In 2006, the journal continued to grow, enjoying increasing recognition as a source of timely, reliable and valuable research information ranging across the full spectrum of food and agricultural research. Articles in our wide remit of subjects are submitted in ever-increasing numbers each year. The innovation, quality and popularity of papers continues to increase—one of the most frequently downloaded articles from the past year was a paper evaluating, for the first time, the spectral properties of juvenile and adult olive leaves by NIRS,1 which could contribute to a much faster screening technique in olive breeding programs. Another paper on rapid determination of trace elements in kidney beans, lentils and chickpeas2 was also among some of the most top-accessed articles in 2006. Thanks to the efforts of the SCI Publications department and of course the submission of ground-breaking and interesting research papers, the journal has enjoyed a significant increase in attention from the press. Highlights include a paper by Ghosh et al. on the protective effects of boysenberries and blackcurrants from oxidative stress and DNA damage,3 an article by Neto et al. on the anticancer properties of cranberry extract4 and a paper by Topping et al. investigating the possible transfer of latex allergens from food wrapper adhesives to the contained food.5 A recent paper by Lagunas-Solar et al.6 describing an interesting new method for disinfection and disinfestation of agricultural produce that avoids the use of potentially harmful chemicals also received some coverage. The year closed with the publication of an assortment of special issues and popular front matter articles. We continue to source and publish thought-provoking perspective articles, such as Addiscott's piece on nitrates in food7, and put out Review articles of great significance, such as Mueller-Harvey's paper on tannins in animal feed.8 Publication of Special Issues, such as the NEODIET issues of 2000 and 2001, provide reviews of lasting significance, evidenced by the frequency with which reviews in these issues are still accessed. Our recent ‘Enzymes in Grain Processing’ Special Issue, tackling the issues surrounding enzyme use in cereals—the core of human and animal nutrition—promises to be another such contribution to the scientific literature. In addition to Special Issues, 2006 marked the launch of the In Focus section, in which an issue commences with several coordinated reviews on a chosen theme. Two recent In Focus series of papers, ‘The Future of Sustainable Materials for Industry’ and ‘Polyphenols and Health’, have met with high acclaim. Our developing policy of commissioning both the Perspectives and Review articles from world-class authors should continue to raise the profile of JSFA in the competitive landscape of science publishing. Meanwhile, behind the scenes in the Editorial Office, we have migrated to a new version of the manuscript handling system, Manuscript Central v.3, that we hope will lead to an improved service to our authors. The journal would like to offer its sincere thanks to those who, owing to other commitments, resigned as Associate Editors from the Board in 2006. JSFA warmly welcomes to our family the new Associate Editors who joined last year to help strengthen our expertise in various fields. We also have a new Executive Board member—Dr Bo Jiang, who is Professor of Food Science and Associate Dean of the School of Food Science and Technology, Southern Yangtze University, China. Bo's research areas are food enzymology and functional food, with a focus on purification and properties of enzymes and immobilization, placing him in a good position to head the Molecular Biology and Biotechnology section of the journal. We would like to thank all members of the Board for their invaluable contributions in 2006 and look forward to working with them in 2007 to further develop the journal. Peer review is a fundamental aspect of improving the quality of JSFA and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have given their time to referee papers for JSFA (please see the acknowledgement list) in the past year. We welcome your views and suggestions on how to improve the journal for the future and we hope you continue to read and value JSFA in the coming year.