"Emerging and Digital Technologies for Sustainable Food Processing — CEFood 2026"

The development of sustainable food manufacturing requires processing technologies that deliver consistent quality and safety while improving the use of energy, water and raw materials. Integrating emerging processing methods with measurement, modelling and digital control offers opportunities to improve both individual operations and interconnected production systems. Dedicated to the 13th Central European Congress on Food, this Special Issue will address advances in food process engineering, preservation and digital manufacturing. It will examine how new technologies can be designed, evaluated and integrated into industrial practice, with attention to process effectiveness, resource consumption and operational reliability.
We invite original research articles, reviews and technical contributions presenting experimental validation, predictive models and industrial applications. Studies that quantify technological benefits, examine scale-up limitations or compare emerging processes with established alternatives are particularly welcome. Contributions on education and professional training should demonstrate their relevance to the implementation of advanced food technologies.

Topics of Interest
We invite original research papers, review articles, and case studies addressing the following (but not limited to) topics:
- Emerging thermal, non-thermal and combined food processing methods
- Advanced refrigeration, freezing and cold-chain engineering
- Hygienic equipment design and validation of cleaning processes
- Sensors, machine vision and non-destructive process measurements
- Artificial intelligence, robotics and automated process control
- Digital twins and predictive modelling of food manufacturing
- Advanced separation, extraction and drying operations
- Energy integration, water reuse and resource-efficient production
- Intelligent packaging technologies and digital traceability systems
- Industrial implementation, techno-economic assessment and training for technology adoption

Important Dates
Manuscript Submission Deadline: December 15, 2026
Publication Date (Online): 2027

Instructions for authors
Please select the "CEFood 2026 - Emerging and Digital Technologies for Sustainable Food Processing" section when submitting articles.
Online Submisions
Author Guidelines

Issue Editor

Prof. Georgi Kostov, DSc
University of Food Technologies, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
e-mail: g_kostov@uft-plovdiv.bg

Co-Editor:

Prof. Eng. Nedyalko Todorov Katrandzhiev, PhD
University of Food Technologies, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
e-mail: n_katrandzhiev@uft-plovdiv.bg


Assoc. Prof. Rositsa Denkova-Kostova, PhD
University of Food Technologies, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
e-mail: rositsa-denkova@uft-plovdiv.bg