Moving with the times

The International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition significantly evolved through almost 65 years of its life. This evolution involved changes in name (it became ‘Nutrition’ in 1952 and then the Journal of Human Nutrition in 1976, only to get its original name back after its rebirth in 1992). It also involved changes of topics, format, volume and circulation. With nutritional sciences becoming increasingly interlinked with other scientific fields, and dietary habits becoming more and more involved in the process of preventing (or causing) diseases and maintaining (or loosing) good health, constant evolution was the only way to survive. Its last – so to say – ‘evolutionary leap’ was masterly directed by Professor C.J.K. Henry, who, in his own words, edited a journal with the main aim of linking food science and nutrition in a way that had hitherto been neglected. Well, after the last 20 years of profitable work, the editorial team of the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition changes again and we, as new Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editors, will try to prepare the field for another leap forward in the evolutionary process of this renowned and historic scientific title. Part of the innovation will include the introduction of new topics. Among these, the nutritional implication of the human microbiome is an example of a new critical area that is aligned with the mission of our journal. Similarly, novel technologies and ingredients have emerged in food science, yet there remains a gap in the understanding of how these influence nutritional quality once introduced into food. The application of scientific principles towards the rational design and manufacturing of healthy, attractive and sustainable foods by focusing the basic physical and chemical principles governing the interaction of major food components, such as lipids, water, dietary fibre, carbohydrates and proteins, is also a topic of extreme interest for the journal. Similarly, the role of micro-nutrients and bioactive substances, especially those found in whole plants and natural foodstuffs, will be retained as important focus area recognizing their emergence as important regulators of human health and disease prevention. Finally, in vitro and animal studies will now be considered for publication, but only if they are fundamental to the process of understanding the mechanisms of action of nutrients and non-nutrients in exerting protective effects towards human health. On the contrary, the journal will hardly consider as publishable material research dealing with the concept of ‘food therapy’ aimed to replace pharmaceutical or medical treatments for human disease, as the new editorial team is strongly convinced that the main role of food and nutrition in human health is disease prevention rather than treatment. New article types have been introduced to better suit the need to highlight the relevance of published work while dealing with print space constrains. Articles under ‘Gap-bridging research’ will cover extremely recent topics, with the main aim of highlighting where new research is needed to increase the scientific knowledge in specific areas of food science and nutrition. This article type was thought to be specifically linked with the scientific substantiation of ‘health claims’ and should be the inspiration and basis for future research aimed to fill the existing gaps. ‘Brief communications’ have now been introduced among the article types acceptable for publication by our journal. Rather than just ‘short’ research articles, these should be intended as concise research articles aimed to cover exciting preliminary findings that will have a major impact in food science and nutrition. Every effort will be made to keep acceptance time to a minimum for this type of articles. Finally, the journal will continue to publish comprehensive reviews as full-length critical appraisals of topics that would be of long-term archival value.