This special issue of Science Reporter presents different aspects of food safety, nutrition, innovation, and responsible food practices. Enjoy reading!

For decades, World Food Day (16 October) themes revolved around hunger, food security, the future, sustainability, etc., but in 2026 innovation takes centre stage — “Innovate today. Nourish tomorrow”.

Food adulteration is the biggest health crisis in India. The appearance of the food that you eat may seem authentic. As long as the label says the product is organic and pure, you believe it.

How food technology might aid India in minimising losses, recycling food waste, and creating a circular food system.

The objects currently on your desk — your coffee cup, your latest grocery receipt, and even the paint on your walls — may be communicating with your hormones. 

Infertility is no longer merely a personal or medical worry; instead, it has evolved into a call to action for society to take action against the degradation of the environment and the exposure to chemicals that endanger the very continuation of life.

World Food Day — 16 October is recognised as Norman Borlaug World Food Prize Day in Iowa and Minnesota. It is indeed a happy coincidence that the World Food Day 2026 theme, “Innovate Today, Nourish Tomorrow”, resonates with Borlaug’s work.

The Nepal disaster is a warning from a mountain system under stress — a warning that the next catastrophe may already be taking shape somewhere high above the valleys, beyond the sight of the people who will ultimately bear its consequences.

Both music and light therapies are non-invasive, person-centric, and well-supported interventions that positively alleviate physical, psychological, emotional and cognitive health issues through the medium of music and light.

Drawing on genomics, evolutionary biology and systems-level thinking, Sudhakaran Prabakaran in his book Eclipsed Horizons: Unveiling the Dark Genome, argues that the dark genome is not a “junkyard” but nature’s “tinkering workshop”, a reservoir of potential solutions that organisms can draw upon when facing environmental challenges.