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Food & Function is a Transformative Journal and Plan S compliant
Impact factor: 5.1*
Time to first decision (all decisions): 7.0 days**
Time to first decision (peer reviewed only): 45.0 days***
Editor-in-Chief: Christine Morand
Indexed/Abstracted in British Library, CAS, MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science/Science Citation Index-Expanded
Open access publishing options available
Journal scope
Food & Function provides a unique venue for physicists, chemists, biochemists, nutritionists and other food scientists to publish novel, cutting-edge, original research focussing on food, its nutrients and their relation to human health and nutrition.
We welcome research describing the:
- Physical properties and structure of food and how this relates to sensory perception and human health
- Biochemical and physiological actions of food components
- Interactions between foods, gut microbiota and human physiology
- Nutritional and biological evaluation of food
- Clinical and population studies using food or food components
- Development of biomarkers of food intake and effects on human health
- We also welcome systematic reviews and meta-analyses of existing studies in the literature, provided these are objective and scientifically valid
Food in this context is defined as materials of plant, animal or mineral origin, which are consumed orally (by humans) for pleasure and to sustain growth and vital processes.
Examples of research topics that are of interest to be published in Food & Function are:
- Chemistry and physics of food components and digestion processes
- Relationship between the physical properties/structure of food and nutrition and human health - for example, impact of food matrix or processing on nutrient release and uptake
- Molecular properties and physiological effects of food components (nutrients, fibres, essential micronutrients, phytochemicals, bioactives, food substitutes, novel ingredients, allergens, flavours and fragrances)
- Nutritional and health effects of food including bioavailability and metabolism assessment of food components (nutrients, micronutrients and other microconstituents)
- Efficacy and mechanisms of food constituents in the body - including biomarkers of intakes, exposure and effects
- Impacts of foods/food components on gut microorganisms and human physiology - For example impact of fermented foods
- Role of nutrition and diet in human disease prevention and development
- Cellular and molecular effects/mechanisms of food/food components
The following types of research are not within the scope of Food & Function:
- Research relating to traditional herbal medicines, medicinal plants or active compounds extracted from such plants (materials that are primarily consumed as medicine, i.e. the intended purpose is primarily to treat, cure or prevent a non-deficiency disease) or relating to foods not recognised as human diet contributors
- Animal nutrition research that is not primarily designed as a model to benefit human nutrition (for example, studies of growth/accretion, heat stress, weaning, ruminant digestion, meat quality, etc.)
- Treatments administered by non-oral routes such as injection (subcutaneous, intramuscular, intraperitoneal, etc.), dermal/transdermal, rectal, inhalation, nasal, etc. Exceptions are when such routes of administration are used for mechanistic/control purposes in the experimental design
- Pharmacological/pharmaceutical approaches: Encapsulation, emulsification and/or pure controlled release of compounds or bioactives that do not come directly from edible foods, such as dietary supplements - these are better suited to a pharmaceutical journal
- In vitro or in vivo studies with poorly defined (insufficiently characterised) extracts and studies without appropriate controls will not be considered
- Cells studies not considering the metabolism of food components ingested – for example, irrelevant exposure of cells to compounds not present in the body after absorption
- Manuscripts with only a fully theoretical/bioinformatic approach and without appropriate support from analytical evidence will not be considered for publication
- Studies focussing solely on food engineering, preservation and sustainable technologies – these can be published in our companion journal Sustainable Food Technology
- Pure food analysis - these can be published in Analytical Methods
Meet the team
Find out who is on the editorial and advisory boards for the Food & Function journal.
Editor-in-chief
Christine Morand, INRAE, France
Associate editors
Lillian Barros, Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Portugal
Charlotte Beaudart, University of Namur, Belgium
Catherine Bondonno, Edith Cowan University, Australia
Laura Bravo-Clemente, Institute of Food Science, Technology and Nutrition, Spain
Monica Galleano, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Liwei Gu, University of Florida, USA
Kee-Hong Kim, Purdue University, USA
Xuebo Liu, Northwest A&F University, China
Andrew P. Neilson, Plants for Human Health Institute, North Carolina State University, USA
Ana Rodriguez-Mateos, King's College London, UK
Hiroyuki Sakakibara, Kobe University, Japan
Elke Scholten, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
David Vauzour, University of East Anglia, UK
Mario Allegra, University of Palermo, Italy
Hitoshi Ashida, Kobe University, Japan
Sanjay Basak, ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition, India
Letizia Bresciani, University of Parma, Italy
Zhen-yu Chen, Chinese University of Hong Kong,
Kevin Croft, University of Western Australia, Australia
Eric Decker, University of Massachusetts, USA
Cristian Del Bo', University of Milan, Italy
Mario Ferruzzi, Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, USA
Inês Figueira, NOVA Medical School, Portugal
Tim Foster, University of Nottingham, UK
Cesar Fraga, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Rocio García-Villalba, CEBAS-CSIC, Spain
Mike Gidley, University of Queensland, Australia
Chris Gill, Ulster University, UK
Antonio Gonzales-Sarrias, CEBAS-CSIC, Spain
Neuza Mariko Aymoto Hassimotto, University of São Paulo, Brazil
Chi-Tang Ho, Rutgers University, USA
Luana Izzo, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Sabine Kulling, Max Rubner-Institut, Germany
Duo Li, Qingdao University, China
Alejandro Marangoni, University of Guelph, Canada
Julian McClements, University of Massachusetts, USA
Dragan Milenkovic, University of California, Davis, USA
Paul Moughan, Riddet Institute, Massey University, New Zealand
Kevin Murray, The University of Western Australia, Australia
Patricia Oteiza, University of California at Davis, USA
Tatjana Ruskovska, Goce Delcev University, North Macedonia
Junji Terao, Konan Women's University, Japan
Rob van Dam, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Gary Williamson, University of Leeds, UK
Jianping Wu, University of Alberta, Canada
Gow-Chin Yen, National Chung Hsing University, Chinese Taipei
Beiwei Zhu, Dalian Polytechnic University, China
Philippa Ross, Executive Editor
Alice Smallwood, Deputy Editor
David Lake, Development Editor
Rebecca Garton, Editorial Manager
Gabriel Clarke, Publishing Editor
Derya Kara-Fisher, Publishing Editor
Emma Stephen, Publishing Editor
Ziva Whitelock, Publishing Editor
Darryl Wilks, Editorial Assistant
Andrea Whiteside, Publishing Assistant
Jeanne Andres, Publisher
Open access publishing options
Food & Function is a hybrid (transformative) journal and gives authors the choice of publishing their research either via the traditional subscription-based model or instead by choosing our gold open access option. Find out more about our Transformative Journals. which are Plan S compliant.
Gold open access
For authors who want to publish their article gold open access, Food & Function charges an article processing charge (APC) of £2,750 (+ any applicable tax). Our APC is all-inclusive and makes your article freely available online immediately, permanently, and includes your choice of Creative Commons licence (CC BY or CC BY-NC) at no extra cost. It is not a submission charge, so you only pay if your article is accepted for publication.
Learn more about publishing open access.
Read & Publish
If your institution has a Read & Publish agreement in place with the Royal Society of Chemistry, APCs for gold open access publishing in Food & Function may already be covered.
Check if your institution is already part of our Read & Publish community.
Please use your official institutional email address to submit your manuscript; this helps us to identify if you are eligible for Read & Publish or other APC discounts.
Traditional subscription model
Authors can also publish in Food & Function via the traditional subscription model without needing to pay an APC. Articles published via this route are available to institutions and individuals who subscribe to the journal. Our standard licence allows you to make the accepted manuscript of your article freely available after a 12-month embargo period. This is known as the green route to open access.
Readership information
Highly multidisciplinary, the journal brings together different communities working in food related research across academia, industry and government including the following.
- Food scientists
- Food technologists
- Food chemists
- Food physicists
- Food biochemists
- Nutritionists
- Nutritional chemists
- Analytical, pharmaceutical and material scientists
- Physical chemists
- Organic/synthetic chemists
- Microbiologists
Subscription information
Food & Function is part of the RSC Gold subscription package.
Online only 2024: ISSN 2042-650X £2,878 / $4,958
*2023 Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate Analytics, 2024)
**The median time from submission to first decision including manuscripts rejected without peer review from the previous calendar year
***The median time from submission to first decision for peer-reviewed manuscripts from the previous calendar year
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