Have you heard about functional foods? These provide additional health benefits beyond basic nutrition. Many foods naturally contain these additional health benefits — think fermented foods like kefir or sauerkraut that contain probiotics. Or berries that are high in antioxidants. Including functional foods as part of your daily food choices is an excellent strategy to improve overall health.

Food manufacturers are more frequently adding ingredients to foods to enhance their health benefits, and these additives are also known as functional ingredients. A functional ingredient is a bioactive compound obtained from a variety of sources, including fruits and vegetables, marine sources, microorganisms, and inorganic raw materials. Food industry research published in 2019 showed that a large percentage of consumers are interested in foods that enhance mood, increase energy, help with weight loss, improve digestion, reduce risk of heart disease, and promote sleep.

What are some functional ingredients?

There are hundreds of functional ingredients! 2021 food industry research highlights seven that generate high interest from consumers:

Functional Ingredient Consumer interest

Tumeric Improved digestive health and reduced inflammation
Collagen Bone, joint and brain health
Green Coffee Extract Increased energy
Electrolytes Hydration and energy
Lavender Improved mood and sleep
Beta Glucans Improved immunity
Probiotics Gut health and improved immunity

Just because consumers believe that these functional ingredients promote health doesn’t mean that science necessarily supports these beliefs. Functional ingredients have the potential to play an important role in human health, but reaching that potential depends on accumulating a large body of scientific research that proves both benefits and safety. An analysis of over 100 recent papers that reported potential health effects from plant-derived functional ingredients in multiple journals showed that few provided sufficient information to allow the research to be replicated and very few had tested multiple batches of an ingredient. 

References:

1. Government of South Australian. Introduction to Functional Foods and Ingredients. https://www.pir.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/287683/Functional_Foods_Guidance_-_What_are_Functional_Foods.pdf  accessed 2-2-23

2. Food Industry Executive. Functional Ingredients: What Consumers Want. https://foodindustryexecutive.com/2019/05/functional-ingredients-what-consumers-want/ Carol Wiley, 5-13-2019. Accessed 2-2-23

3. The Food Institute. 7 Functional Ingredients to Watch. https://foodinstitute.com/focus/7-functional-ingredients-to-watch/ posted 5-16-22; accessed 2-2-23

4. Steven M. Gendel, Potential functional food ingredients: Insufficient ingredient descriptions, Journal of Functional Foods, Volume 86, 2021, 104721, ISSN 1756-4646, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2021.104721. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1756464621003704

5. IFT. Top 10 Functional Food Trends. https://www.ift.org/news-and-publications/food-technology-magazine/issues/2022/april/features/top-10-functional-food-trends. A. Elizabeth Sloan 4-1-22; accessed 2-3-23