Functional food research

As consumers around the globe increasingly keep attuned to the effects diet can have on their health, researchers are now eyeing innovations in functional foods that could address disease prevention as well as maintain a fit lifestyle.

On the cutting edge of functional food research is Japan which boasts the most developed functional food market in the world, according to the global research firm EuroMonitor and reported here on the opening day of the Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting & Food Expo, the world's largest annual food science forum and exposition.

In Japan, there are more than 650 products approved as Food for Specified Health Use, the world's first policy of legally permitting the commercialization of numerous functional food and health claims. And now the country is looking toward functional foods as a way to better address maladies specific to its culture—specifically allergies and fatigue, according to Makoto Shimizu, a professor at the University of Tokyo.

“Looking to the future, researchers in Japan are looking to try to regulate body systems to decrease the risk of lifestyle-related diseases, to modulate immune systems and to reinforce body defense,” Shimizu to food professionals at the conference going on this week. With 30 percent of Japan's population reportedly suffering from allergies, efforts are under way to add immunity-modulating foods to the FOSHU categories.

One focus of research has been on a green tea drink with possible anti-allergic properties. The tea contains substances called methylated catechins, and while evidence of the extent of their anti-allergen properties is far from conclusive, preliminary studies have been promising enough to generate interest among researchers with Japan's Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, according to Shimzu.

Research has appeared to confirm the product's safety in cells, mice and humans, and has concluded its active ingredients are more readily available to the body than other catechins. Still, researchers haven't been able to fulfill all the necessary FOSHU requirements, but the Japanese Association for Food Immunology is working to establish better evidence for the product, Shimzu said.

Efforts are equally aggressive to find a food to fight fatigue among Japan's population suffering from chronic tiredness. And there's also interest in establish anti-fatigue foods as another FOSHU category. Shimizu notes that as much as 59 percent of Japan's population feels fatigued. Thirty-seven percent describe themselves as “chronically fatigued.”

Each year, Japanese consumers spend more than 20,000 yen—$168 U.S. dollars—on energy drinks despite a lack of significant evidence of the drinks' efficacy.

Now in its 67th year, the IFT Annual Meeting + Food Expo is the world's largest annual scientific forum and exposition on food. Ranked among the largest U.S. conventions, the meeting delivers comprehensive, cutting-edge research and opinion from food science-, technology-, marketing- and business-leaders; online at IFT.org/amfe. Meetings run through Wednesday.