Non-timber forest products (NTFPs), wild foods, fibres, medicines, resins, and animal products are critical to the economies and cultures of rural people in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. Data compiled and Meta-analysis from literature and published between 2015 and 2025 indicate that these products are frequently utilized at the household level (approximately 77% usage frequency) and significantly enhance incomes, particularly for land-constrained households and Indigenous populations. In contrast, booms in markets for açaí, shea, and medicinal plants indicate new opportunities but also variable patterns. NTFPs also possess powerful ritual value (e.g., frankincense, kava, babassu) and can incentivize forest stewardship. However, their commercialization without appropriate safeguards may result in the over-extraction of species and ecological degradation. Climate change amplifies pressures. Improvements in post-harvest handling, drying, modified atmospheric packaging, cold chains, and better packaging enhance quality, extend shelf life, and reduce waste, thereby increasing returns and mitigating extraction pressure. Sustainability is underpinned by appropriate policies to secure tenure, recognise community rights, regulate trade, and promote cooperative value addition. Targets revolved around rights-based governance, flexible and responsive monitoring, diversified markets, scalable and efficient processing techniques, and certification schemes, as well as integration of cultural values and biodiversity goals, and climate adaptation. By reframing NTFPs as central to bio economies, we connect livelihood security to biodiversity conservation at multiple scales and across regions.

Microplastic (MP) contamination has become a global environmental and public health concern due to the extensive use of plastics and ineffective waste management. These microscopic particles are now detected in air, water, soil, and food products, raising serious concerns about their persistence, bioaccumulation, and potential risks. Microplastics (MPs) have been shown to disrupt marine biodiversity, affect plant metabolism, and enter food webs, leading to accumulation in human tissues. Chronic exposure is increasingly linked to reproductive toxicity, carcinogenesis, neurotoxicity, and metabolic disorders. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the sources, pathways, and environmental fate of microplastics, with an emphasis on their ecotoxicological effects and human health implications. It also summarises key analytical methods for detecting microplastics in environmental and food matrices, including spectroscopy, microscopy, and emerging sensor-based technologies. Finally, the review highlights the need for improved waste management, stronger policy interventions, and enhanced public awareness to mitigate microplastic pollution and protect ecosystem and human health.

Postharvest losses of fresh fruits and vegetables constitute a global crisis, with 20–30% of products lost in rich countries and up to 55% in developing nations before reaching consumers. Although traditional chemical sanitizers and refrigeration are prevalent, the increasing demand for residue-free, clean-label preservation is stimulating interest in non-thermal options. This research critically assesses the combined use of edible coatings (ECs) and plasma-activated water (PAW) as complementary hurdle technologies for postharvest preservation of fresh foods. We contend that the sequential PAW-then-EC strategy, where PAW delivers immediate, broad-spectrum RONS-mediated microbial reduction (2–4 log CFU/g), followed by EC, creating a continuous physical and bioactive barrier, overcomes the limitations of each technology individually, in a manner no single treatment can replicate. Significant findings across several commodities (strawberries, tomatoes, apples, grapes) indicate that combination treatments prolong marketable shelf life by 40–100% compared to untreated controls, diminish enzymatic browning by inhibiting PPO and POD, and preserve firmness, color, and nutritional integrity. This study highlights significant research gaps, including the instability of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) in lipid-rich coating matrices, the need to optimize process parameters for specific commodities, and the lack of internationally standardized methodologies for characterizing plasma-activated water (PAW). We determine that the commercial translation of EC–PAW systems necessitates scale-up engineering, lifecycle evaluation frameworks, and synchronized regulatory collaboration across principal markets.