All manuscripts for Food Chemistry should be submitted online via EES - Elsevier Editorial System - http://ees.elsevier.com/foodchem . This is the preferred method of submission, and facilitates processing of your manuscript. Only in exceptional cases where the authors have no electronic facilities whatsoever, the author should submit one original copy of the manuscript, plus two photocopies and a copy on disk, to the Managing Editor:

Professor Gordon Birch
School of Food Biosciences
University of Reading
Whiteknights, PO Box 226
Reading RG6 6AP, UK


Authors are required to submit, with their manuscripts, the names and full contact details (including e-mail address) of 3 potential referees (who should not come from the same institute).

It is the author's responsibility to ensure that papers are written in clear and comprehensible English. Authors whose native language is not English are strongly advised to have their manuscripts checked by an English-speaking colleague prior to submission. English language help service: Upon request, Elsevier will direct authors to an agent who can check and improve the English of their paper (before submission). Please contact authorsupport@elsevier.com for further information.

Submission of a paper implies that it has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, without the written consent of the Publisher.

A peer review system involving two or three reviewers is used to ensure high quality of manuscripts accepted for publication. The Managing Editor and Editors have the right to decline formal review of a manuscript when it is deemed that the manuscript is 1) on a topic outside the scope of the Journal; 2) lacking technical merit; 3) focused on foods or processes that are of narrow regional scope and significance; 4) fragmentary and providing marginally incremental results; or 5) is poorly written.

Original research papers; review articles; rapid communications; short communications; viewpoints; letters to the Editor; book reviews.
1.Research papers - original full-length research papers which have not been published previously, except in a preliminary form, and should not exceed 7,500 words (including allowance for no more than 6 tables and illustrations).
2.Review articles - will be accepted in areas of topical interest, will normally focus on literature published over the previous five years, and should not exceed 10,000 words (including allowance for no more than 6 tables and illustrations).
3.Rapid communications - an original research paper reporting a major scientific result or finding with significant implications for the research community, designated by the Editor.
4.Short communications - Short communications of up to 3000 words, describing work that may be of a preliminary nature but which merits immediate publication.
5.Viewpoints - Authors may submit viewpoints of about 1200 words on any subject covered by the Aims and Scope.
6.Letters to the Editor - Letters are published from time to time on matters of topical interest.
7.Book reviews

General: Manuscripts must be typewritten, double-spaced with wide margins on one side of white paper. Each page must be numbered, and lines must be consecutively numbered from the start to the end of the manuscript. Good quality printouts with a font size of 12 or 10 pt are required. The corresponding author should be identified (include a Fax number and E-mail address). Full postal addresses must be given for all co-authors. Authors should consult a recent issue of the journal for style if possible. An electronic copy of the paper should accompany the final version. The Editors reserve the right to adjust style to certain standards of uniformity. Authors should retain a copy of their manuscript since we cannot accept responsibility for damage or loss of papers. Original manuscripts are discarded one month after publication unless the Publisher is asked to return original material after use.
Abstracts: Each paper should be provided with an abstract of 100-150 words, reporting concisely on the purpose and results of the paper.
Text: Follow this order when typing manuscripts: Title, Authors, Affiliations, Abstract, Keywords, Main text, Acknowledgements, Appendix, References, Vitae, Figure Captions and then Tables. Do not import the Figures or Tables into your text. The corresponding author should be identified with an asterisk and footnote. All other footnotes (except for table footnotes) should be identified with superscript Arabic numbers. The title of the paper should unambiguously reflect its contents. Where the title exceeds 70 characters a suggestion for an abbreviated running title should be given.
Units: The SI system should be used for all scientific and laboratory data; if, in certain instances, it is necessary to quote other units, these should be added in parentheses. Temperatures should be given in degrees Celsius. The unit 'billion' (10⁹ in America, 10¹² in Europe) is ambiguous and should not be used.
Symbols: Abbreviations for units should follow the suggestions of the British Standards publication BS 1991. The full stop should not be included in abbreviations, e.g. m (not m.), ppm (not p.p.m.), % and '/' should be used in preference to 'per cent' and 'per'. Where abbreviations are likely to cause ambiguity or may not be readily understood by an international readership, units should be put in full.

Current recognised (IUPAC) chemical nomenclature should be used, although commonly accepted trivial names may be used where there is no risk of ambiguity.

The use of proprietary names should be avoided. Papers essentially of an advertising nature will not be accepted.

References: All publications cited in the text should be presented in a list of references following the text of the manuscript. No more than 30 references should be cited in your manuscript. In the text refer to the author's name (without initials) and year of publication (e.g. "Steventon, Donald and Gladden (1994) studied the effects..." or "...similar to values reported by others (Anderson, Douglas, Morrison & Weiping, 1990)..."). For 2-6 authors all authors are to be listed at first citation. At subsequent citations use first author et al.. When there are more than 6 authors, first author et al. should be used throughout the text. The list of references should be arranged alphabetically by authors' names and should be as full as possible, listing all authors, the full title of articles and journals, publisher and year. The manuscript should be carefully checked to ensure that the spelling of authors' names and dates are exactly the same in the text as in the reference list.

References should be given in the following form:
Ahmed, I. A., & Robinson, R. K. (1999). The ability of date extracts to support the production of aflatoxins. Food Chemistry, 66(3), 307-312.
Marasas, W. F. O. (1996). Fumonisins: History, worldwide occurrence and impact. In L. S. Jackson, J. W. DeVries, & L. B. Bullerman, Fumonisins in food, advances in experimental medicine and biology, vol. 392 (pp. 1-18). New York: Plenum Press.
Massart, D. L., & Kauffmann, L. (1983). Interpretation of analytical data by use of cluster analysis. New York: Wiley.
Noel, S., & Collin, S. (1995). Trans-2-nonenal degradation products during mashing. In Proceedings of the 25th European brewery convention congress (pp. 483-490). Oxford: IRL Press.

Citing and listing of web references. As a minimum, the full URL should be given. Any further information, if known (DOI, author names, dates, reference to a source publication, etc.), should also be given. Web references can be listed separately (e.g., after the reference list) under a different heading if desired, or can be included in the reference list.

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) may be used to cite and link to electronic documents. The DOI consists of a unique alpha-numeric character string which is assigned to a document by the publisher upon the initial electronic publication. The assigned DOI never changes. Therefore, it is an ideal medium for citing a document, particularly "Articles in Press" because they have not yet received their full bibliographic information. The correct format for citing a DOI is shown as follows (example taken from a document in the journal Physics Letters B:
doi:10.1016/jphysletb.2003.10.071
When you use the DOI to create URL hyperlinks to documents on the web, they are guaranteed never to change.

Illustrations

Photographs, charts and diagrams are all to be referred to as "Figure(s)" and should be numbered consecutively in the order to which they are referred. They should accompany the manuscript, but should not be included within the text. All illustrations should be clearly marked with the figure number and the author's name. All figures are to have a caption. Captions should be supplied on a separate sheet. Tables should be numbered consecutively and given a suitable caption and each table typed on a separate sheet. Footnotes to tables should be typed below the table and should be referred to by superscript lowercase letters. No vertical rules should be used. Tables should not duplicate results presented elsewhere in the manuscript (e.g. in graphs).


If, together with your accepted article, you submit usable colour figures then Elsevier will ensure, at no additional charge, that these figures will appear in colour on the web (e.g., ScienceDirect and other sites) regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Elsevier after receipt of your accepted article. Please note: Because of technical complications which can arise by converting colour figures to 'grey scale' (for the printed version should you not opt for colour in print) please submit in addition usable black and white prints corresponding to all the colour illustrations. As only one figure caption may be used for both colour and black and white versions of figures, please ensure that the figure captions are meaningful for both versions, if applicable.

Preparation of electronic illustrations
Submitting your artwork in an electronic format helps us to produce your work to the best possible standards, ensuring accuracy, clarity and a high level of detail.
General points
?Make sure you use uniform lettering and sizing of your original artwork.
?Save text in illustrations as "graphics" or enclose the font.
?Only use the following fonts in your illustrations: Arial, Courier, Helvetica, Times, Symbol.
?Number the illustrations according to their sequence in the text.
?Use a logical naming convention for your artwork files.
?Provide all illustrations as separate files.
?Provide captions to illustrations separately.
?Produce images near to the desired size of the printed version.

A detailed guide on electronic artwork is available on our website: http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions .You are urged to visit this site.

Preparation of Supplementary Data

Elsevier now accepts electronic supplementary material (e-components) to support and enhance your scientific research. Supplementary files offer the Author additional possibilities to publish supporting applications, movies, animation sequences, high-resolution images, background datasets, sound clips and more. Supplementary files supplied will be published online alongside the electronic version of your article in Elsevier Web products, including ScienceDirect: http://www.sciencedirect.com. In order to ensure that your submitted material is directly usable, please ensure that data is provided in one of our recommended file formats. Authors should submit the material in electronic format together with the final version of the article and supply a concise and descriptive caption for each file. For more detailed instructions please visit our artwork instruction pages at http://www.elsevier.com/artworkinstructions.

When your manuscript is received at the Publisher it is considered to be in its final form. Proofs are not to be regarded as 'drafts'. One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author, to be checked for typesetting/editing. No changes in, or additions to, the accepted (and subsequently edited) manuscript will be allowed at this stage. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. A form with queries from the copy editor may accompany your proofs. Please answer all queries and make any corrections or additions required. The Publisher reserves the right to proceed with publication if corrections are not communicated. Return corrections within two working days of receipt of the proofs. Should there be no corrections, please confirm this. Elsevier will do everything possible to get your article corrected and published as quickly and accurately as possible. In order to do this we need your help. When you receive the (PDF) proof of your article for correction, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication. Subsequent corrections will not be possible, so please ensure your first sending is complete. Note that this does not mean you have any less time to make your corrections, just that only one set of corrections will be accepted. Proofs are to be returned to the Log-in Department, Elsevier Ltd, Bampfylde Street, Exeter, EX1 2AH, UK, fax +44 (0)1392 425370.


The corresponding author, at no cost, will be provided with a PDF file of the article via e-mail. The PDF file is a watermarked version of the published article and includes a cover sheet with the journal cover image and a disclaimer outlining the terms and conditions of use. Copies of the issue can be ordered at a specially reduced rate using the order form sent to the corresponding author after the manuscript has been accepted.

Upon acceptance of an article, authors will be asked to transfer copyright (for more information on copyright see http://authors.elsevier.com). This transfer will ensure the widest possible dissemination of information. A letter will be sent to the corresponding author confirming receipt of the manuscript. A form facilitating transfer of copyright will be provided. If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must obtain written permission from the copyright owners and credit the source(s) in the article. Elsevier has preprinted forms for use by authors in these cases: contact Elsevier Ltd., Global Rights Department, The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Oxford, OX5 1GB, UK; phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, e-mail: permissions@elsevier.com



Authors can keep a track on the progress of their accepted article, by visiting http://www.elsevier.com/trackarticle. Other questions or queries will also be dealt with via the website http://authors.elsevier.com . Contact details for questions arising after acceptance of an article, especially those relating to proofs, are provided when an article is accepted for publication. Do not contact the editors - they do not have access to this information.

Food Chemistry carries no page charges