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

FSSS is particularly interested in research examining food systems as interconnected ecological, technological, economic, social, and institutional networks. These networks encompass food production, processing, storage, transportation, retail, consumption, public health, resource management, waste recovery, regulation, and social equity. The journal encourages research that considers interactions across different stages of the food system and evaluates their implications for safety, sustainability, resilience, and human well-being.

Core Topics

The journal's thematic coverage includes, but is not limited to, the following research 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 management.
• 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 in food systems.
• 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 disruptions.
• Urban, rural, regional, and community food systems.
• 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 across high-, middle-, and low-income settings, recognising the diversity of ecological conditions, production systems, institutional arrangements, technological capabilities, and socioeconomic circumstances that influence food-system development.

Particular attention is given to research addressing smallholder agriculture, informal food markets, Indigenous and traditional food systems, rapidly urbanising regions, vulnerable communities, and areas experiencing environmental, economic, or social disruption. Such studies may contribute to understanding how food-system challenges and potential responses differ across geographical and institutional contexts.

Submissions may examine households, communities, farms, food-processing enterprises, supply chains, markets, public institutions, regulatory systems, multinational organisations, or entire food systems. Research involving collaboration among universities, governments, industry, civil society, and local communities is particularly encouraged where such collaboration supports methodological rigour, contextual understanding, and the practical relevance of research findings.

Intended Readership

FSSS serves an international and interdisciplinary readership engaged in food-system research, policy, governance, technological development, and professional practice. Its intended audience includes:

• Researchers and academics specialising in food science and food technology.
• Agricultural, environmental, and sustainability scientists.
• Researchers in nutrition, epidemiology, and public health.
• Food microbiologists, toxicologists, chemists, and risk-assessment specialists.
• Economists, sociologists, geographers, and political scientists studying food systems.
• Specialists 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.
• Other professionals and stakeholders concerned with food safety, food security, sustainability, and public well-being.

Relevance to Authors and Practitioners

For researchers, FSSS provides a scholarly platform for communicating scientifically rigorous, methodologically transparent, and policy-relevant findings. The journal encourages contributions that advance theoretical understanding, develop or evaluate research methods, generate empirical evidence, or examine practical challenges affecting the safety, resilience, and sustainability of food systems.

For practitioners and decision-makers, published research may provide evidence relevant to risk management, regulatory development, organisational strategy, technological adoption, sustainability planning, and the design and evaluation of food-system interventions. The journal seeks to facilitate the responsible interpretation and application of research findings across scientific, governmental, industrial, and community settings.

FSSS gives particular consideration to manuscripts that clearly articulate the broader implications of their findings. Authors are encouraged to explain how their research contributes to safer, more sustainable, resilient, equitable, or efficient food systems, and to identify its potential implications for further research, public policy, professional practice, or technological development.

Scope Boundaries

Manuscripts submitted to FSSS should establish a clear and substantive relationship to food-system safety, sustainability, resilience, governance, innovation, or transformation. Studies focusing on specialised laboratory, clinical, agricultural, engineering, or commercial questions are welcome where their broader relevance to food systems is adequately explained and supported by the research objectives, methods, findings, or discussion.

Submissions that are purely descriptive, promotional, or narrowly product-oriented, without a demonstrable scholarly contribution or meaningful food-system significance, may be considered outside the journal's scope. Research intended primarily to promote commercial products, services, or institutional interests must not substitute promotional claims for independent scientific analysis.

Editorial scope: The topics outlined above are illustrative rather than exhaustive. The relevance of a manuscript is assessed in relation to its scholarly contribution, methodological quality, and alignment with the journal's aims and scope. Manuscript preparation and submission requirements are specified separately in the journal's current Author Guidelines.