3. Searching by topic

3.7. FSTA: Food Science and Technology Abstracts

FSTA: characteristics

FSTA (Food Science and Technology Abstracts) is a leading database specializing in food science, food technology, and related disciplines.

It indexes scientific articles, patents, technical reports and academic papers from thousands of international sources, including peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings.

The database's coverage includes topics such as food safety, nutrition, biotechnology, food chemistry, and food engineering, making it an essential tool for researchers, academics, and agribusiness professionals.

FSTA is managed by the International Food Information Service (IFIS) and provides structured, up-to-date access to the latest discoveries and innovations in food science.

Some numbers:

  • coverage of more than 90 countries and 40 languages

  • 2 mln abstracts

  • 2000 new abstracts every week

  • 50 years coverage 

Searching FSTA

FSTA is searchable through the interface of EBSCO, the Unifi provider of the platform.

It is possible to access the database from OneSearch:

 

The search screen is set to advanced search by default, but you can always switch to simple search.

 

It is possible to create a profile on MyEBSCO to save searches and manage references directly in the platform.

Below the search box, you can narrow and customize your query through three tabs, Filters, Search Options, Topics:

In the filters tab, you can set time intervals, publication type, and subject macroarea (section code)

Under “Search Options”, you can set the behavior of the search engine with respect to the keywords you enter

 

Particularly interesting is the SmartText feature, which allows entire portions of text to be entered in natural language, from which the algorithm extrapolates key concepts before searching.

Finally, from the “Subjects” tab it is possible to access the indexed terms of the FSTA thesaurus to search with controlled terms, which means that you can choose keywords set by FSTA as possible subjects to index and catalogue resources: