Trends in food science and technology

Trends in Food Science & Technology (trends-in-food-science-and-technology)

Journal positioning

Trends in Food Science & Technology is the Elsevier review and synthesis journal for food science and technology — critical reviews, trend analyses, and opinion that frame the state and direction of a field. Its defining expectation is critical synthesis, not new primary data: a comprehensive, evaluative account that integrates the existing literature, identifies what is settled and what is contested, and points to research gaps and emerging directions. A manuscript whose core contribution is original experimental results is the single largest desk-reject risk here, regardless of quality. This skill is a fit / venue-selection / re-framing tool. It does not replace the journal's current author guidelines. Before submitting, re-check the live Trends in Food Science & Technology guidance.

When to trigger

• The author names Trends in Food Science & Technology and wants a fit check for a review or trend article in food science.
• A body of primary work needs to be re-framed as a critical, gap-identifying synthesis rather than submitted as a primary-research paper.
• The author is choosing between a review venue and a primary-research food journal, or is unsure whether their topic is "review-ready."
• The author needs this journal's comprehensiveness/critical-synthesis bar and desk-reject heuristics.

Scope & topic fit

• Critical reviews across food chemistry, processing, engineering, microbiology, nutrition, safety, packaging, and sustainability that evaluate rather than merely catalog the literature.
• Trend and forward-looking articles on emerging technologies, ingredients, or paradigms (e.g., novel processing, alternative proteins, clean-label, digital/food-tech).
• Methodological or conceptual syntheses that reconcile conflicting findings and propose a framework or research agenda.
• Systematic or scoping reviews and meta-analyses with a transparent, reproducible search and selection protocol.
• Cross-cutting topics connecting food technology to health, sustainability, or regulation when treated as a synthesis for a broad food-science readership.
• Authoritative tutorials on a maturing technique only when they add critical evaluation, not a how-to manual.

Method & evidence bar

• The contribution is the synthesis: coverage must be comprehensive and current, with balanced treatment of competing evidence rather than a one-sided narrative.
• For systematic reviews/meta-analyses, the search strategy, databases, inclusion/exclusion criteria, and (where relevant) risk-of-bias assessment must be explicit and reproducible.
• Claims about "trends" need evidence — citation patterns, technological trajectories, or documented adoption — not assertion.
• The review must add analytical value: critical comparison, a new organizing framework, reconciliation of contradictions, and clearly stated research gaps.
• Original experimental data are not the contribution; small confirmatory data, if present, must be subordinate to the synthesis and never the central claim.
• Citations should be primary and current; over-reliance on prior reviews or stale literature undermines the comprehensiveness bar.

Structure & house style

• Review/trend-article format with a clear conceptual architecture; re-check current article types and length expectations on the live guide.
• The introduction must define the scope, justify why a review is needed now, and state the organizing question — not open with a primary-study rationale.
• Use synthesis devices: comparison tables, framework figures, and timelines that integrate sources, rather than figures reporting the authors' own raw measurements.
• A dedicated "future directions / research gaps" treatment is expected, with specific, actionable open questions.
• Graphical abstract and highlights are expected; re-check current specifications on the live guide.

Official-submission checklist

• Before giving submission-ready advice, read ../../resources/source-basis.md and ../../resources/official-source-map.md; start from the Elsevier anchors, then cite the current Trends in Food Science & Technology page you checked.
• Search the live site for "Trends in Food Science & Technology guide for authors" and follow the current Elsevier version.
• Confirm that the manuscript type is a review/trend article and re-check accepted article types and length.
• For systematic reviews, re-check whether a reporting standard (e.g., a PRISMA-style protocol) is expected.
• Re-check graphical-abstract/highlights specifications and any pre-submission proposal/abstract step.
• Re-check competing-interests, funding, author-contribution, and AI-use disclosure, and open-access terms.
• If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official instructions win.

Pre-submission self-check

• The core contribution is critical synthesis, not original experimental results.
• Literature coverage is comprehensive, current, and balanced across competing views.
• Any systematic review reports a transparent, reproducible search and selection protocol.
• The review adds a framework, reconciliation, or comparison beyond cataloging sources.
• A specific, actionable research-gaps / future-directions section is present.
• Highlights and graphical abstract are prepared per the live guide.

Common desk-reject triggers

• A primary-research manuscript (the experimental results are the contribution) submitted as a review.
• A "review" that merely lists and paraphrases studies without critical evaluation or a framework.
• Narrow or outdated coverage, or heavy reliance on previous reviews instead of primary sources.
• Systematic-review claims with an opaque or unreproducible search and selection process.
• A vague "future trends" narrative unsupported by evidence of the trajectory.
• Scope mismatch: a topic too niche or too settled to warrant a broad-audience critical review.

Re-routing decision

• Original food-chemistry data is the contribution → food-chemistry.
• Food-systems-significance synthesis for the Nature audience → nature-food.
• Sustainability/cleaner-production review framing → journal-of-cleaner-production.
• Invited, authoritative environment-and-resources synthesis → annual-review-of-environment-and-resources.
• Contaminant/pollution-impact review → environmental-pollution.

Output format

[Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason)
[Target] Trends in Food Science & Technology
[Topic tags] <2–3 closest food-science review topics>
[Synthesis contribution] <the framework / reconciliation / gap-mapping the review delivers>
[Review rigor] <coverage, balance, and (if systematic) search transparency>
[Top risk] <the single most likely reason for rejection — usually "this is primary research">
[Official items to re-check] <article type / review reporting standard / highlights / disclosures>
[Re-route suggestion] <if not a fit, a better-matched venue>