Agroindustrial and Forest Bioactives and Biocompounds: From Sourcing to Industrial Use in Food

Dear Colleagues,

We warmly invite researchers to contribute research on a rapidly advancing field at the interface of food science and technology, chemical engineering, and environmental technology. This initiative focuses on unlocking the value of bioactive compounds, pigments, essential oils, and other biocompounds from agro-industrial by-products and forest resources, transforming them into high-impact ingredients for food applications.

This thematic study area aims to accelerate research across the entire value chain—from natural sourcing and obtainment to formulation for food applications. Topics of interest include the characterization, standardization, and evaluation of food applications, as well as their industrial-scale deployment. We seek contributions that carry out any of the following:

• Identify new or underexplored agro-industrial and forest-derived bioactives and biocompounds with food application potential.
• Develop green, cost-efficient extraction and purification technologies for food applications.
• Demonstrate functionality, safety, and stability of compounds in food systems.
• Showcase food industrial applications, ingredient design, and regulatory pathways.
• Support circular bioeconomy strategies for the food sector, zero-waste processing, and valorization.

If your work connects nature-derived bioactives and biocompounds with real-world food applications, this is your opportunity to contribute to an innovative, impactful Special Issue.

Dr. María del Mar Contreras
Dr. Irene Gómez Cruz
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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-anonymized 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.