What Is Functional food?

Functional food is also called as medicinal food. It refers to a fresh or processed food that is consumed for its health promoting or disease - preventing property apart from its nutritional value.

Functional food has become a field in food science. Functional foods are also criticized for having health claims simply for marketing reasons. They are also called as nutraceuticals which comes from the combination of nutrition and pharmaceutical. They include genetically modified food.

The two categories of functional food include processed food and fresh food. The processed food is made out of functional food ingredients or food prepared with health promoting additives. For instance, vitamin enriched products. The fresh food will have specific health claims attached. The term functional food was first used in Japan during 1980's . There is also a government approval process for functional foods, called Food for Specified Health Use (FOSHU). Countries like Canada have laws in relation to labeling of such products.

More Glossary Terms Explained here

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