Designing Functional Foods with Bioactive Polyphenols: Highlighting Lessons Learned from Original Plant Matrices

Numerous food products are marketed with enhanced quantities of bioactive food compounds (BFC) and these products are collectively referred to as functional foods. Although the term functional foods has no legally defined meaning in the United States, the scientific community and its representative organizations acknowledge the potential benefit of including these foods into the diet. As such, several organizations have drafted working definitions for functional foods which have provided consumers with more information about the intended meaning of this term. For example, according to the recently released Position Paper on Functional Foods by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, functional foods are defined as whole foods along with fortified, enriched, or enhanced foods that have a potentially beneficial effect on health when consumed as part of a varied diet on a regular basis at effective levels [1]. The emphasis of this working definition on foods rather than supplemental intake of BFC acknowledge the impact of the vehicle of delivery – FOOD. Although supplement intake may be recommended under certain circumstances or in specific disease states, food-focused intake of nutrients and non-nutrients is the recommended approach by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 for acquisition of compounds known to influence health [2].