Foods

About Foods

About Foods

Foods is an international, peer-reviewed, fully open access journal devoted to food science and technology, published by MDPI AG of Basel, Switzerland. The JournalsWorld record for the journal (post 2429, slug "foods") stores a single ISSN, 2304-8158, which is the journal's electronic ISSN, and publication coverage beginning in 2012. That start date is confirmed by the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), whose record for Foods gives an open access start year of 2012, and by OpenAlex, which records the journal as in DOAJ since 2012. Foods appears semimonthly, meaning two issues per month in recent practice, with accepted articles published continuously online as soon as they are ready and then gathered into issues and into the journal's many topical collections. For authors, the practical consequence is speed and visibility: a paper does not wait for a print issue, and it becomes citable, with a DOI, shortly after acceptance.

The journal sits at the centre of the modern food-science conversation. Its readership spans food chemists, food engineers, microbiologists, nutrition researchers, sensory scientists, packaging specialists and researchers working on sustainable food systems. OpenAlex, checked for this profile in October 2026, indexes 27,222 works under the Foods source record (OpenAlex source S2737939966) with 571,857 citations, figures that underline how large the journal has become since 2012. Its largest OpenAlex topic clusters are Food and Agricultural Sciences, Proteins in Food Systems, Meat and Animal Product Quality, Food Composition and Properties, Phytochemicals and Antioxidant Activities, and Probiotics and Fermented Foods. Those clusters are a useful map of what the journal actually publishes, as distinct from any short marketing description.

A correction note on the stored record is needed. The older JournalsWorld profile rendered the publisher as a bare number, a leftover of the original bulk import. The actual publisher is MDPI AG (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute), based in Switzerland, as confirmed by DOAJ, which gives the publisher as MDPI AG with country CH, and by OpenAlex, which names the host organisation as the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute. The stored record also carried an impact factor of 6.0 and an h-index of 154. Those figures are point-in-time values from an earlier data import and should not be quoted as current; the metrics section below gives fresher, attributed figures and explains how each was obtained.

Identity and Key Facts

The identity of Foods is unusually easy to verify because it has only one ISSN. Unlike older print-plus-online journals, there is no separate print ISSN to confuse with the electronic one: 2304-8158 is the title's linking ISSN in OpenAlex as well as its DOAJ eISSN. When you cite the journal, search for it in a database, or check whether a special-issue invitation really comes from this journal, that single number is the anchor. Any food journal using a different ISSN is a different journal, however similar its name sounds.

History and Development

Foods was launched by MDPI in 2012, part of the publisher's expansion from its early chemistry titles into the life and agricultural sciences. DOAJ first recorded the journal in 2013 (its DOAJ record was created on 29 October 2013) and gave it a full review most recently on 10 April 2024, with the journal ticked as meeting DOAJ's best-practice criteria. In its first years the journal was comparatively small, but its growth accelerated through the late 2010s as open access mandates from funders, institutional read-and-publish agreements and the sheer expansion of food research in Asia and Europe increased submissions. Special issues edited by guest editors became the journal's main organising device: instead of relying only on regular submissions, Foods commissions large numbers of topical collections on themes such as sustainable processing technologies, food proteins, cereal and oil storage, food polysaccharides and preservation of fresh produce, each with its own deadline and guest editorial team.

That model explains both the journal's scale and the way authors experience it. A researcher is as likely to arrive at Foods through a special-issue call matching their exact topic as through the journal's general submission route. The special-issue pages state the journal's standard terms each time: manuscripts are submitted online through MDPI's system, submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed, accepted papers are published continuously, the review model is single-anonymised, and the article processing charge is 2,900 CHF. The consistency of those terms across dozens of independently edited collections checked for this profile is itself evidence of a centralised editorial office process sitting behind the guest-edited front end.

Scope and Subject Coverage

The journal's own aims and scope, linked from its DOAJ record, present Foods as covering food sciences broadly. In practice, the published record clusters into recognisable areas. Food chemistry and composition work examines what foods contain and how composition changes during processing and storage, including proteins, polysaccharides, starch, pectin, fibre, lipids and bioactive compounds such as phytochemicals with antioxidant activity. Food technology and engineering work covers processing methods old and new, from extrusion, fermentation and germination to ultrasound, pulsed electric fields, high-pressure processing and cold plasma, as well as drying, microencapsulation and preservation technologies for fresh produce such as modified-atmosphere packaging, edible coatings and cold-chain management.

Food microbiology and safety form a second large area: probiotics and fermented foods, microbial control, detection methods for harmful substances, and quality and safety studies across the supply chain. Sensory and consumer science, covered by OpenAlex's Fermentation and Sensory Analysis cluster, addresses how processing and formulation affect flavour, texture and acceptance. Nutrition-oriented work studies digestibility, nutritional value and functional and fortified foods, bridging into the health sciences. Sustainability runs through the recent special issues as a cross-cutting theme: green processing technologies, circular-economy approaches, revalorisation of by-products, sustainable bioingredients and the effect of processing choices on bioactivity, safety and quality.

Authors should read the scope generously but not infinitely. Foods is a food journal: a paper whose centre of gravity is clinical medicine, pure plant biology with no food application, or general chemistry with no food matrix will struggle to convince editors of fit, however good it is. The strongest submissions make the food relevance explicit in the title, abstract and introduction, identify the food system studied, and state what changes for producers, processors, regulators or consumers if the findings hold.

Article Types and Editorial Process

The journal publishes original research articles, review articles and short communications, as its special-issue invitations state. Reviews are a substantial part of the journal's identity and of its citation profile; well-structured reviews of a processing technology, an ingredient class or a safety problem are actively commissioned through special issues. Manuscripts must not have been published previously and must not be under consideration elsewhere, conference proceedings papers excepted, again as stated on the journal's own invitation pages.

Peer review is single-anonymised (described by MDPI as single-blind and by DOAJ as single anonymous peer review): reviewers know the authors' identities, while authors do not know the reviewers'. DOAJ also records that the journal operates plagiarism screening, with details on the journal's instructions pages. DOAJ gives a publication time of six weeks as the journal's typical submission-to-publication window, an average that reflects MDPI's continuous-publication workflow rather than a promise for any individual paper; papers needing major revision, or submitted to a busy special issue near its deadline, will take longer. The name of the current Editor-in-Chief could not be verified from a source fetched for this profile, so it is not stated here; the journal's editorial board page, linked from DOAJ, is the authoritative place to check it before submitting.

Metrics and Standing

Journal metrics age quickly, so every figure here carries its source and checking date. The stored JournalsWorld record reported an h-index of 154 and an impact factor of 6.0, imported at an earlier date. OpenAlex, fetched in October 2026 via its ISSN endpoint for 2304-8158 (source S2737939966), reported an h-index of 188, a two-year mean citedness of 7.47, 27,222 works and 571,857 citations, with an i10-index of 14,943. OpenAlex figures move as its underlying corpus updates, so they are best read as at checking time, but the direction is clear: the journal's citation base has grown well beyond the stored snapshot.

Readers should keep the different metric families separate. A Journal Impact Factor comes from Clarivate's Journal Citation Reports and applies to a specific year; an h-index accumulates over the journal's whole history and rewards both longevity and volume; OpenAlex's two-year mean citedness is a CiteScore-like average computed from open data. A large, high-volume open access journal will naturally post a high total citation count and a high h-index, while its per-article averages give the fairer picture of a typical paper's reception. Foods is placed in the first quartile (Q1) in the stored JournalsWorld record; quartile labels depend on the category and the ranking provider, so authors who need a quartile for a promotion or funding file should confirm the current category quartile in Scopus or Journal Citation Reports directly rather than relying on any directory page, including this one.

Indexing and Discoverability

DOAJ listing is verified directly: the DOAJ search API returned exactly one record for ISSN 2304-8158, the Foods record summarised in the key-facts table, including its CC BY licence, CLOCKSS preservation and author-retained copyright. OpenAlex independently flags the source as in DOAJ since 2012 and as a core source, and lists additional national listings. Indexing in Scopus and Web of Science could not be re-verified from a primary database page fetched for this profile, so this profile makes no fresh claim about them; authors for whom Scopus or Web of Science indexing is a hard requirement should check the current Scopus source list and Clarivate's Master Journal List by ISSN before submitting. Preservation through CLOCKSS, verified in DOAJ, means the journal's content is held in a dark archive designed to keep it accessible even if the publisher's platform fails.

Open Access, Fees and Waivers

Foods is fully open access: every article is free to read on publication under a CC BY 4.0 licence, and authors retain copyright, per DOAJ. The cost of that model falls on the author side as an Article Processing Charge of 2,900 CHF, confirmed in three places fetched for this profile: the DOAJ record's APC field, OpenAlex's APC price data (2,900 CHF, with a 2025 dollar equivalent of 3,499 USD in OpenAlex's by-year series), and MDPI's own special-issue pages, which state the 2,900 CHF charge verbatim. DOAJ records that the journal has a waiver policy, with details on MDPI's APC page; waivers and discounts are discretionary and should be requested before or at submission, not assumed. Many authors will instead have the charge covered by an institutional agreement or a funder grant, so the practical first step is to check your institution's MDPI arrangement. There are no other charges recorded by DOAJ.

How to Submit

Submissions are made online through MDPI's submission system, reached from the journal homepage at mdpi.com/journal/foods. The journal's own pages describe the route plainly: register and log in at mdpi.com, go to the submission form, and submit the manuscript, optionally to a named special issue whose topic matches the work. Before submitting, read the Instructions for Authors page for the journal, which DOAJ also links directly, covering formatting, reference style, ethics requirements and the editorial procedure. Submitted manuscripts should be well formatted and use good English; MDPI offers an English editing service that authors may use before publication or during revision, as its pages note, but use of that paid service is optional and does not affect editorial decisions.

A practical submission checklist for this journal runs as follows. Confirm the ISSN and journal identity on the submission page match 2304-8158 and Foods. Decide between the general route and a special issue, and if a special issue, confirm its deadline and guest editors on the journal site itself rather than from an email invitation alone, since invitations in this field are sometimes imitated. Prepare the manuscript to the journal's template, include ethics and consent statements where the work involves humans, animals or sensory panels, and have the APC funding route identified in advance so acceptance does not stall on payment. After submission, expect an editorial pre-check, then single-anonymised review, then, if accepted, continuous online publication once production and the APC are complete.

Is Foods Right for Your Paper?

Foods fits authors who want a large, fast, fully open access food-science venue with a broad readership and a well-developed special-issue system that can place niche work in front of exactly the right sub-community. It suits processing, composition, safety, sensory and sustainability studies with clear food relevance, and reviews that organise a fast-moving topic. It is a weaker fit for work needing a small, society-run journal's community, for clinical trials whose home is medical publishing, or for authors whose institution will not fund a 2,900 CHF charge and who have no waiver route. The six-week typical publication time recorded by DOAJ is attractive against grant and graduation deadlines, but speed should never be the only reason for choosing a venue: check current indexing where your career rules require it, read recent papers in your exact topic to judge the company your paper will keep, and confirm the special issue you are joining is genuinely part of this journal by starting from the journal homepage.

Similar Journals to Consider

Authors weighing Foods commonly also consider other food-science titles. Food Chemistry and Food Research International are long-established subscription-and-hybrid Elsevier titles with a chemistry and general food-research focus respectively. Foods' MDPI stablemates and neighbours include Nutrients for nutrition-leaning work and Molecules and Applied Sciences for chemistry and applied work that touches food. Frontiers in Nutrition and Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems offer alternative fully open access routes. Within JournalsWorld, related records include Journal of Food Science, Food Hydrocolloids and LWT – Food Science and Technology. Comparing scope statements, charges and current indexing across two or three of these before submitting is time well spent.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the ISSN of Foods?
2304-8158. It is the journal's electronic ISSN and its only ISSN; DOAJ lists it as the eISSN and OpenAlex uses it as the linking ISSN.

Who publishes Foods?
MDPI AG of Basel, Switzerland. The older JournalsWorld profile showed a number in place of the publisher name; that was an import artefact, corrected here from DOAJ and OpenAlex records.

Is Foods open access, and what does it cost?
Yes, fully open access under CC BY 4.0 with authors retaining copyright. The Article Processing Charge is 2,900 CHF per accepted paper, per DOAJ and MDPI's own pages. A waiver policy exists; details are on MDPI's APC page.

Is Foods listed in DOAJ?
Yes. The DOAJ search API returned the journal's record for ISSN 2304-8158 when checked for this profile, with an open access start year of 2012 and a last full DOAJ review dated 10 April 2024.

How is peer review handled?
Single-anonymised (single-blind) review, per DOAJ and MDPI's journal pages, with plagiarism screening recorded by DOAJ. Manuscripts that pass editorial pre-check go to reviewers; accepted papers are published continuously online.

How fast is publication?
DOAJ records a typical publication time of six weeks. Individual papers vary with reviewer speed and revision rounds, so treat six weeks as the journal's reported average, not a guarantee.

What are the journal's citation metrics?
OpenAlex, at checking time in October 2026, reported an h-index of 188 and a two-year mean citedness of 7.47 for 27,222 works. The older stored JournalsWorld figures (h-index 154, impact factor 6.0) are earlier snapshots and should not be quoted as current.

Sources and Verification

This profile was built from the live JournalsWorld record for post 2429 (title, slug and stored ISSN verified directly), the DOAJ search API record for ISSN 2304-8158, the OpenAlex source record resolved through its ISSN endpoint (S2737939966; the phantom source sometimes returned for other titles was not used), and MDPI's own Foods special-issue and journal pages for the submission route, review model and charge. Figures are attributed to their source in the text and were correct at checking time; journal metrics and charges change, so confirm them on the journal's site before making a submission or payment decision.