Healthy Nutrition - Functional Drinks

The functional food concept constitutes a worldwide trend. That it is viewed very differently in the USA, Europe and Asia is clearly evident from the fact that there is no universally accepted definition of the term functional food . The following are some examples of the international definitions of functional food . 

Japan is the only country with a definition of functional food that is legally binding. 

The Japanese Ministry of Health defines functional food as a processed food with ingredients that, in addition to their nutritional-physiological properties, serve to 

The Institute of Medicine for the National Academy of Sciences defines functional foods as those in which the concentrations of one or more ingredients have been modified to enhance their contribution to a healthful diet. This includes nutritionally modified foods but excludes foods with a naturally high nutritional content. 

This working definition was developed within the framework of an EU project (FU-FOSE, Functional Food Science in Europe) [14]  

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