Innovation in Healthy and Functional Foods

The focus of food science and technology has shifted from previous goals of improving food safety and enhancing food taste toward providing healthy and functional foods. Today’s consumers desire foods that go beyond basic nutrition—foods capable of promoting better health, or even playing a disease-prevention role. To meet this need for innovation, academic research must be combined with the development and commercialization strategies of industry. Innovation in Healthy and Functional Foods brings together this knowledge, with contributions from experts in biological science, food science, engineering, marketing, regulation, law, finance, sustainability, and management.

Focusing on functional foods that have components added—such as omega-3, probiotics, and protein—to provide health benefits, this book presents various aspects of the innovation process. These include consumer insights, trends in developed and developing markets, and technological advances in functional foods and ingredients. It also addresses the key drivers of food industry innovation—affordability, sustainability, and tightening government regulations. Chapters cover characteristics of various markets around the world; consumer perception; food processing, packaging, and ingredients; innovation in functional ingredients; and functional ingredient delivery.

Given the importance and challenges of getting functional food products into the marketplace, this book also covers the business aspects of innovation in food science, including marketing, financial implications, and commercial feasibility. Additionally, contributors provide insights into future trends, such as food tourism, nanotechnology, sustainability, and globalization. Bringing together expertise from academia and industry, this text provides an overview of contemporary food science, with wisdom and know-how in both innovation and commercialization, placing functional foods in a broader context for readers.

Dilip Ghosh is a director at Nutriconnect in Sydney, Australia, and an honorary ambassador for the Global Harmonization Initiative (GHI). He has longtime involvement in drug development (both synthetic and herbal) and functional food research and development both in academia and industry. Dr. Ghosh is a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition and is also on the editorial board of several journals. He has published more than 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals, numerous articles in food and nutrition magazines and books. His recent book, Biotechnology in Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals, was published by CRC Press in 2010.

Shantanu Das works as a product development manager at Riddet Institute (Centre for Research Excellence in Food and Nutrition), Massey University, New Zealand. He is responsible for developing new technologies for commercial application in the food and nutrition industry. Dr. Das and his team undertake R&D projects in various areas related to functional foods, especially delivery systems of functional ingredients. His recent achievement is development of a patented technology for delivering probiotic bacteria at high concentration through shelf-stable foods, which received the Food Industry Innovation Excellence Award 2011 from the New Zealand Institute of Food Scientists and Technologists.

Debasis Bagchi is a professor in the Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Houston, Texas. Dr. Bagchi is also the director of Innovation & Clinical Affairs of Iovate Health Sciences International Inc., Oakville, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Bagchi is a Fellow and Master of the American College of Nutrition, member of the Society of Toxicology, member of the New York Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the Nutrition Research Academy, and member of the TCE stakeholder Committee of Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. He is the associate editor of the Journal of Functional Foods and Journal of the American College of Nutrition. Dr. Bagchi is the immediate past president of the American College of Nutrition, Clearwater, Florida, and vice chairman of the International Society of Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods (ISNFF). He has 288 peer-reviewed publications, 15 books, and 15 patents.

Raja B. Smarta is the founder and managing director of Interlink Marketing Consulting Pvt. Ltd. He is a reputed consultant and mentor for corporations in the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, wellness, healthcare, and life science industries, as well as a corporate trainer. Dr. Smarta is a faculty member in leading management institutions including JBIMS (Bajaj Institute of Management Studies); NMIMS (Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies); IIM (Indian Institute of Management), Indore; and Pharmacy College, Manipal; and a guide to Ph.D. students. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Certified Member of Consultants, board member of HADSA (part of the International Alliance Dietary/Food Supplement Associations), and an editor of Nutrascope.