FUNCTIONAL FOODS
Description
The term “functional foods” refers to a food that provides a health benefit as well as nutrients. The term can refer to whole foods, to fortified, enriched or enhanced foods, and dietary supplements that have the potential to improve mental and physical well being and reduce the risk of diseases.
The ingredients responsible for this benefit can be naturally present or may have been added during processing. The levels of nutrients in foods can be increased beyond their natural levels to create an enriched product. Fortified products contain nutrients or ingredients that were not present in the original food.

Definitions of Some Functional Food Terms

• Functional food: A normal type of food with an additional ingredient that provides a health benefit beyond satisfying traditional nutrient requirements. Examples are foods fortified with vitamins or calcium.
• Nutraceutical: A special functional food that of which medical and/or health benefits including prevention or treatment of disease are claimed.
• Colonic food: Undigested food that reaches the colon, usually in the form of a non-digestible carbohydrate, and which provides nutrients for the intestinal microflora.
• Prebiotic: A food ingredient that improves the conditions in the large intestine beneficially for the host.
• Probiotic: A mono or mixed culture of micro organisms that affect the host beneficially. 

Reasons Of Preference

• Medical costs are rising.
• Consumers want to prevent, rather than cure, disease.
• Consumers are more aware of link between health and nutrition.
• The population in industrialised nations is ageing.
• Consumers want to counteract the perceived increase of environmental hazards from pollution, microbes and chemicals in air, water and food.
• There is increasing scientific evidence of efficacy.

EUROPEAN UNION LEGISLATION FOR FUNCTIONAL FOODS
Functional foods have not as yet been defined by legislation in Europe. Generally, they are considered as those foods which are intended to be consumed as part of the normal diet and that contain biologically active components which offer the potential of enhanced health or reduced risk of disease. As interest in this category of foods has grown, new products have appeared and interest has turned to the development of standards and guidelines for the development and promotion of such foods.

What is FUFOSE?
Because of increasing interest in the concept of "Functional Foods" and "Health Claims", the European Union set up a European Commission Concerted Action on FunctionalFood Science in Europe (FUFOSE). The programme was coordinated by the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) Europe and the aim was to develop and establish a science-based approach to the evidence needed to support the development of food products that can have a beneficial effect on an identified physiological function in the body, that can improve an individual's state of health and well-being and/or reduce the risk of disease.

The report takes the position that functional foods should be in the form of normal foods and they must demonstrate their effects in amounts that can normally be expected to be consumed in the diet. A functional food can be a natural whole food, a food to which a component has been added, or a food from which a component has been removed by technological or biotechnological means. It can also be a food in which the nature of one or more components has been modified, or a food in which the bioavailability of one or more components has been modified, or any combination of these possibilities. A functional food may be targeted at the whole population or for particular groups, which may be defined, for example, by age or by genetic constitution.
The EU Concerted Action supports the development of two types of health claims relevant to functional foods, which must always be valid in the context of the whole diet and must relate to the amounts of foods normally consumed.

• Type A: "Enhanced function"claims that refer to specific physiological, psychological functions and biological activities beyond their established role in growth, development and other normal functions of the body. For example: Caffeine can improve cognitive performance.
• Type B: "Reduction of disease-risk"claims that relate to the consumption of a food or food component that might help reduce the risk of a specific disease or condition because of specific nutrients or non-nutrients contained within it. For example: Folate can reduce a woman's risk of having a child with neural tube defects, and sufficient calcium intake may help to reduce the risk of osteoporosis in later life.

NOVEL FOODS, DIETETIC FOODS and FOOD SUPPLEMENTS
To avoid complication, the definitions of novel foods, dietetic foods and food supplements are given below.
NOVEL FOODS
Novel foods are foods and food ingredients that have not been used for human consumption to a significant degree within the Community before 15 May 1997.  Regulation EC 258/97 of 27 January 1997 of the European Parliament and the Council lays out detailed rules for the authorisation of novel foods and novel food ingredients.
Various categories of novel foods and novel food ingredients are as follows:

• foods and food ingredients containing or consisting of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) within the meaning of Council Directive 90/220/EEC of 23 April 1990 on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms
• foods and food ingredients produced from, but not containing GMOs
• foods and food ingredients with a new or intentionally modified primary molecular structure
• foods and food ingredients consisting of or isolated from micro-organisms, fungi or algae
• foods and food ingredients consisting of or isolated from plants and food ingredients isolated from animals, except for food and food ingredients obtained by traditional propagating or breeding practices and having a history of safe food use
• foods and food ingredients to which has been applied a production process not currently used, where that process gives rise to significant changes in the composition or structure of the foods or food ingredients which affect their nutritional value, metabolism or level of undesirable substances

Click here to see the Regulation EC 258/97

DIETETIC FOODS
Foodstuffs intended to satisfy particular nutritional requirements of specific groups of the population are called " foods for particular nutritional uses", " dietetic foods" or " dietary foods".
Council Directive 89/398/EEC as amended by Council Directive 96/84/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Directive 1999/41/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council sets out a framework of rules for the composition, marketing and labelling requirements of dietetic foods, including measures to ensure the appropriate use of such foods and to exclude any risk to human health.
The framework directive lists the following groups of dietary foods for which specific rules shall be set out by Commission Directives:

• Foods for infants and young children
• Infant formulae and follow-on formulae
• Processed cereal-based foods and baby foods (weaning foods)
• Foods intended for use in energy-restricted diets for weight reduction
• Foods for special medical purposes
• Foods for sports people

FOOD SUPPLEMENTS
Food supplements are concentrated sources of nutrients or other substances with a nutritional or physiological effect whose purpose is to supplement the normal diet. They are marketed 'in dose' form i.e. as pills, tablets, capsules, liquids in measured doses etc.
The Directive 2002/46/EC of the European Parliament and Council of 10 June 2002 on the approximation of the laws of Member States relating to food supplements establishes harmonised rules for the labelling of food supplements and introduces specific rules on vitamins and minerals in food supplements. The aim is to harmonise the legislation and to ensure that these products are safe and appropriately labelled so that consumers can make informed choices.
Annex II of Directive 2002/46/EC is a list of permitted vitamin or mineral preparations that may be added for specific nutritional purposes in food supplements. It has been amended by Commission Directive 2006/37/EC to include additional substances. The trade of products containing vitamins and minerals not listed in Annex II has been prohibited from the 1st of August 2005.
Vitamin and mineral substances may be considered for inclusion in the lists following the evaluation of an appropriate scientific dossier concerning the safety and bioavailability of the individual substance by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA).

Directive 2002/46/EC on food supplements provides for the setting of maximum and minimum amounts of vitamins and minerals in these products via the Standing Committee procedure.

References
http://www.food-info.net/tr/ff/intro.htm
http://www.eufic.org/article/en/page/BARCHIVE/expid/basics-functional-foods/
http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/biotechnology/novelfood/index_en.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/biotechnology/novelfood/legisl_en.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/labellingnutrition/nutritional/index_en.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/labellingnutrition/supplements/index_en.htm

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