Functional Foods and Their Benefits: An Overview

Abstract

‘Designer food’, ‘functional food’ and ‘fortified food’ are synonym, which refers to the food fortified or enriched with nutrient content already present in them or other complementary nutrient. Or they can be understood as “foods that are tailor-made to meet any specific requirement in terms of functionality, nutrition, convenience and therapeutic aspects”. They are prepared by manipulating the formulations or engineered genetically or by other conventional means to provide the desired function. In last decades a lot of emphasis is given to designer foods mainly developed to deliver the nutritional and Functional foods and nutraceuticals provide a means to reduce the increasing cost on the health care system by a continuous preventive mechanism. The interest in functional foods has started in early 1990s, becoming one of the fast growing sectors of global food industry. Epidemiological studies and randomized clinical trials carried out in different parts of the world have been demonstrated or at least suggested numerous health effects related to functional food consumption, such as reduction of cancer risk, improvement of heart health, enhancement of immune functions, lowering of menopause symptoms, improvement of gastrointestinal health, anti-inflammatory effects, reduction of blood pressure, antibacterial & antiviral activities, reduction of osteoporosis etc.