ABSTRACT
Commonly Found in Foods ........................................................ 326 References ............................................................................................................. 329
The definition of functional food can be very wide and variable, but we should not forget that all foods have at least one main function, alimentation. A functional food should be considered a dietary ingredient that can have above-normal nutritional value. According to Gibson and Roberfroid, a useful definition of functional food is a dietary ingredient that affects its host in a targeted manner so as to exert positive effects that may, in due course, justify certain health claims.1 This definition leads directly to the question: how can foods be made more functional? We might consider four possible mechanisms: (i) elimination of a component having a negative physiological effect, (ii) increasing the concentration of components that contribute to the beneficial aspects, (iii) addition of a new ingredient observed to have general advantages, and (iv) partial substitution of a negative component by another, positive one, without adversely affecting the nutritional value of the food.2
