Functional foods challenges facing

Apart from the challenges to be faced in the near future in food science and nutrition already described above (e.g., the production of new functional foods with scientifically proved claims the improvement of food safety, quality, and traceability the development, production, and monitoring of new transgenic foods, including the so-called second-generation GM crops environmental sustainability, etc.), there are other interesting trends and opportunities that can be anticipated for Foodomics that are described below. 

Stanton, C., Desmond, C., Coakley, M., Collins, J.K., Fitzgerald, G.E, and Ross, R.R Challenges facing development of probiotic-containing functional foods. Handbook of Fermented Foods, E.R. Famworth, ed., CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 27-58, 2003. 

Companies planning to do business in functional foods should not underestimate the additional complexities and challenges they face compared with standard food products. Indeed, the high failure rate for functional food launches to date probably indicates a failure to recognize this. 

It is worth stressing that the oils and fats industry has a significant role to play in the future growth of the global functional foods market. However, crucial to the sustained and profitable involvement of the oils and fats industry will be growing consumer acceptance of the principle that there are good fats. One of the major challenges that the oils and fats industry faces is to convince consumers that oils and fats have a positive role to play in health maintenance. 

The success of all food and drinks products is influenced by such factors as advertising, product quality (particularly taste), pricing, and market positioning. Manufacturers of functional foods face additional challenges, notably the substantiation of health claims, an often unclear regulatory environment, and communicating potentially complex concepts in language that consumers understand and trust. 

The new trend of the cereal industry is the development of new nutraceutical or functional foods. Most cereal processors face the challenge of developing new foods if they want to subsist in the market. 

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