Functional products must meet the following requirements. Functional nutrition: benefit or harm? Examples of functional products

Traditional food products in which technologically

the amount of harmful components for health is reduced

components

Food products additionally enriched with functional

ingredients

Medicinal and specialized food products

Rice. 1. Food classification

Mass consumption products developed according to traditional technology and intended for nutrition of the main groups of the population.

Functional food products may be otherwise referred to as healthy foods, positive foods, physiologically significant foods. These include mass consumption products that look like traditional food and are intended to be eaten as part of a normal diet, but, unlike mass consumption products, contain functional ingredients that have a positive effect on individual functions of the body or the body as a whole.

The main distinguishing features of functional foods are:

The nutritional value;

Taste qualities;

Physiological effect on the body.

These requirements should apply to the product as a whole, and not to individual ingredients that make up its composition.

Not only enriched foods can be functional, but also any natural foods that are good for health, such as carrots, cabbage, onions, parsley, apples and much more.

Therefore, the following groups of products are functional (Fig. 1):

- natural food products that naturally contain a large amount of a functional ingredient , for example, oat bran rich in fiber, fish oil as a source of polyunsaturated fatty acids, citrus fruits containing a large amount of vitamin C, meat as one of the main sources of B vitamins, direct-pressed juices obtained from fruit or vegetable raw materials by mechanical processing;

- traditional food products, in which the amount of unhealthy components is reduced ;

The latter components include cholesterol, animal fats with a high content of saturated fatty acids, low molecular weight carbohydrates such as sucrose, sodium, etc. The technology for the production of this group of functional products is to extract or destroy harmful components: the extraction of cholesterol from egg white using CO 2 -extraction, destruction of cereal phytate, which binds and impedes the absorption of calcium, zinc and iron, treatment with the enzyme phytase.

- food products additionally enriched with functional ingredients using various technological methods e.g. bran bread, calcium-fortified fruit purees, vitamin-fortified juices and drinks, bifidokefir, drinks or candies with antioxidants, juices with echiniacea.

Functional products must meet the following requirements:

Be natural;

To have the appearance of ordinary food, that is, not to be produced in such dosage forms as tablets, capsules, powders;

To be consumed orally, that is, as ordinary food;

Be beneficial for nutrition and health, while the beneficial qualities must be scientifically justified, and daily doses must be approved by experts;

Be safe in terms of a balanced diet;

Do not reduce the nutritional value of foods;

Have established values ​​of physical and chemical parameters and accurate methods for their determination.

Functional products are intended:

To compensate for the deficiency of biologically active components in the body;

Maintaining the normal functional activity of organs and systems;

Reducing risk factors for a disease, such as normalizing cholesterol levels;

Maintaining beneficial microflora in the human body, maintaining the normal functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.

Functional foods should be separated from health foods, examples of which are dietary, therapeutic and prophylactic, specialized food products, the purpose of which is indicated below.

Diet foods designed for people suffering from certain diseases. Dietary products should prevent the exacerbation of these diseases, help mobilize the body's defenses. Depending on the type of disease diet foods may additionally contain protective food components or, conversely, be cleared of nutrients that contribute to the course of the disease. For example, diabetes mellitus and obesity require a reduction in the content of easily digestible sugars in foods, with liver disease, cardiovascular pathology, it is recommended to eat foods with a low content of table salt.

Specialized food characterized by a narrow focus on the correction of any body functions. For example, for the optimal implementation of the metabolic processes of the body, athletes need food products with a high content of B vitamins (B 1, B 2, B 6, nicotinic and pantothenic acids), as well as vitamins C and E, which play an important role in redox processes. in the body. The needs of the cosmonauts' organism are satisfied thanks to diets additionally enriched, first of all, with vitamins, essential amino acids, fiber, macroelements Ca, K, Mg.

Products for medical and preventive purposes intended for persons exposed to adverse factors of the working environment or used in therapeutic practice. Therapeutic and prophylactic food products contain components that compensate for the deficiency of biologically active substances, improve mainly the functions of the affected organs and systems, neutralize harmful substances, and contribute to their rapid removal from the body.

Therapeutic products can be:

Based on well-known general purpose products with the introduction of one or more components into their formulation that give direction to the product, or with the replacement of part of the product with other components; in this case, the product produced according to the state standard is taken as a basis, then the orientation of the product and the amount of functional additives introduced are determined;

New products without taking into account the basis of recipes and technologies of existing food products. In this case, the modeling of the product formulation with the specified therapeutic and prophylactic properties is carried out. When developing a recipe, the amount of enriching additive will be a constant value, and the selection of other components is carried out taking into account the properties of the additive and the organoleptic characteristics of the product.

Fortified foods - products in which certain ingredients are added or substituted. This group of products differs from the functional ones in that the amount of the functional ingredient is below the level of physiologically significant concentrations.

Thus, functional foods are a special group that does not belong to the category of medicines and medicinal foods, although they are used to improve the functioning of body systems and improve the quality of human health.

Therefore, they occupy a middle position between conventional products made according to traditional technology and therapeutic food products (Fig. 2).

Rice. 2. Ratio of food groups

The birthplace of the concept of physiologically functional foods is Japan, which in 1991 passed a law to improve nutrition. The new system was aimed at helping to promote the production of food products aimed at solving serious health problems. The Japanese government recognizes functional nutrition as an alternative to drug therapy and defines it as Food for Specific Health Use (FOSHU) .

The Nutrition Improvement Law in Japan includes five categories of "Food for Special Dietary Use":

1. milk powder for pregnant and lactating women;

2. powdered milk according to a special recipe for babies;

3. food for the elderly who find it difficult to chew and swallow;

4. individual food items for the sick (which include sodium, calorie, protein, lactose and antiallergic foods) and food groups for low sodium diets, for diabetics, for those with liver disease and senile obesity;

5. food for special health use, or FOSHU. Products categorized as FOSHU are food products that have added beneficial and effective ingredients. In doing so, functional ingredients must prove their medical and nutritional benefits.

Functional foods (FP) are food products, food (and not dietary supplements, powders, tablets) of natural or artificial origin, which have a pleasant taste and a pronounced healing effect for humans, are easy to use, intended for everyday systematic use and have undergone long-term clinical trials. tests with confirmed medical documentation.

Functional foods are food products containing ingredients with specified functional properties that can improve many physiological processes in the human body.

Functional can be natural natural springs food or products specially created by fortifying or fortifying, modifying natural ingredients, extracting or removing unwanted ingredients, or a combination of these techniques.

The positive impact of functional foods on health includes:

Reducing the level of cholesterol in the blood;

maintaining healthy teeth and bones;

providing energy;

Reducing the incidence of certain forms of cancer.

These products are intended for a wide range of consumers and have the appearance of ordinary food. They can and should be consumed regularly as part of a normal diet. The term "functional nutrition" should only be used in the sense of functional food or foods, it does not imply any theory or concept of nutrition. In this regard, it is important to emphasize that functional foods should be integrated into the general traditional human nutrition and complement it, and not oppose it.

Consumer properties of functional products include three components: nutritional value, palatability, physiological effects. Traditional products, unlike functional ones, are characterized only by the first two components. Compared with ordinary everyday products, functional products should be healthy, safe in terms of balanced nutrition and nutritional value of foods. It is important to note that these requirements apply to the product as a whole, and not just to its individual ingredients.

Healthy food products are not medicines and cannot cure, but they help prevent diseases and aging of the body in the current ecological situation. The researchers define the place of functional nutrition as the average between the usual, when a person eats what he wants, or can, in order to saturate the body, and medical nutrition intended for sick people.

functional ingredients.

All products of positive (functional, healthy) foods contain ingredients that give them functional properties. According to D. Potter's theory, the following main types of functional ingredients are effectively used at the current stage of market development:

Dietary fiber (soluble and insoluble);

Vitamins (A, B, C, etc.);

Minerals (calcium, iron);

Polyunsaturated fats (vegetable oils, fish oil, sch-3 and sch-6 fatty acids);

Antioxidants: β-carotene, vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and vitamin E (β-tocopherol);

Probiotics (preparations of live microorganisms);

Prebiotics (oligosaccharides as a substrate for beneficial bacteria).

An idea of ​​the physiological effects of the main types of functional ingredients is given in Table. one .

Table 1. Physiological Effects of Functional Ingredients

On the need to introduce functional food products

The problem of development and wide use of functional foods has acquired great value in the era of the development of the global ecological crisis. catastrophic pollution environment, a decrease in the level of consumption of essential microelements, vitamins, flavonoids and other biologically active substances due to physical inactivity and the use of refined products determined a decrease in the antioxidant defense of the human body, increased the risk of the occurrence and development of various chronic diseases, including cardiological and oncological ones.

To functional foods include products that, in addition to the main function of supplying the human body with nutrients, have an additional positive effect on health and / or prevent one or another disease. Thus, obtaining functional products implies an increase in the content of biologically active compounds physiologically significant for humans and / or a decrease in undesirable components (for example, heavy metals and nitrates in plant foods).

If we use the terminology of GOST R 52349-2005, then functional food product is a special food product intended for systematic use as part of diets by all age groups of a healthy population, which has scientifically substantiated and confirmed properties, reduces the risk of developing diseases associated with nutrition, prevents deficiency or replenishes the deficiency existing in the human body nutrients, preserving and improving health due to the presence of functional food ingredients in its composition.

• Functional include products from raw materials of plant and animal origin, the systematic use of which regulates metabolism. Such products should contain a balanced amount of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins and other biologically active substances.

• Functional products are divided into natural and artificial. The first ones themselves contain a significant amount of physiologically functional ingredients; the second - acquired such properties due to special technological processing.

• Functional (processed) foods include: enriched foods to which vitamins, microelements, and dietary fiber have been added; products from which certain substances are withdrawn that are not recommended for medical reasons (trace elements, amino acids, lactose and others); as well as those in which the removed substances are replaced by other components.

Some examples of biologically active compounds in foods of natural origin are presented in table.1.

1. Examples of biologically active compounds in functional foods

The functional features of food products largely determine the biological and pharmacological properties of the ingredients that make up their composition. They should be ordinary food, not in the form of tablets, capsules, powders, not reduce the nutritional value of food, be safe from the point of view of a balanced diet and beneficial to health.

2. Examples of foods high in bioactive compounds

A functional product, in addition to the influence of the traditional nutrients it contains, must:

• have a beneficial effect on human health;
• regulate certain processes in the body;
• prevent the development of certain diseases.

3. Examples of functional foods by mechanism of action

Development focus and the creation of functional food products is given to medical and biological requirements for the developed products and additives. Requirements for functional foods have their own specifics. So, for example, dietary foods and foods for children (general purpose) differ in the content of maximum allowable values ​​for fat, protein, amino acid composition, vitamins, microorganisms, etc.

To the basic medical and biological requirements include: harmlessness - the absence of direct harmful influence, side harmful effects, allergic action: potentiated action of the components on each other; not exceeding the permissible concentrations; organoleptic; general hygiene; technological.

on a note:

Example on selenium-containing FPP

The most famous functional foods are iodized salt, bran bread, eggs with a high content of the trace element selenium, juices enriched with vitamin C, herbal teas, etc.

Since the topic of functional food products is very extensive, we will dwell only on a small aspect, which concerns the enrichment of food products with selenium, which is scarce in Russia.

Abroad and in Russia, ways are being developed to obtain vegetable products enriched with selenium: garlic, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, mint, paprika. The fact is that when certain plants are enriched with selenium, specific selenium-containing anticarcinogenic compounds are formed in the latter. Thus, the incidence of breast cancer in the provinces of China, where the population traditionally consumes a lot of garlic, is 40% lower than in other provinces, and when selenium compounds are introduced into the soil, the high consumption of garlic grown in this way reduces the number of cases of breast cancer by 60%. . It has been established that selenium-enriched paprika powder slows down the growth of transplanted Ehrlich's tumor in mice and significantly outperforms ordinary pepper powder in antioxidant activity (Fig. 1).

Fig.1. Antioxidant activity of sweet pepper powder without and with selenium enrichment

Selenium is a natural antioxidant that protects the human body from cardiological and oncological diseases, promotes the removal of heavy metals from the body, strengthens the immune system and reproductive function. Soils with a low content of the trace element are widespread throughout the world, which determines the relevance of increasing the level of selenium in food products. Biggest successes in this direction were obtained in Finland, where the widespread introduction of sodium selenate fertilizer since 1985, along with the implementation of a number of other government programs aimed at improving the health of the population (combating smoking, reducing fat intake, increasing the consumption of vegetables and fruits, etc.) has led to a significant reduction in mortality from cancer and cardiological diseases. If at the end of the seventies among European countries Finland was in first place in terms of mortality from oncological and cardiac diseases, then by the beginning of the 21st century the country firmly took the last place in these indicators.

4. Examples of batteries and hyperaccumulators of selenium used in food (the consumption rate of the trace element is 50-200 mcg / day)

Table 5 shows some data on the anticarcinogenic effect of vegetables enriched with selenium.

5. Some examples of the anticarcinogenic effect of vegetables enriched with selenium

Currently, Russia is only taking the first steps in obtaining functional foods with a high content of selenium, iodine and other essential nutrients. In addition to the selection of vegetable crops or the use of, for example, I- and Se-containing feeds in poultry farming, in order to produce eggs with increasedcontent of selenium and iodine, great emphasis is placed on biotechnological methods in food production.