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Most foods are considered functional in terms of providing nutrients and/or energy to sustain basic life, but nutraceuticals and functional foods are defined dietary foods that prevent or reverse a diseased state. Nutraceuticals and functional foods are intensively researched for their role in maintaining health and prevention of diseases. Increasing public awareness of the link between diet and health has boosted the consumption of these foods to unparalleled levels, particularly in countries where the population is aging and health care costs are rising. The science behind these foods is growing rapidly not only because of the increasing number of new substances or type of novel foods, but also the regulatory bodies requiring more and more evidence on efficacy, mode-of-action and safety. The nutraceuticals market is growing rapidly, with a 2016 forecast value of $207 billion, according to a new report available on companiesandmarkets.com. There are distinct opportunities for growth in the functional food, beverages and supplements market. Analysts indicate that the functional foods market alone will be worth over $67 billion by 2016, representing a growth rate of more than 6%. The nutraceuticals and functional foods comprise different sources, such as carotenoids, dietary fibre, fatty acids, phenolics, plant sterols, prebiotics/probiotics, and soy phytoestrogens, among others Nutraceuticals and functional foods have not only captured the world food market, but also the psyche of the average consumers through supply of rich nutrients to the body even by simple popping of different supplement formats (example, capsules or pills). The effect of these foods has been ranging from extreme positive studies to extreme negative outcome reports. This myriad of results has raised a debate on their actual efficacy. It is known that some of these nutraceuticals and functional foods can actually produce toxic compounds which have far more ranging effects than the actual healthy effect. Literature is replete with clinical trials where it was found that the subjects were treated of the basic health impacts just by placebo effect, undermining the potential of the nutraceuticals and functional foods. However, majority of studies have demonstrated that long term use of the nutraceuticals and functional foods do produce positive healing effects and the study results have been derived from the locally available foods in a region and the study of lifetime health profile of the individuals consuming the foods. The latest trend in nutraceuticals and functional foods sector has been the recovery of nutraceuticals from discarded fruits and vegetables. For example, a wave of possible new functional ingredients is being developed by the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Teagasc), some of which are derived from waste products. One of their findings has shown that onion peels, a common by-product of food processing, have a higher antioxidant activity than their flesh. Onions are rich in quercetin, a potent antioxidant, also found in apples, berries and other vegetables. This has opened a completely new research area by deriving the potentially important nutraceuticals and functional foods in much higher concentrations than their principal parts. In fact, this would bring in the verbatim of sustainable nutraceutical and functional food sector by putting the focus on the valuable wastes and their value-addition. |
