**Preface to "Quality Evaluation of Plant-Derived Foods"**

It is well established that preference (but not exclusivity) for plant-derived foods can result in both health and environmental benefits. However, it must be acknowledged that not all plant-derived foods present the same quality to consumers. Hence, traditional and novel tools to assure high quality standards have to be applied to these types of foods. At the same time, the definition of quality may be different from product to product, and must be studied accordingly. The composition in terms of bioactive compounds content, fat content or fatty acid profile, vitamins, carbohydrates, and volatile compounds, as well as microbial safety and sensorial characteristics, are some of the parameters that can provide insight into the quality of plant-derived foods. Of course, these types of foods are usually subjected to some kind of post-harvest processing or storage that can alter their properties. This has also led to the need to study how these procedures change the characteristics of the original food.

This new MDPI book publishes important manuscripts dealing with "Quality Evaluation of Plant-Derived Foods". This includes novel approaches to this line of research, as well as the use of established methodologies to analyze novel plant foods, understudied species, or to obtain new data on known plant foods.

> **Ivo Vaz de Oliveira** *Editor*
