Proceedings of the XLVI Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress

Giardini Naxos, Italy - 18/21 September, 2002

ISBN 88-900622-3-1

Oral Communication Abstract - S2a

FUNCTIONAL FOODS: FROM CONCEPT TO PRODUCT

PORRINI M.

Dept. Food Science and Technology – Nutrition Unit, University of Milano

functional foods, health promotion, health claim

Many definitions have been proposed for functional foods, however the simplest, and probably clearest, one is: foods that may provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition.

Apart from definition, functional food has to be understood first of all as a concept, which arises from the evolution of the science of nutrition. Nutrition has progressed from the prevention of deficiency and the establishment of nutritional standards, to the promotion of a state of well-being and the reduction of the risk of disease. One important task of nutritionists in the twenty-first century is to achieve an “optimised diet”, to improve the capacity of each individual to resist diseases. Functional foods are one of the outcomes of this.

Functional foods are and must be foods, not drugs, as they have no therapeutic effects, and must be consumed as part of the daily diet. At this regard it is interesting to underline that an important emerging evidence of nutritional studies is that intact foods are probably more powerful than individual components in protecting the organism. An example derives from b-carotene experience: while it seemed highly protective according to epidemiological studies, when Finnish smokers were provided supplements of b-carotene, the incidence of lung cancer increased.

A wide variety of food products could be characterised as “functional” with a variety of components affecting specific body functions. Many active substances in foods have been identified and their biological function characterized, including isoflavones, catechins, carotenoids, allyl sulfur compounds. Examples of foods that have a high content of these “active” substances are: soybeans and other legumes (isoflavones), teas and berries (catechins), tomatoes and tomato products (lycepene), onions and garlic (allyl sulfur compounds). Some substances (and foods containing them) are inversely associated with risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, specifically hypertension and hypercholesterolemia (b-glucan, resveratrol, tannins, g-tocotrienol); others have anticarcinogenic activity (genestein, limonene, a-tocopherol, equol, lutein); others are osteogenic (soy protein, genistein, daidzein). Some examples of already known functional foods will be discussed.

The development of functional foods could be an important task to optimise nutrition, but when moving from concept to practice some aspects have to be considered. First of all, the health claim. To be “functional” a food must exert specific effects on some body functions. However, according to the European food legislation (directive 79/112/EEC on food labelling) it is not possible to attribute to any foodstuff the property of preventing or treating a human disease. Since 1980 the European Commission tried to introduce pan-European legislation on health claims, but without success. Consequently the individual national regulations are still in force, resulting in a diversity of approaches across the EU.

Other aspects to consider when working on the development of a functional food will be the stability and sensory properties, as well as issues of cost efficiency and toxicity. Being foods, in fact, they have to be safe according to all criteria defined in current food regulations. But in many cases new procedures will need to be developed and validated to assess functional food risks.

From the point of view of food processing the development of functional foods will often require an increased level of complexity and monitoring of food processing. Some important areas for technological challenge that have been identified will be presented.