• Technology

• Health

• Environment

• Project Co-ordinator: Miltos Ladikas, Ph.D.

• Contact: Priv.-Doz. Dr. med. Felix Thiele, M. Sc.

• Memorandum: R. Chadwick et al.: Functional Foods., Springer 2004 (Wissenschaftsethik und Technikfolgenbeurteilung, Vol. 20)

• Duration: 1/01–5/04

• Funding: Foundation for Innovation Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate)

• Further Information on “Functional Foods”

Functional foods represent the third generation of healthy foods and introduce a new concept in food production: the alteration of the physical structure and the chemical composition of food products in order to achieve particular effects on body functions.
In some cases, these alterations constitute a development which is on the borderline between food and medicaments (i.e. Nutraceuticals) and specifically targets risk reduction of certain diseases. The emergence of these foods will further change common perceptions of food and health and could possibly have important socio-economic consequences.
This project was designed as an expert interdisciplinary programme to analyse the consequences of these emerging functional foods in: 

• individual health (cardiovascular diseases, cancer, etc.);

• national health programmes (health care costs, productivity, etc.);

• the food industry (food manufacturing, retailing, pricing);

• regulations (precautionary principle, health claims, labelling);

• public perceptions (risk evaluations);

• normative questions (acceptability criteria).

Functional Foods