According to an August 2009 report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the United States market for functional foods in 2007 was US$ 27 billion. Forecasts of growth range from between 8.5% and 20% per year, or about four times that of the food industry in general. Global demand by 2013 is expected to be about $100 billion. With this demand for new products comes a demand for product development and supporting literature for that purpose. There is a wealth of research and development in this area and great scope for commercialization, and this book provides a much-needed review of important opportunities for new products, written by authors with in-depth knowledge of as yet unfulfilled health-related needs.

This book addresses functional food product development from a number of perspectives: the process itself; health research that may provide opportunities; idea creation; regulation; and processes and ingredients. It also features case studies that illustrate real product development and commercialization histories. Written for food scientists and technologists, this book presents practical information for use in functional food product development. It is an essential resource for practitioners in functional food companies and food technology centres and is also of interest to researchers and students of food science.

Key features:

• A comprehensive review of the latest opportunities in this commercially important sector of the food industry
• Includes chapters highlighting functional food opportunities for specific health issues such as obesity, immunity, brain health, heart disease and the development of children. New technologies of relevance to functional foods are also addressed, such as emulsion delivery systems and nanoencapsulation.
• Includes chapters on product design and the use of functional ingredients such as antioxidants, probiotics and prebiotics as well as functional ingredients from plant and dairy sources
• Specific examples of taking products to market are provided in the form of case studies e.g. microalgae functional ingredients

• Part of the Functional Food Science and Technology book series (Series Editor: Fereidoon Shahidi)