Functional foods have become an increasingly popular way for consumers to focus on health and wellbeing. Examples include chocolate with chamomile and valerian extract to aid sleep; juice fortified with echinacea to improve immune function; or granola packed with prebiotics and probiotics.
Be wary of functional food hype; foods and beverages containing omega-3s may contain high amounts of sugar, sodium, saturated fat or calories.
Health Claims
Functional foods contain multiple bioactive food components (nutrients and non-nutrients) that work synergistically or additively to exert physiological effects that improve health, reduce disease risk, or enhance outcomes from chronic illnesses and conditions. These effects may be demonstrated through scientific research in basic cells, animals, or clinical human nutrition studies.
Consumers are becoming more interested in food as medicine, prompting manufacturers to produce an array of products featuring “adaptogens,” medicinal mushrooms, ginkgo biloba extract and other trendy ingredients with purported health benefits – most without enough experimental data to substantiate them.
To prevent misleading consumers, governments must adopt a more structured regulatory process for functional foods. One option would be requiring all structure/function claims be supported with hard evidence similar to pharmaceutical regulations that apply to drugs – this would reduce gray areas where false or unverifiable claims are made.
Regulatory Requirements
Functional foods come in all forms – minimally processed, whole and fortified products alike. When consumed regularly as part of a healthy lifestyle, functional foods tend to offer positive health-related effects, often by way of bioactive compounds which work synergistically to alter one or more physiological processes within the body.
Regulators in different countries impose different requirements on functional foods. A global harmonization of regulations and research efforts must take place to create an appropriate framework for their development and marketing.
Functional food claims must be scientifically supported to be trusted by consumers. This requires conducting epidemiological and long-term aftermarket studies that give realistic assurance about these health claims made about functional foods, while good manufacturing practice must also be adhered to and they must be affordable across rural and urban settings.
Proper Product Categorization
Functional foods are whole food products containing ingredients or microorganisms known to enhance health in amounts that are safe for consumption in a diet plan. Different compounds often work synergistically together in these functional foods to alter physiological functions.
Foods containing probiotics include whole berries and fish as well as yogurt that contains probiotics. Although generally considered scientific terminology, some products that use it may use it misleadingly for marketing purposes.
Sugary beverages marketed as functional can lead consumers to believe they are healthier options when they contain a significant amount of sugar. Furthermore, functionality also depends on how a product fits into a consumer’s diet.
Consuming too much of one type of food, like prebiotic fibers such as inulin and chicory, may lead to bloating and gas. Therefore, it’s essential that one incorporates various prebiotic sources in their diets.
Marketing
Food and beverage companies that produce functional foods are engaging in marketing activities to increase product sales. This may involve digital strategies, influencer partnerships, product innovation to attract health-conscious customers as well as keeping up with regulatory requirements regarding labeling requirements, health claim substantiation processes and ingredient approvals.
Consumers generally accept functional foods and beverages that provide additional protection from chronic diseases and conditions, such as sugar. Bui et al. [77] discovered that those living with sick family members tend to consume functional food with sugar content more readily, while Verbeke [80] discovered that perceived correspondences between health effects and carrier-ingredient combinations moderated knowledge-level effects on functional food acceptance.
As such, marketing professionals working with functional foods must put significant effort into brand positioning strategies to create an image of trust amongst consumers and communicate about the benefits of functional foods to enable informed decisions to be made by these customers.
