About – FOODOPS 2025

Welcome to FOODOPS 2025!

Dear Sir/Madam,

innovations and improvements are required to react quickly to the new trends of the global economy. Over the years, Modeling & Simulation (M&S) has proved to be one of the most effective, beneficial and successful methodologies to investigate and study complex systems belonging to various sectors/areas. Nevertheless, to take full advantage of this technology there are relevant issues that keep challenging the researchers towards even more advanced solutions and approaches where emerging and cutting-edge technologies are absorbed into. M&S is widely and successfully applied in many application domains, ranging from industry to social sciences, from logistics to military, from energy to healthcare; in this sense M&S provides a multidisciplinary perspective where theory and data from different fields can be used to build models and simulations that provide insights in to the system considered.

The 2025 International Food Operations and Processing Simulation Workshop (FOODOPS) will be a platform for knowledge exchange, the review and discussion of theoretical advances, research results, and industrial experiences, among scientists, researchers, decision makers, practitioners and students dealing with the topics under the umbrella of multidisciplinary modeling & simulation.

Therefore, we would like to kindly invite you to take an active part in this conference and in the co-located events that will be held at Fes, Morocco on September 17-19, 2025 and explore with us the latest news, views and developments in the exciting world of multidisciplinary modeling & simulation.

Sincerely,

I3M 2025 Organization Committee

Topics & Tracks

Authors are kindly invited to include in their papers and presentations all the research works, case studies and application both theoretical and applied. Topics of interests include the following topics, however different ones concerning Modeling & Simulation in Industry are welcome.

Food processes modeling and simulation
Advanced models and applications for food production, distribution and traceability
Food Supply Chain and cold supply chain management
Economic, social, business and environmental challenges in food supply chains
Inventory management for food, beverage and perishable products
Decision support systems applications in food production and distribution

Greening the supply chain and environmental sustainability
Simulation optimization approaches in food processing and distribution
Production systems design in food industry
Design and production of novel foods
Design and operation of food processes, plant and equipment
Economics of food engineering
Shelf-life

Tracks

An Open Track addresses specific, well-defined subjects and has no upper limit on the number of papers that can be submitted to it. Contributions to open tracks can be either regular papers or short papers (min 3 pages length) and they will appear in the conference proceedings. The organizer(s) of an Open Track will be inviting contributions but the tracks are open to everyone is willing to contribute. If at least 4 papers are submitted to the track, one (or more) Invited Sessions, including those papers, will be part of the conference program.

Liquid Food Processing

Chair: Marco Better

Affiliation: OptTek Systems (US)

Track Description: The track focuses on methodologies and technologies Liquid Food Processing including Modeling & Simulation based approaches. Researcher are invited to submit original articles on the following topics (additional topics related to liquid food processing are also welcome):

Please be sure to select “Liquid Food Processing” as main topic during the submission.

Modelling & Simulation of Food Processing

Chair: Michel Havet

Affiliation: GEPEA (France)

Track Description: The track focuses on methodologies and technologies Liquid Food Processing including Modeling & Simulation based approaches.

Researcher are invited to submit original articles on the following topics (additional topics related to liquid food processing are also welcome):

Modelling of thermal unit operations in food (Heating, Drying, Cooking, Refrigeration, Chilling, Freezing, etc.)
Modelling of mechanical unit operations in food (Mixing, Separation, Emulsification, etc.)
Specific emphasize on Multiphysics (Microwave thawing, pasteurization, Radiofrequency heating, etc.)
CFD analysis.
Kinetics modelling.
Automation and process control.

Please be sure to select “Modelling & Simulation of Food Processing” as main topic during the submission.

Modelling and Simulation of Physical Properties of Foods

Chair: Mustafa Tahsin Yilmaz

Affiliation: Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi (Turkey)

Track Description: The track focuses on methodologies and technologies on Liquid, Semi-solid and Solid Food Processing including Modeling & Simulation based approaches.Researcher are invited to submit original articles on the following topics (additional topics related to liquid food processing are also welcome):

Creep and recovery properties of visco-elastic foods.
Time-dependent fluids.
Non-linear (Fourier Transform) rheology.
Development of fitting simulation models describing the fluid behavior of fluid and semi-solid and foods.
Use of non-linear simulation models describing textural properties of solid foods.
Inference from big data (Mathematical modeling and analysis of big size of data from multiple factorial experimental design).

Please be sure to select “Modelling and Simulation of Physical Properties of Foods” as main topic during the submission.

Sustainability of Food Processes

Chair: Giuseppe Vignali

Affiliation: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Parma (Italy)

Environmental assessment of Food processes
- Life Cycle Assessment of agriculture production, food processing and packaging
- Evaluation of sustainability in food transport
- Environment impact of food waste and novel methodologies to reduce its impact
Economical evaluation of food processes
- Modelling of economic saving associated to new food processing and packaging
- Economical assessment of new food formulation
- Economical evaluation of active and intelligent packaging applied in the food sector
Social aspect of food processes and nutrition
- Modelling of food demand and distribution around the world
- Simulation of nutrition models able to satisfy the population request
- Reduction of food waste along the whole food supply chain

Please be sure to select “Sustainability of Food Processes” as main topic during the submission.

Modelling and simulation of food fouling and cleaning techniques

Chair: Ruben Mercade Prieto

Affiliation: College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science of Soochow University (China)

Track Description: The track focuses on Modelling and simulation of food fouling and cleaning techniques. Researcher are invited to submit original articles on this topic but also similar topics are welcome.

Please be sure to select “Modelling and simulation of food fouling and cleaning techniques” as main topic during the submission.

Modeling & Simulation for agri-food supply chain management

Co-chairs: (a)Emilio Jimenez, (b)Giovanni Mirabelli , (b)Vittorio Solina

Affiliation: ^(a)Universidad de La Rioja (Spain), ^(b)University of Calabria (Italy)

Track Description: The recent Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the fragility of global and local agri-food supply chains. Innovative approaches are needed to improve the sustainability and resilience of food systems. This track aims to collect scientific contributions regarding the use of the Modeling & Simulation (M&S) paradigm to support the management of agri-food supply chains.
Researchers are invited to submit original articles on the following topics:
– M&S for supply chain network design
– Novel approaches for agri-food logistics
– Methodologies for inventory optimization
– M&S for food waste minimization
– Sustainability and resilience of agri-food systems
– Simulation-based strategies for facing COVID-like crises

Please be sure to select “Modeling & Simulation for agri-food supply chain management” as the main topic during the submission.

Sustainability in the agri-food sector: challenges, solutions, and assessment

Co-chairs: (a)Lilia Sidhom, (b)Sondes Hammami
Affiliation: ^(a) Physics Department, Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, University Tunis El Manar (Tunisia), ^(b)Industrial Management Department, National Engineering School of Carthage, Carthage University (Tunisia)
Track Description: The track focuses on studies and context-analysis of sustainability in the agri-food sector and the agri-food supply chain highlighting the current challenges of such sector as well as the solutions and practices proposed to face them and focusing on the sustainability assessment approaches.
Researchers are invited to submit original articles on the following topics (additional topics related to agri-food supply chains are also welcome):

Sustainability studies based on context-analysis of the agri-food sector.
Sustainability studies based on laws and legislation of the agri-food sector.
Sustainability scenario conceptualization in the agri-food sector.
Sustainability assessment approaches:
– Assessment-based sustainable indicators/index
– Innovative sustainable indicators/index
– Sustainability index design based on mathematical models (e.g., multi-criteria decision-making approach, etc.).

Please be sure to select “Sustainability in the agri-food sector: challenges, solutions, and assessment” as the main topic during the submission.

Technologies in Agriculture

Co-chairs: (a)Roberta Stefanini, (b)Luca Preite
Affiliation: ^(a)(b) Department of Engineering for Industrial Systems and Technologies, University of Parma (Italy)
Track Description: he track focuses on innovative technologies applied in agriculture, investigating their applications, benefits and limitations, practical cases, and future developments.
Researchers are invited to submit original articles on the following suggested topics:

Digital transformation of agricultural fields.
IoT technology, 4.0 sensors and cloud-based systems in agriculture.
Water management technologies in agriculture.
Indoor farming (hydroponics, aeroponics, vertical farming)
Precision agriculture technologies.
Robots, aerial images, and GPS technology.

Other similar and relevant topics are welcome.
Please be sure to select “Technologies in Agriculture” as the main topic during the submission.

Submit an Open Track Proposal

Are you willing to propose an open track and collect papers focusing on a specific subject? Fill the form and send it to f.longo@unical.it and massei@itim.unige.it.

Key Dates

Paper Submission Deadlines

Special Session/Open Track Proposal Closure: ~~May 15^th~~ May 31^st, 2025
Draft Paper Submission Deadline: ~~April 15th~~ May 31^st, 2025
Notification of Acceptance & Review Reports: ~~May 15th~~ June 15^th, 2025
Camera-ready Paper Submission Deadline: ~~June 15th~~ July 15^th, 2025

Registration Deadlines

Committees

FOODOPS 2025 Organization Board

Giuseppe Vignali

FOODOPS General Co-Chair

University of Parma, Italy

Francesco Longo

FOODOPS General Co-Chair

University of Calabria, Italy

Vittorio Solina

FOODOPS Program Chair

University of Calabria, Italy

FOODOPS 2025 is co-organized by the consortium of the SMALLDERS Project (Smart Models for Agrifood Local vaLue chain based on Digital technologies for Enabling COVID-19 Resilience and Sustainability), co-funded by the PRIMA Program–Section 2 Call multi-topics 2021.
The project is carried out by a consortium of 5 partners including University of Calabria (Italy), University of Parma (Italy), IMT Mines Ales (France), Extremadura University (Spain) and University of Tunis (Tunisia).
The overall objective of the SMALLDERS project is to carry out basic research as well as industrial research and development activities with the aim of identifying a framework that involves innovative strategies, methodologies, technologies and business models to increase the resilience of small-scale farms in the Mediterranean area, to effectively and efficiently face unexpected and disruptive events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

FOODOPS 2025 Organization Staff

Vittorio Solina – DIMEG, University of Calabria, Italy

Antonio Padovano – University of Calabria, Italy

Letizia Nicoletti – CAL-TEK S.r.l., Italy

Mohaiad Osman Elbasheer – MSC-LES, University of Calabria, Italy

Cataldo Russo – CAL-TEK S.r.l., Italy

Caterina Fusto – MSC-LES, University of Calabria, Italy

Alessandro Chiurco – DIMEG, University of Calabria, Italy

Virginia D’Augusta – DIMEG, University of Calabria, Italy

Simone Talarico – DIMEG, University of Calabria, Italy

Marco Vetrano – CAL-TEK S.r.l., Italy

Kirill Sinelshchikov – Simulation Team, Italy
Antonio Cimino, University of Salento, Italy

Alessio Baratta – MSC-LES, University of Calabria, Italy

Pierpaolo Veltri – MSC-LES, University of Calabria, Italy
Karen Althea Manfredi – MSC-LES, University of Calabria, Italy
Antonio Nervoso – MSC-LES, University of Calabria, Italy

FOODOPS 2025 International Program Committee

Marco Better – Opttek Systems, USA

Eleonora Bottani – University of Parma, Italy

Agostino G. Bruzzone – University of Genoa, Italy

Michel Havet – Gepea Research Unit, France

Francesco Longo – University of Calabria, Italy

Marina Massei – Liophant Simulation, Italy

Ruben Mercade Prieto – Soochow University, China

Yuri Merkuryev – Riga Technical University, Latvia

Roberto Montanari – University of Parma, Italy

Eduardo Manuel Segredo González – Universidad de La Laguna, Spain

Letizia Nicoletti – Cal-Tek Srl, Italy

Vittorio Solina – University of Calabria, Italy

Antonio Padovano – University of Calabria, Italy

Mohaiad Osman Elbasheer – MSC-LES, University of Calabria, Italy

Miquel Angel Piera – Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain

Stefano Saetta – University of Perugia, Italy

Giuseppe Vignali – University of Parma, Italy

Mustafa Tahsin Yilmaz – Yildiz Teknik Üniversitesi, Turkey
Antonio Cimino, University of Salento, Italy

Get on board the team now!

Are you willing to join the Organization Committee or the International Program Committee? Discover the benefits and opportunities now and submit your proposal. Please feel free to contact f.longo@unical.it; massei@itim.unige.it

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