Functional Foods Task Force

The Functional Foods Task Force develops tools to support the development and substantiation of health claims on foods, promotes development and validation of biomarkers for health outcomes, and addresses societal developments in relation to nutrition and health issues. The task force also anticipates regulatory developments and initiates new activities when needed.

Key new task force activities are:

All of these new task force projects will in different ways assist companies in making claims by providing a solid scientific basis for the approval of future claims on foods.

Activities

Guidelines for Human Intervention Studies to Support Functional Foods

This Expert Group activity aims to provide ’best practice’ guidance on how to conduct intervention studies to scientifically substantiate health benefits of foods and hereby support claims made on functional foods.

The objectives are to analyse and explore:

• Published studies as included in scientific dossiers supporting claims and registered in databases;
• Control products – lack of perfect controls, and the type required depends on the nature of tested ingredients or foods;
• Responder selection and status, including how to deal with ‘low’, ‘normal’ and ‘high’ responders;
• Criteria for validation of biomarkers – rationale for supporting substantiated and valid markers;
• Design of studies and ultimately propose a guideline for best practice of conducting intervention studies.

With the adoption of the EC health claims legislation in 2007, it is envisaged that this work will provide a solid scientific basis for the approval of future claims on foods as required by the new legislation.

To achieve the objectives of this project, it is intended to run two separate subgroups in parallel: Group 1) will be working on design and analysis of studies, and Group 2) will be working on biomarkers, subjects and responders.

A workshop will be organised at the final stage of the project where the two expert groups will discuss the set of guidelines they each have provided. The results of this project will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Application of PASSCLAIM Criteria on Polyphenols Antioxidative Activity

Evidence of beneficial health effects of polyphenols in the prevention of cancers and cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases is growing. The effect of polyphenols is believed not only to be associated with diseases caused by oxidative stress. This group of active substances may also have several other specific biological activities, such as the ability to modulate the activity of many enzymes and cell receptors. However, this is an area not yet well understood.

The objective of this new expert group is to apply the PASSCLAIM criteria to provide the scientific substantiation of a polyphenol claim. Whereas PASSCLAIM was a theoretical exercise, this activity will test the criteria to reassess the tool and applicability of the criteria to substantiate a claim using polyphenols as an example.

This would include establishing:

• Effective dose and evidence for the effects of polyphenol consumption on health;
• Concept to calculate minimum amounts necessary to cause health benefit;
• Reference in vitro test and validated reference method to measure efficacy/amount of polyphenols in food;
• Relevance of bioavailability and fate of metabolites, including effect of food matrix, polyphenol formulation and interference with other components;
• Best practice for human study design to assess bioequivalence of polyphenols for bioavailability and for providing scientific substantiation of claims based on polyphenols;
• Associations between polyphenols and benefits for human health with a grading of evidence.

With the adoption of the EC health claims legislation in 2007, it is envisaged that this work will provide a solid scientific basis for the approval of future claims on foods regarding the health benefits of polyphenols. 

The results of this project will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Food Ingredients Promoting Oral and Dental Health

In the past, much knowledge has been gathered on the protective effects of many different food ingredients/substances in relation to dental and oral health. Many functional food ingredients have been identified which may, via different mechanisms, contribute to maintain good dental and oral health.

In view of the overall interest in functional ingredients for food and oral health care products, it is timely to analyse and review the state of knowledge of all such ingredients, with respect to their specific properties.

The goal of the project is to generate, compile and disseminate up to date information on substances and formulations, which contribute to maintain good oral/dental health and to provide the scientific substantiation for claims. Potential claims would be evaluated using the PASSCLAIM model and this project is envisaged to provide a solid scientific basis for the approval of future claims related to oral and dental health.

Concise Monograph on Functional Foods – From Science to Health and Claims

The task force is finalising a concise monograph on the functionalities of food to be published in the ILSI Europe Concise Monograph Series in 2008. The monograph will introduce to the non-specialist concepts of functional foods including PASSCLAIM results, assessment of food functionality, the role of functional foods and new technologies, public health aspects, communication and consumer science issues. The reader will gain insight into the dynamic area of functional foods and their potential for nutrition science and public health.

Symposium “Functional Foods in Europe – Developments in Science and Health Claims”

The task force hosted an international symposium “Functional Foods in Europe – Developments in Science and Health Claims” on 9-11 May 2007, in Malta.

• The objectives of the symposium were to:
  § review the status and the future of scientific substantiation of health claims;
  § explore consumer understanding, behaviour and communication;
  § assess the current regulatory milieu on health claims;
  § determine the impact of the regulation on health claims and innovations in functional foods.

The symposium programme covered hot topics related to functional foods: Evolution in dietary patterns, health trends and functional foods; Scientific substantiation of claims on foods; Regulatory issues of functional foods; Consumer perspectives: behaviour, understanding and communication; and finally the Future of functional foods – challenges and opportunities.

A symposium summary report will be published in the ILSI Europe Report Series beginning of 2008. Some selected papers from the symposium will be published in the European Journal of Nutrition in 2008.

International Activities on Functional Foods

This project aims to summarise ILSI’s worldwide activities on functional foods, and to provide guidance on possible future actions and activities. Dr. Nino Binns has been commissioned to prepare a report that will be published in the ILSI Europe Report Series. The report will examine the contributions of ILSI and its branches to the scientific knowledge of functional foods and identify potential gaps and shortcomings in ILSI’s current global efforts, as well as identify future research priorities and directions for ILSI and its entities.

The report will be published in the ILSI Europe Report Series in 2008.