It is with a degree of sadness that we are having to close down the journal Food Digestion. The initial impetus that many of us felt, that the journal targeted an emerging field of research of increasing in importance to health, was insufficient to attract sufficient manuscripts to maintain viability. In the current landscape, there is great competition with mounting pressure on researchers to publish in high-impact journals. Thus, setting up a new journal in such a landscape is fraught with difficulty.

One area in which we were particularly anxious to receive publications was in regard to physiological work that validated claims based on in vitro experimentation. Such is the complexity of digestive processes that current in vitro simulations are inadequate representations of the melieux interiour. Sadly, we have seen few such papers. Indeed, it would be safe to say that the bulk of work we have received pertains to the use of in vitro methods which often pay scant attention to real physiological conditions.

This is not to say that the physiological processes that are incumbent in the digestion of food are unimportant and have little relevance to health. A body of epidemiological work, notably prospective longitudinal cohort studies, highlights the complexities of the process. Hence, Muraki et al. [1] used data from over 185,000 individuals in the Nurses’ Health and the Health Professionals studies to show that the consumption of whole fruits reduced the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, whilst consumption of the same fruit in juice form appeared to increase the risk. Although such studies provide little information regarding the physiological processes that underlie such effects, they serve to highlight the critical effects that one ingredient has on another as well as the importance of the form and the structure of the food upon health outcomes. Therefore, a greater physiological understanding is required before such effects can be effectively translated into appropriate design of diets and foods. Hence, there is a real need to involve physiologists in research into the digestion of foods and the realisation of the subsequent health benefits.

Finally, we would like to acknowledge the support of the publishers, the editorial board, the subscribers and contributors. Regardless of the failure of Food Digestion, we are confident that this area of research will thrive, as will the better design of foods to promote health.