Fresh-like foods, of animal or vegetable origin, are increasingly sought after by consumers who are strongly convinced that the conventional stabilization techniques traditionally employed for food preservation can be detrimental to the nutritional quality of foods.

New mild technologies have the aim of stabilizing foods, making them fresh-like, safe, and pleasant to taste, without causing a loss of the organoleptic and nutritional qualities. Moreover, a specific challenge of these technologies is associated with their ability to preserve foods in a sustainable way, by avoiding high investment costs and energy expenditure. These innovative technologies might include mechanical processes, electromagnetic technologies, acoustic technologies, innovative chemical processing technologies, and others such as membrane filtration and dense phase CO₂.

Many investigations into the application of new mild nonthermal technologies for food preservation have been reported over the past two decades. Most of them have been mainly focused on the evaluation of the microbiological safety of the final product; however comprehensive studies on the effects of the different technologies on the whole quality of the food, as well as the sustainability of its application at industrial scales, are quite rare.

The special issue welcomes original research and review articles focused on the application of new mild technologies in the preservation of fresh-like foods, particularly highlighting the effects on physicochemical, rheological, nutritional, antioxidant, microbiological, and sensory quality of the new food product. The proposed investigations must also comprise storage studies in order to define the shelf-life of the stabilized product. Experimental designs of new technologies and systems at industrial, pilot or lab scale, are encouraged. Moreover legal aspects linked to the application of the technology at industrial scale have to be taken into consideration. Finally LCA analysis and technical analysis linked to the evaluation of the sustainability of the proposed technology are welcome.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Application of new mild technologies for the preservation of foods while maintaining fresh-like quality
• Physicochemical, rheological, nutritional, antioxidant, microbiological, and sensory quality of foods stabilized by new mild technologies
• Storage studies for the definition of the commercial shelf-life of foods stabilized by new mild technologies
• Experimental designs of new technologies and systems at industrial, pilot, or lab scale
• LCA and technical analysis for the evaluation of the sustainability of new mild technologies for food preservation, also referring to the legal aspects linked to their application at industrial scale