Functional Foods

As we are moving into the 21'' century, the world's demand for food is becoming ever greater. In the poorest nations, the lack of availability of food supply leading to micronutrient deficiencies. In contrast, in developed countries, people enjoy a greater varieties and quantity of foods leading to the effect of overnutrition (obesity, heart disease, and cancer). In response, the concept of food is changing from an emphasis on health maintenance to promoting better health by helping to prevent chronic illness. Functional foods are design to help people to reduce their risks of some diseases (by preventing) through readily available, good-tasting diets rather than through the use of curative measures only. The distribution of potential ingredients in functional foods are dietary fiber (40%). calcium (20%). oligosaccharides (20%), lactic acid bacteria (10%) and other (10%). The perspective of Western and Eastern, somehow, are not totally competent. People living in the Eastern hemisphere believe that certain food had a therapeutic benefit. Whereas those living in Western are considered to be more conscious in their health. The food industries and government agencies have the agreement to establish definition and substantiation for functional food. This aims to protect the consumer and build consumer confidence. INTRODUCTION Terminology The Food and Drug Administration defines foods as "articles used primarily for taste, aroma or nutritive value. Functional foods are foods that provide an additional physiological benefit that may prevent disease or promote health (Hasler, 1996). Designer foods was coined in 1989 to describe foods that naturally contain or are emihed with non nutritive, biologically active chamical components of plants (e.g. phytochemicals) that are effective in reducing cancer risk. Nutraceuticals has been popularized by the Foundation for Inovation in Medicine and refers to "any substance that may be considered a food or part of a food and provides medical or health benefits, including the prevention and treatment of disease." 'I Sraf Pengajar Tidak Tetap Fakultas Teknologi Perranian Universiras Katolik Widya Mandala Surabaya More recently the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences has defined functional foods as those that "encompass potentially healthful products" icluding "any modified food or food ingredients that may provide a health benefit beyond the traditional nutrients it contains". The common terms used include medical foodr, nutraceuticals, functional foods, and nutritional foods. The Application of Functional Foods There are a wide range of the major use of functional foods : 1. Prevent disease; the role of functional foods in fighting against diseases will be further discussed. 2. Prevent aging; functional foods approaches to slowing down the aging process by tonifying the kidneys and spleen, nourishing essential materials of the body, and roving the diseasecausing factors. Jurnal Teknologi Pangan dan Gizi Volume 1 Nomor 1. April 2000 3. Maintain and improve appearance; functional foods improve the luster of facial skin, reducing facial wrinkles, removing facial pigments and improving facial skin edema, enrich blood and to strengthen the function of the spleen and lung. 4. Control body weight; functional foods has the ability to remove excessive body fat and reducing body weight by removing dampness and facilitate diuresis. Overall, the functionality of foods are applied for variety applications throughout health maintenance and medication, aging prevention, and cosmetological purposes.