The primary role of diet is to provide sufficient nutrients to meet the metabolic requirements of an individual and to give the consumer a feeling of satisfaction and well-being through hedonistic attributes (such as taste). In addition, by modulating specific physiological targets, diet can have an additional function: beneficial physiological and psychological effects beyond the widely accepted nutritional effects. In fact, diet can not only help to achieve optimal health and development, but it does also play an important role in reducing the risk of disease.
Much attention is now being paid to claims for foods, especially those related to the newly discovered effects of dietary components on body functions. The main thrust of the recent Consensus Document on Scientific Concepts of Functional Foods in Europe, produced as the final deliverable from the EU DG XII Functional Food Science in Europe (FUFOSE) Concerted Action, was to suggest the outline of a scheme to link claims for functional foods to solid scientific evidence. FUFOSE suggested that Claims for "enhanced function" and "reduced risk of disease" are only justifiable when they are based on appropriate, validated markers of exposure, enhanced function or reduction of disease risk (see Figure 1).
FUFOSE conclusions and principles were taken to the next logical stage i.e. application of the principles. The project "Process for the Assessment of Scientific Support for Claims on Foods (PASSCLAIM)" started with, and built upon the principles defined within the publications arising out of the FUFOSE project.