Dear Colleagues,

Plant-based nutrition has been widely discussed in science. Its supporters emphasise higher nutritional density, which provides a great opportunity for achieving sustainability and preventing diet-related diseases. The opponents raise the issues of possible deficiencies and lower digestibility in human nutrition. Reports on new plant compounds, the possibilities of implementing them into the diet, and their potential effects on widely understood aspects of sustainability are published on a regular basis. This old–new trend is becoming discussed afresh, and the approach to plant-based diets has significantly evolved in science since the EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health included 37 world-leading scientists to answer the question: how to feed a future population a healthy diet within planetary boundaries?  (2019). The authors, in their recommendation for a planetary diet, showed that a diet rich in plant-based foods and with fewer animal food sources confers both improved health and environmental benefits. The global consumption of plant-based foods will have to double, and the consumption of animal foods and sugar will have to be reduced by more than 50%. Significant changes in food production and processing, as well as a mental change in society, that will contribute to the modification of the structure of the diet and production are needed. Scientific evidence and discussion on the possibilities, methods, and effects of introducing plant compounds into nutrition are necessary.

Hence, this Special Issue aims to exhibit the latest research on the role of new plant ingredients in food science and nutrition. As the first issue, the presence and identification of new compounds in plant foods and their effectiveness in sustainable nutrition should be discussed.

Publications in the relevant area of Plant-Based Foods and Nutrition as Effective Components in Diet Sustainability including, but not limited to, the following are invited:

1. Health-promoting new food ingredients (e.g., beta-glucans, steviosides, and polyphenols) of plant origin;
2. New aspects of plant-based nutrition in a variety of health conditions and diet sustainability;
3. The modelling and characterisation of new-generation plant-based innovative food;
4. Plant-based sustainable nutrition;
5. An improvement in nutrition strategy measured according to the nutritional value of consumed food;
6. Plant-based food as sustainable ingredients for innovative and healthy nutrition.

Dr. Magdalena Czlapka-Matyasik
Prof. Dr. Magdalena Zielińska-Dawidziak
Prof. Dr. Jadwiga Hamułka
Guest Editors

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• plant-based diet
• vegetarianism
• sustainability
• new plant-based ingredients
• bioactive food components
• beta-glucans and other fiber components
• polyphenols