Functional food and processing

Abstract

Widespread interest in the possibility that selected foods might promote health has resulted in the coining of the term functional food, although agreement what is and what is not a functional food is lacking. The market for functional food is growing rapidly, estimated on 5 % of the world food market. There is no doubt that this trend will go in the future. The manufacturers have to overcome many difficulties, among them being processing. While being processed, many interactions could occur among nutrients. (browning reaction, oxidation, Maillard reaction..). The processing of food could influence the availability of nutrients ether positively or negatively.

Koncept funkcionalne hrane se razvijao sa saznanjima o gubicima nutrimenata prilikom tretmana hrane i potrebe da se vrši obogaćivanje namirnica u smislu prevencije njihovog deficita. Vremenom, funkcija pojedinih nutrimenata postaje preventivna u smislu smanjenja rizika od određenih bolesti (rak kardiovaskularne bolesti, dijabetes, hipertenzija, gojaznost..). Tržište funkcionalne hrane je u velikoj ekspanziji. Za povoljan efekat funkcionalnih namirnica odgovorne su aktivne komponente. Različiti postupci termičke obrade mogu uticati pozitivno i negativno na bioiskoristljivost aktivnih komponenti funkcionalne hrane.