​Foods for Specific Health Use (FOSHU): A Review

Abstract

Adequate nutrient intake (avoidance of excess or deficiency) is essential to ensure an optimum health status hence, no induction of risks related to lifestyle diseases. Even nutrients and functional ingredients in foods are chemical substances but we need to draw a line of demarcation between such substances, based on long history of dietary habits and novel substances and/or xenobiotics. FOSHU contains highly purified or concentrated functional ingredients, present in ordinary foods,however, it is to take safety issues into consideration. FOSHU is the only type of food product, with functional ingredients, can carry health claims and affect the structure and physiological functions of the body. These consumed for health promotion or to control specified health conditions such as gastrointestinal conditions Therefore, FOSHU products target both healthy individuals and diseased people. When the products are manufactured or distributed, the government approval is required with prior hand rigorous evaluation of safety and effectiveness of proposed product. In a nutshell, comprehensive knowledge on structure and function of human body, pathogenesis of diseases, nutrients and their metabolism etc., as well as the mechanisms of efficacy vis-à-vis FOSHU, which ranges over pharmacology, medicine and food and nutrition, is required.