A functional food is a food given an additional function (often one related to health-promotion or disease prevention) by adding new ingredients or more of existing ingredients.[1]
The general category of functional foods includes processed food or foods fortified with health-promoting additives, like "vitamin-enriched" products. Products considered functional generally do not include products where fortification has been done to meet government regulations and the change is not recorded on the label as a significant addition ("invisible fortification"). An example of this type of fortification would be the historic addition of iodine to table salt, or Vitamin D to milk, done to resolve public health problems such as rickets. Fermented foods with live cultures are considered functional foods with probiotic benefits.
Functional foods are part of the continuum of products that individuals may consume to increase their health and/or contribute to reducing their disease burden.
"Functional Food is a Natural or processed food that contains known biologically-active compounds which when in defined quantitative and qualitative amounts provides a clinically proven and documented health benefit, and thus, an important source in the prevention, management and treatment of chronic diseases of the modern age". It was debated at the 9th International Conference on "Functional Foods and Chronic Diseases: Science and Practice" at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on March 15-17, 2011. Functional Food Center has adopted a new definition of functional food