Food is such a familiar “material” to all of us that it is easy to overlook the science input required at all stages in its manufacture, from production to consumption. Nevertheless, as the articles in this special issue of MRS Bulletin seek to prove, the materials-science approach is every bit as valid—and as useful—for food as it is for any more conventional system studied in our field. The familiar linkage of structure–property–processing serves equally well in the case of a chocolate bar as a steel bar.