The boundaries for this food class definition, dating back to 40 years ago, are still unclear, and the subject remains open-ended. Therefore, it is a little challenging to be confused and predict which foods are not functional foods and which ones we cannot define. For the same reason, misleading consumers are frequently encountered in the market.
Approaching the general definitions, we can name many food products we consume in our daily living order as functional. For example, yogurt; is food obtained by combining milk and beneficial bacteria (yeast) and consumed for hundreds of years. It is a more valuable product with different features than its main component, milk. It would be inappropriate to define this product as a functional food for societies that approach this point of view and have a settled yogurt consumption habit. However, in communities with no acquaintance with yogurt, it would be pretty appropriate to define it as functional food when the product is newly introduced or newly recognized. Long live Hamdi Ulukaya.
So is bread a functional food? Bread, produced with four components, flour, water, yeast, and salt, has become a richer food than wheat, which is its main ingredient. However, defining bread as functional food will not be the right approach. Because bread is a fundamental and historical food product that is known and consumed extensively all over the world. On the other hand, in many countries, bread production enriched with folic acid content is applied as a health policy, especially for the consumption of pregnant women. This way, bread with increased nutritional value should be defined as a functional food product.
Efforts to convert essential nutrients, which contribute to the diet of the large population, such as potatoes enriched with vitamins A and E, and rice enriched with beta-Carotene, into functional foods should also be considered very important for general public health.
Food to be functional does not have to be enriched with different ingredients. Products with only their natural content but are concentrated by various methods and whose nutritional value per quantity is increased are also defined as functional foods. In addition, food products rich in nutrient content are put into different forms and usage possibilities and products that enable them to be consumed for various reasons and are included in the functional food class.
Why did the need for functional foods arise?
Two-thirds of the food products produced worldwide consist of 8 primary nutrients. The vast majority of the food we consume is nothing more than different blends and forms of these leading products. As a result, Even if we have different shapes and flavors, we constantly consume the same nutrients. This situation causes us to be unable to provide the nutrition we need in sufficient quantity and variety. We started to struggle with problems that have reached social dimensions such as malnutrition, obesity, and related diseases, life expectancy that cannot get its optimum duration – what more?
On the other hand, the industry’s preference to produce food products based on quantity and image causes the natural nutritional values of the products to decrease continuously over the years. Academic researches reveal that due to impoverished tired soil, air and soil pollution, climate change, chemicals used, and intensive processing during production, the content quality of food products has decreased significantly, which can be measured every ten years. Even the most natural products we think are the healthiest are increasingly turning into “junk-food” products.
Reduced nutritional variety and quality of food products show that interest in functional foods should increase over the years. It tells me that the next decade will be better than the past decade in terms of healthy nutrition, raising awareness of healthy living, and developing functional foods.
