ABSTRACT
Although there are many other Chinese foods having medicinal effects, such as wood ear, mushrooms, garlic, soybeans, etc., the items discussed here are limited to the official list issued by the Chinese government. In Taiwan, the Bureau of Food Hygiene and the Department of Health recognized that the tra ditional Chinese herbs listed in the Ben Cao Gong Mu have been traditionally used as foods and can still be treated as foods (Chen, 1998). In Japan, func tional foods have been regulated by the govermental health authority. A special category for foods with a medicinal effect is listed as Foods for Specified Health Use (FOSHU) in the “Nutrition Improvement Act” (Anon., 1997). In the United States, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) was passed by Congress in 1994 (Anon., 1994). The Act expanded the traditional dietary supplements as essential nutrients to substances like ginseng, garlic fish oils, and so forth. As a result of the Act, dietary ingredients used in dietary supplements are no longer subject to the premarket safety eval uations required of other new food ingredients or new uses of old food ingre dients (Anon., 1994a). The new law will help to regulate the proper use of functional foods.
