Functional Food Research - Retrospects and Prospects

Abstract

The old Chinese saying “Medicine and food share a common origin” has had a resurgence. In 1984, Japan proposed the terminology and concept of “functional foods” as those which function to reduce the risk of lifestyle-related diseases. The hypoallergenic rice which the author and co-workers produced offers a good example (Nature 1993). Since then, interest in functional foods has been propagating globally. One of the most interesting examples of functional food factors would be probiotics. A recent trend of research is to assess the functionality by means of nutrigenomics using sophisticated DNA microarray techniques. It will be possible to give rise to personalized nutrition and tailor-made foods based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of genes. Functional food science is proceeding to open a new door.