Research Information System
2014 Annual Conference&Exhibition/Functional Foods, Nutraceuticals, Natural Health Products, and Dietary Supplements, İstanbul, Turkey, 14 - 17 October 2014, pp.262, (Full Text)
As the world population increases, the global demand for food increases. On the contrary, the area under cultivation is shrinking. Still, enough energy can be taken from consumed foods. But most of the basic food is deficient in certain essential nutrients. The demand for functional foods is increasing in the developing world. Functional food is a food that provides benefits in terms of health beyond basic nutritional benefits. Functional food contains one or more additional agent that has important function on organism. So, they promote human health or welfare and protect against heart disease, osteoporosis, cancer, diabetes and hypertension or reduce their risks. Some of the beneficial agents which functional foods usually contain are probiotics, prebiotics, antioxidants, polyphenols, sterols, carotenoids and others.
Yogurt and other fermented dairy products are very well known probiotic foods in western societies. While milk contains extremely useful ingredients, major functional compounds develop during fermentation. Because the traditional plain yogurt does not contain functional supplements which are mentioned in the definition of functional foods, it is not considered as functional food. It is considered as the ancestor of functional foods. Thus, probiotics constitute a large part of the categories of functional foods and probiotic yogurt constitutes a large portion of the probiotic product categories.
Yogurt and functional foods will form the focal point of this study. First, some information about fermentation will be given, then yogurt and other fermented dairy products will be described. The significance of yogurt will be discussed in terms of nutrition and health. The relationships between yogurt and functional foods will be discussed. Finally, the functional agents and major food categories in which functional agents are used and their purpose in terms of health will be explained.