Dear Colleagues,

Recently, in the food sector, consumer behavior has been increasingly influenced by two prominent trends: health and sustainability. Both trends are multidimensional and encompass different aspects of what consumers perceive as “healthy” or “sustainable”. Moreover, both trends have the power to impact consumer attitudes, product choices, acceptance, and the willingness to pay for healthy and sustainable foods. Although modern consumers can make informed decisions about the quality and quantity of food that are best when it comes to healthy behaviors, an increase in diet-related health problems has been recorded in recent years. As a result of these concerns, a better understanding of consumer decision-making when dealing with food and health issues is crucial. On the other hand, an interest in sustainable development—which integrates environmental, social, and economic perspectives—has been ever on the increase. Consumers are increasingly paying attention to such aspects of food consumption as the environmental impact of food production, carbon footprints, food miles, alternative sources of proteins for food and feed, animal welfare, regionality, and the traditional nature of what we produce and consume.

Therefore, food producers, retailers, food services, and other stakeholders need to innovate and develop new strategies to meet these new consumer needs.

Consumer researchers, including social and psychological scientists, behavioral economists, and sensory and food scientists, can contribute by investigating consumer decision-making with regard to healthy and sustainable diets.

This Special Issue invites the submission of manuscripts (both original and review articles) on the following topics:

• Consumer behavior with regard to new products for a sustainable and healthy diet, including novel and functional foods, alternative protein sources such as plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy food, insects, and lab meat.
• Interventions and policies to improve dietary intake and promote healthy eating behaviors, including communication about such nutrition- and health-related claims, Nutri-score, and traffic-light labeling.
• Interventions and policies to promote a sustainable diet, including environmental and ethical labels such as organic and sustainable certification, fair trade, and animal welfare.

Dr. Giovanni Sogari
Dr. Irina Dolgopolova
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Consumer food choice and segmentation
• Consumer decision-making
• Consumer information and nudging
• Consumer perception and acceptance
• Food marketing
• Food product labeling
• Healthy and sustainable diet
• Purchase intention
• Sensory evaluation and affective testing
• Willingness to pay
• Food policy
• Cross-cultural studies