Functional Food in the European Union

Abstract

Functional food is defined as food that is taken as part of the usual diet and has beneficial effects that go beyond traditional nutritional effects. So far this functionality is mainly created during the industrial processing of the food through the addition of bio-active ingredients. Over the last years functional food has gained an increasing market share and the health claims made on food have recently been regulated at the EU level. It is therefore pertinent to analyse the potential market for functional food and its likely future development. It is also important to understand consumer attitudes and expectations regarding functional food, and the competitiveness of the different approaches to confer functionality in terms of their respective cost-effectiveness needs to be clarified. There is considerable uncertainty regarding the size of the market for functional food, both within the EU and globally. Estimates of the global functional food market from various sources and different years fall into a range of EUR 25-60 billion. A recent, lower-bound estimate indicated a size of EUR 6.4 billion for the EU market. By far the biggest market share is still occupied by dairy products and beverages – followed by cereals only as a distant third category. In terms of bioactive ingredients plant extracts are used more frequently, although – due to the large number of dairy products – probiotic bacteria cultures clearly dominate, followed by prebiotics. On the demand side a survey in four selected Member States of the EU showed that many grocery shoppers were not familiar with the term “functional food”, although, when given some examples, most of them had already bought such products. Better nutrition knowledge was thereby correlated with a more positive attitude towards functional food and female, younger and richer respondents were more likely to buy functional food products. Concerning reasons for purchasing functional foods, surveyed customers considered important that functional food helps them stay healthy and well; yet the taste and the general food quality was also very relevant in their answers. Regarding research in the field of functional food, the output of public and private entities within the EU – measured as scientific publications – is larger than that of either the USA or of Japan. Finally, one field that is policy- relevant and has so far received hardly any attention in research is the cost-effectiveness of functional food as public health intervention. Yet, tentative comparisons with similar approaches suggest that food-based approaches may indeed offer a cost-effective way of addressing health problems. 74 The mission of the JRC is to provide customer-driven scientific and technical support for the conception, development, implementation and monitoring of EU policies. As a service of the European Commission, the JRC functions as a reference centre of science and technology for the Union. Close to the policy-making process, it serves the common interest of the Member States, while being independent of special interests, whether private or national. How to obtain EU publications Our priced publications are available from EU Bookshop (http://bookshop.europa.eu), where you can place an order with the sales agent of your choice. The Publications Office has a worldwide network of sales agents. You can obtain their contact details by sending a fax to (352) 29 29-42758.