ABSTRACT
Functional foods still remain a boundary concept in Africa, and their use, processing, manufacture, and marketing combine elements of food technology and those of the modern pharmaceutical industry. The absence of a clearly dened regulatory framework for this category in most African countries dictates that individual products are considered according to the “intended use” as designated by the manufacturer. For example, if tomato is presented as a fruit, it will be produced and regulated as such with all the applicable rules to ensure the safety of consumers. On the other hand, if tomato extract or isolated lycopene is packaged as a dietary supplement without any therapeutic claims, it will pass through most regulatory regimes as a “dietary supplement” and yet the same product will be considered a phytomedicine, which is a form of a drug if there are specic indications of its use in the management of prostate gland enlargement. When tomatoes are added as an ingredient in remedies used in traditional medicine, the resultant product is treated as a traditional medicinal formulation and the appropriate method of processing and regulation apply. Another widely used term is “fortied food” to describe the intentional addition of certain micronutrient or phytochemical, either to enrich the nutritional prole of a food substance or to enhance its health-promoting ability. Using tomatoes as an illustration, the tomato could be made to contain lycopene that is in excess of its natural composition as a “fortied food.” In this regard, a functional food could be considered a vehicle for the delivery of nutraceuticals and other phytochemicals to the body.
