Food Systems, Safety & Sustainability (FSSS) publishes interdisciplinary research addressing the organisation, safety, resilience, governance, and sustainable transformation of food systems. The journal welcomes contributions that connect scientific evidence with policy, industry practice, technological innovation, environmental stewardship, and public well-being.

The journal is particularly interested in research that examines food systems as interconnected networks involving production, processing, storage, transportation, retail, consumption, public health, resource use, waste management, regulation, and social equity.

Core Topics

Topics covered by the journal include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

• food-system transformation, resilience, and sustainability transitions;
• food safety, food quality, food integrity, and risk assessment;
• biological, chemical, physical, and emerging hazards in food systems;
• foodborne disease surveillance, prevention, and control;
• food authenticity, adulteration, fraud, and traceability;
• sustainable, regenerative, climate-smart, and precision agriculture;
• soil, water, energy, biodiversity, and ecosystem management;
• sustainable livestock, aquaculture, fisheries, and crop-production systems;
• food processing, preservation, packaging, storage, and shelf-life;
• novel foods, alternative proteins, fermentation, and food biotechnology;
• resource-efficient and low-emission food manufacturing;
• food supply chains, logistics, cold-chain management, and distribution;
• supply-chain transparency, certification, auditing, and responsible sourcing;
• food security, nutrition security, and equitable access to food;
• healthy and sustainable diets, food environments, and population health;
• food affordability, consumer behaviour, and dietary decision-making;
• food policy, legislation, regulation, standards, and governance;
• food economics, trade, markets, value chains, and political economy;
• food ethics, social justice, rights-based approaches, and inclusive development;
• food loss, food waste prevention, redistribution, and surplus management;
• circular bioeconomy, by-product valorisation, and resource recovery;
• life-cycle assessment, environmental footprints, and sustainability metrics;
• climate-change mitigation and adaptation across food systems;
• artificial intelligence, machine learning, sensors, robotics, and automation;
• blockchain, digital traceability, smart packaging, and decision-support systems;
• food-system modelling, scenario analysis, forecasting, and digital twins;
• crisis preparedness, emergency food systems, and supply-chain disruption;
• urban, rural, regional, and community food systems; and
• interdisciplinary methods for evaluating food-system sustainability and resilience.

Geographical and Institutional Coverage

FSSS welcomes studies conducted at local, regional, national, and international levels. The journal encourages comparative and context-sensitive research from high-, middle-, and low-income settings, including studies addressing smallholder agriculture, informal food markets, Indigenous and traditional food systems, rapidly urbanising regions, vulnerable communities, and areas exposed to environmental or socioeconomic disruption.

Submissions may examine households, communities, farms, food-processing enterprises, supply chains, markets, public institutions, regulatory systems, multinational organisations, or entire food systems. Studies involving collaboration among universities, governments, industry, civil society, and local communities are particularly encouraged.

Intended Readership

The journal is intended for an interdisciplinary and international readership, including:

• researchers and academics in food science and food technology;
• agricultural, environmental, and sustainability scientists;
• nutrition, epidemiology, and public-health researchers;
• food microbiologists, toxicologists, chemists, and risk-assessment specialists;
• economists, sociologists, geographers, and political scientists studying food systems;
• experts in supply-chain management, logistics, traceability, and operations;
• engineers, data scientists, and technology developers working in food and agriculture;
• policymakers, regulators, inspectors, and public administrators;
• food-industry professionals, quality managers, and sustainability officers;
• international organisations, non-governmental organisations, and development agencies;
• civil-society organisations, consumer groups, and community food initiatives;
• educators, postgraduate students, and early-career researchers; and
• other professionals concerned with food safety, food security, sustainability, and public well-being.

Relevance to Authors and Practitioners

For researchers, FSSS provides a platform for publishing scientifically rigorous, methodologically transparent, and policy-relevant work. For practitioners and decision-makers, the journal offers evidence that may support risk management, regulatory development, organisational strategy, technological adoption, sustainability planning, and food-system intervention.

The journal gives particular consideration to manuscripts that explain the broader implications of their findings. Authors should clearly identify how their research contributes to safer, more sustainable, resilient, equitable, or efficient food systems and how the results may inform future research, policy, professional practice, or technological development.

Scope Boundaries

Manuscripts should demonstrate a clear relationship to food-system safety, sustainability, resilience, governance, or transformation. Studies focused exclusively on isolated laboratory, clinical, agricultural, engineering, or commercial questions should explain their wider relevance to the food system.

Submissions that are purely descriptive, promotional, or narrowly product-oriented, without a clear scholarly contribution or broader food-system significance, may be considered outside the journal’s scope.