance the efficacy or delivery of natural compounds in the food system, such as nano-formulation, active packaging, edible coatings, etc. The goal of this Special Issue is to provide recent advancements in the utilization of natural preservatives for shelf-life extension of the different food systems and their safety.

This Special Issue welcomes original research articles, short communications, mini-reviews, and reviews covering topics including but not limited to the following:

1. Natural compounds from plants, microbes, and animal sources;
2. Different technologies for the extraction and characterization of natural bioactive compounds;
3. Antioxidants, antimicrobials, antimelanosis, etc.;
4. Activities of natural bioactive compounds;
5. Application of natural bioactive compounds in different food systems and their storage;
6. Nano-engineering, packaging, and edible coating formulation using natural bioactive compounds and their characterization;
7. Food safety and the effect of natural bioactive compounds on different food characteristics.

Dr. Nilesh Nirmal
Dr. Gioacchino Bono
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.

• food
• natural bioactive compounds
• preservation
• shelf-life extension
• antioxidant
• antimicrobial
• packaging