Functional food products

1
Functional food products

• Eva Tornberg Department of Food Technology,
  Engineering and NutritionLund University, P.O.
  Box 124, 221 00 Lund, Sweden

2
Definition of a Functional Food

• A food product that is a part of the usual diet,
  but has beneficial effects that go beyond what
  are known as traditional nutritional effects.
• These beneficial effects has to be demonstrated
  to justify two specific type of claims
• The enhanced function claim
• The reduction of disease risk claim.

From Contor, L. Nutr. Metab. Cardiovasc. Dis.
2001 Aug 11(4 suppl.)20-3
3
Functional Food Science in Europe

• FUFOSE Concerted action (1996-1998) Consensus on
  the definition of a Functional Food and types of
  claims to be raised.
• PASSCLAIM
• a) Produce a consensus on principles for the
  scientific substantiation of health-related
  claims for food.
• b) Select common criteria for how markers
  should be identified, validated and used.
• c) To evaluate critically the existing
  schemes, which assess the scientific
  substantiation of claims.

From Contor, L. Nutr. Metab. Cardiovasc. Dis.
2001 Aug 11(4 suppl.)20-3
4
Examples of food products and components that
are interesting with regard to Functional Foods

• The proportion between macro-nutrients like
  protein, fat and carbohydrates low-fat
  products are important to reduce obesity
• Carbohydrate modified products with low glycemic
  index to reduce the occurence of the metabolic
  syndrome
• New food products enriched with antioxidants,
  such as vitamin C, E, carotenoids and
  polyphenols, to reduce oxidative damages on
  cellmembranes, functional proteins and DNA

Adapted from Asp, N-G (1998) Scandinavian Journal
of Nutrition, 42 153-154
5
Examples of food products and components that
are interesting with regard to Functional Foods

• 4. Fatty acid composition (?-3 fatty acids,
  sterols) that influences the composition of the
  blood fat, hence atherosclerosis.
• 5. Probiotics (living micro-organisms),
  prebiotics (undigestible food components
  stimulating growth and activity of probiotics)
  and synbiotics (a combination of pre- and
  probiotics) to improve the gut health.

Adapted from Asp, N-G (1998) Scandinavian Journal
of Nutrition, 42 153-154
6
Not to be forgotten!!!

• In order to be able to sell and market these
  functional food products the sensory properties
  of the product should be sustained or even
  enhanced

7
Some examples of the development of food
functional products in Sweden

• 1. Changing the proportion between
  macro-nutrients like protein, fat and
  carbohydrates with emphasis on reducing the fat
  content, leading to the development of low-fat
  products.

8
Low-fat products

• Health issue
• Fat has the largest content of calories of
  the macro nutrients and if the diet constitutes
  of more calories than used obesity
  high blood pressure, diabetes,
  atherosclerosis and some forms of cancer.
• Health claim
• A diet with low or reduced energy intake can
  contribute to a smaller risk of obesity

9
Fat has been replaced by carrot in a meat
emulsion sausage according to the Chativa patent

• 9 carrot is added to the meat batter.
• Meat raw material of low fat content was used
  obtaining an ultimate fat content in the ready
  sausage of only 3 , which is a 87 reduction in
  fat content from the more common content of 23 .

10
Another functional food product sold in Sweden

• 2. Proviva juice drink, which contains probiotic
  bacteria Lactobacillus Plantarium 299v to a
  concentration, where it has been proven
  clinically that it is good for the gut health.
• Therefore a health claim can be used and has been
  used for this product, when marketed.

11
A new functional food project at Lund University

• Antidiabetic Food Centre (AFC) led by Inger
  Björk.
• Exploiting new research areas targeting the
  Insulin Resistance Syndrom (IRS).
• A budget for the first two years 3.5 M Euro and
  it is supposed to last up to 10 years.
• To establish multi-disciplinary research
  platforms for design of new innovative
  antidiabetic food concepts.

12
Definition and some statistics

• The metabolic syndrome or IRS is a syndrome that
  include at least one of the features of 2
  diabetes, insulin resistance and impaired glucose
  tolerance often together with obesity and
  hypertension.
• In Sweden, 49.9 of the men (16-84y) are
  overweight or obese (SCB, 2004). In Sweden
  approximately 5 of the population suffers from
  type 2 diabetes. 2010 some 31 million people in
  EU is estimated to have IRS. The prevalence of
  diabetes worldwide is predicted to increase from
  its present level of 180 million to 325 million
  by 2005 (Zimmet, 2003).

13
Some food concepts to be studied in the AFC

• Indigestible carbohydrates designing
  physiological properties along the gut.
• Bioactive components Food design targeting
  antioxidants and other active components.
• Food design targeting bioactivity of
  peptides/proteines
• Food concepts exploiting wholegrain mechanisms.
• Food concepts affecting the gut microbial
  ecosystem.
• Food design and novel process techniques.

14
Conclusions

• In this lecture a definition of a functional food
  was given together with a description of an
  on-going concerted actions in EU.
• Examples of food products and components that are
  interesting with regard to Functional Foods were
  enumerated.
• The development two Functional Food was shown,
  where one used dietary fibers from vegetables to
  replace fat in low fat foods
• A new functional food project at Lund University,
  Antidiabetic Food Centre (AFC) led by Inger
  Björk, was described.