An Enforced Need in Functional Foods - Essay Example

Functional foods are prepared by manipulating the dietary composition of ordinary foods to make them extra nutritious in terms of vitamins and minerals. This type of food material is readily available in the market in the form of several food products i.e. juices, breakfasts, energy drinks, cereals, and bread; nutrient addition is also being carried out in eggs.

            Because of the increasing use of functional foods, various food manufacturing and packaging companies have replaced their ordinary food products with functional foods leaving customers with no choice but to buy these functional foods. These extra nutritious foods which come in beautiful new packing with large labeling are also expensive as compared to ordinary foods. In this way customers are made to pay for the extra nutrition which they did not demand and the customers are not even sure about the benefits they will get from the added minerals and vitamins. Thus there is a lack of knowledge and awareness among consumers about these food products and the government has not done anything about it. Food and Drug Administration is responsible for checking the health value and quality of food products and drugs, however, currently, food supplements and similar products are out of FDA’s check and balance domain (Thompson and Manore 186).

            The most important issue about functional foods is the disturbance they cause in the natural mineral balance of the food products. Nature has created consumable food products in a balanced form and no single mineral or vitamin exists in the excessive form in ordinary food materials. However, when certain vitamins and minerals are added to these food products, the natural balance is disturbed which consequently changes the nutritional value of the food. As the nutritional value of the food product is changed the intake of such foods must also be varied accordingly. Unfortunately, FDA does not put any restrictions regarding the addition of nutrients to food materials. Functional foods are not treated as drugs and they can be marketed as foods without any prior permission from FDA. There are no proper guidelines regarding the purity, safety, and quality of these food supplements and the FDA solely relies on manufacturers’ assurance. The only restriction that the FDA puts on the manufacturers of these functional foods is regarding their advertisement and labeling; the manufacturers are required to provide all the nutrients labeled on the packing in the correct proportions.

            Since consumers are not aware of the use of multivitamins and additional minerals in their diet, the increasing trend of using functional foods can be harmful to the health of consumers. Some of the physicians, trainers, and physiotherapists are also unaware of the use of dietary supplements and they recommend these products to athletes and other consumers for enhancing body performance and energy levels; no such effect of these products has been observed in healthy adults. Each supplementary mineral and vitamin has a specific application in the human body and additional amounts of these products are required in specific scenarios. Therefore the unchecked and random use of functional foods can deteriorate human health and greater amounts of these minerals could result in toxic depositions in the human body. Unfortunately, mineral supplements and multivitamins are added to ordinary and everyday use foods, and consumers are forced to buy and use them, thus a check and regulatory mechanism is required to ensure the safe use of functional foods and dietary supplements (Thompson and Manore 187).

The USP was established in 1820 and it is the first organization that brought uniformity and consistency in the identity, manufacturing procedures, and quality assurance of drugs. Because of the increasing use of dietary supplements, USP has extended its research work to this field as well and several scientific works like Dietary Supplements Compendium have been published for standardizing the manufacturing procedures and proportions of minerals in dietary supplements. USP has established resource centers that provide information related to dietary supplements, moreover, USP also issues certification regarding the quality and safety of various dietary supplements and food ingredients. The certified products bear USP Verified Dietary Supplements and USP Verified Dietary Ingredients marks. USP also arranges online training programs for manufacturing procedures and quality assurance of dietary supplements (US Pharmacopeial Convention). The only improvement required now is that following the guidelines provided by USP, FDA should act as a regulatory body in the case of dietary supplements and functional foods as well to ensure the safe use of these products. Read More