The Journal of Food Science and Technology (JFST) is the official publication of the Association of Food Scientists and Technologists of India (AFSTI). The Journal is envisaged as the major platform for communicating advances/developments in the post-harvest science, engineering and technology aspects of food/food products to researchers, academicians, industry as well as students of food science and technology. This peer reviewed Journal publishes novel and high quality reviews, original research and short communications covering the wide range of post-harvest related science, engineering and technological aspects of foods, food products and related byproducts with special emphasis on the basic and applied research findings that will impact the quality, safety and/or shelf life of fresh or processed food products including findings that will help improvise the efficiency of a process/technology, effective utilization of by-products or wastes resulting from food processing operations. Manuscripts dealing with pre-harvest aspects will only be considered if the work clearly indicates the relevance to post-harvest practices/processing that will directly impact the safety, quality or shelf life of the food or food products. Critical reviews on new perspectives in food handling and processing, innovative and emerging technologies and trends and future research in food products and food industry byproducts are also welcome. The Journal also publishes book reviews relevant to science, technology and engineering aspects of food or food products.
The major areas of food/food products covered by the Journal are -
· Chemistry, microbiology and biotechnology aspects of food
· Emerging safety and toxicological issues
· Food and material engineering
· Physical / chemical / sensory properties of food
· Advances in sensory science
· Food quality and safety
· Nutraceuticals, functional foods and functional ingredients
· Biophysical analysis of food or processing operations
· Applied research related to food nanotechnology
· Emerging technologies
· Environmental, safety and sustainability aspects of processing
· Waste / by-product management in food processing
The following will not be considered for publication in JFST and will be rejected as being outside the scope -
· Studies with no food component
· Any study indicating only a marginal improvement in existing knowledge due to obviousness of material added or slight modification in the existing formulations and ingredients.
· Any study that merely describes the characteristics of the ingredients without a scientific evidence of the mechanism for the observed change
· General research papers indicating the biofunctional properties (antioxidant, antimicrobial etc) of a food without the proper identification of compound that is responsible for the observed activity. This will include any phytochemicals or substances of animal origin or any minor components of foods.
· Any research paper that deals with preharvest or production aspects without relevance to post-harvest operations
· Papers reporting application of microorganisms in food processing operation without a proper accession number for the organisms from a public culture collection like ATCC, MTCC etc.
· Any work reporting antimicrobial compounds without it being validated in a food system. Whenever such papers are submitted they should be submitted with appropriate molecular data for them to be considered.
· Optimization experiments without validation steps independent of the optimization runs.
· Papers dealing with routine analysis and storage studies with reference to known processing methods that result in obvious changes in quality or shelf life, with mere change in raw materials without scientifically/mathematically explaining the specific component/step that is resulting in the observed changes
· Generally, surveys (chemical, nutritional, physical or microbiological) will not be considered unless they clearly indicate the relevance to food science and technology.
· Any studies merely focusing on the pharmacological or nutritional aspects merely focusing the hosts without consideration for the foods or effect of processing operations on active components.
· Any nutritional study that does not emphasize on the bioavailability or bio-functionality
· Food engineering manuscripts without mathematical verification or in-situ validation wherever appropriate
· Papers that report only analysis without any depth in scientific aspects
· Fragmented studies, of low scientific quality, or poorly written.