Cogent Food & Agriculture

From Feed to Food: Nutritional Strategies Shaping the Quality of Animal Derived Products

The quality of animal-derived food products represents the outcome of complex interactions between animal nutrition, their metabolism, and post-harvest processes. Designing novel nutritional strategies is the main step in determining animal productivity, nutritional composition, physicochemical properties, and sensory attributes of the animal-origin products obtained. Current advances in feed formulation, including the use of functional ingredients, alternative protein sources, by-products, and precision nutrition approaches, represent new ways to enhance the value of animal-derived food products. At the same time, consumers are demanding products that are not only safe and high-quality but also aligned with ethical standards, sustainability, and health outcomes. This evolving field requires continuous comprehensive understanding of how feeding practices influence food quality from a farm-to-fork context.

Understanding the link between animal feeding and food quality is essential for addressing global challenges related to nutrition, food security, and sustainable production. Diet-induced modifications in animal-derived products can improve their nutritional profile, such as fatty acids, vitamins, and bioactive compound composition, contributing further to human health. Moreover, designing adequate nutritional strategies can influence product safety, shelf life, and technological properties, which are critical for the food industry and consumer acceptance. In the context of worldwide pressure to reduce the environmental footprint of livestock systems, innovative feeding approaches, such as the use of recycled agro-industrial by-products/wastes or novel feed ingredients, offer solutions toward more sustainable production. Integrating these aspects is crucial for developing resilient feed and food systems that deliver high-quality products while meeting regulatory standards and societal expectations while addressing SDG goals.

This Article Collection invites contributions that explore the relationships between animal nutrition and the quality of animal-derived foods within the scope of animal nutrition, food science, and technology. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the impact of feeding strategies on nutritional composition, functional properties, shelf-life evaluation, development of value-added products, sensory characteristics, and safety of animal-derived products. Studies addressing novel feed ingredients, precision feeding, feed additives, alternative feed ingredients, and sustainable feeding systems are particularly welcome, especially when linked to measurable improvements in food quality. Submissions may also cover animals' health evaluation and the characterization of alternative ingredients with the purpose of designing value-added feed and food products. We welcome original research articles and review papers that provide new insights into how feeding practices can be leveraged to optimize the quality and value of animal-derived foods.

Keywords: Animal Nutrition, Food Quality, Animal-Derived Products, Sustainability, Functional Food Properties

Guest Advisors:

Dr. Petru Alexandru Vlaicu Ph.D. is a researcher specialized in animal nutrition and food science. His work focuses on the chemical composition of feed ingredients, including bioactive compounds, and on the use of innovative dietary strategies to improve the nutritional quality of animal-derived products. His research also explores how sustainable feeding practices influence animal performance, metabolic responses to dietary interventions, and the functional and health-promoting properties of food products. Here is the link to his ORCID page: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4156-8244

Dr. Raluca Paula Turcu Ph.D. is a researcher specialized in food science and technology, with expertise in the quality assessment and characterization of lipids in plant materials and animal-derived products. Her work integrates chemical and nutritional approaches to understand how feeding strategies influence the composition and functionality of animal-derived foods. Her research interests include lipid quality, nutrition, functional foods, chemical analysis, and food safety. Here is the link to her ORCID page: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6590-0112

Dr. Arabela Elena Untea Ph.D. is a Senior Researcher and Head of the Feed and Food Quality Department at the National Research and Development Institute for Animal Biology and Nutrition, Romania. Her research focuses on feeds and animal-derived foods with functional characteristics developed through nutritional strategies. She is involved in the assessment of feed additive bioefficiency through laboratory experiments, the study of oxidative process reduction at the tissue level via nutrition, and in vitro investigations of nutrient bioaccessibility in the gastrointestinal tract of monogastric animals. Here is the link to her ORCID page: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3000-5024.

Disclosure statement: All Guest Advisors declare no conflict of interest.

All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo desk assessment and peer-review as part of our standard editorial process; the Guest Advisor for this Collection will not be handling the manuscripts (unless they are an Editorial Board member).

Please review the journal scope  and author submission instructions  prior to submitting a manuscript.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is February 28th, 2027.

Please contact Ruby Ru at [email protected]  with any queries and discount codes regarding this Article Collection.

To submit your papers to this Article Collection, please:

1. Check "yes" for the question, "Are you submitting your paper for a specific special issue or article collection?"
2. Select the relevant Article Collection from the drop-down menu under the question, "Special Issue or Article Collection Name."