Functional foods

Over the past 10 years, the European market for probiotics has evolved rapidly. As consumer interest surrounding food products that are principally marketed on their health-related benefits continues to increase, what is the current knowledge around probiotics?

Many components naturally present in vegetable oils have been shown to have beneficial properties. Once isolated and concentrated, a number of these compounds have proven effective in treating a wide range of conditions ranging from irritable bowel syndrome to chronic liver disease (1). Similarly, many of the fatty acids and other compounds present in vegetable oils have long been known to benefit our health. There is clearly great potential for developing functional vegetable oils.

“Functional food” has become a buzzword in the food world and its market share is predicted to grow substantially in the coming years. A lot of people believe that functional foods are those for which health claims can be made. Although this is not always the case it is enough to stimulate a lively debate about the scientific evidence needed to justify health claims.

Most people are aware of the association between intestinal disease and pathogenic ("bad") bacteria, but what is less well known is the positive role of beneficial gut bacteria (probiotics) on our health and well-being.

Functional foods: while the term may sound very millennium, you have undoubtedly seen, if not tried some yourself. Functional foods are of course still foods, but they have been designed, to offer a particular health benefit over and above the traditional nutrients they contain.

Nanotechnology is the development of new products and processes using matter with dimensions in the range of approximately 0.1 to 100 nanometres.  A nanometre is one-billionth of a metre (or one-millionth of a millimetre), making this truly the ‘science of the small’.  To put this in perspective, the width of one atom is approximately one-tenth of a nanometre, a DNA molecule is about 2.5 nanometres wide and the thickness of a human hair is approximately 80,000 nanometres.