The European Agenda Food2030 addresses food systems as a major area for research and innovation. The Farm to Fork strategy as part of the Green Deal emphasizes the need for reaching sustainable food systems. This poses numerous questions . What are sustainable and unsustainable food systems? In what territorial settings (playing fields) are they (un)sustainable? Under which conditions are food systems crossing the border between sustainable and unsustainable configurations (in physical terms ‘order and chaos’)? Which internal and external measures influence these systems? Which processes in systems are impacted and how? What are the potential contributions of food science and technology in finding transition pathways towards sustainable food systems? Those questions will be dealt with by presenting a new conceptual framework for sustainable food systems allowing following their development in time. This framework is tested and discussed for food science and novel technology innovation cases in different European countries. Five cases have been selected characterized by both technological and organizational innovations in processing and preservation of food and other bio-based products and by-products; in addition, the social context has been taken into account. Results indicate that only in case technological innovations are studied together with organizational and social innovations in well-defined playing fields, discussions about sustainable food systems make sense. Next to further deepening insights in disciplines, like food science and technology, this also implies intensified collaborations between scholars of different disciplines, hence more interdisciplinary research, debates and (EFFoST) conferences.