Functional foods are foods that provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition such as reducing disease risk. Examples include fruits/vegetables, whole grains, and fortified foods. Carotenoids like beta-carotene, dietary fibers, fatty acids like omega-3s, and probiotics are functional components studied for their health benefits. Probiotics are live microorganisms that benefit gut health and may help various conditions. Safety regulations require probiotics be evaluated for antibiotic resistance and toxicity. Commercial probiotic supplements have shown benefits for growth, performance and profitability in poultry.

1. Functional Foods

2. Introduction
• “Functional foods,” are thought to provide benefits
beyond basic nutrition and may play a role in reducing
or minimizing the risk of certain diseases and other
health conditions.
– Examples of these foods include fruits and vegetables, whole
grains, fortified foods and beverages and some dietary
supplements.
• Functional characteristics of many traditional foods are
being discovered and studied, while new food products
are being developed to include beneficial components.
• By knowing which foods can provide specific health
benefits, you can make food and beverage choices that
allow you to take greater control of your health.

3. Definition
• Functional foods have no universally accepted
definition.
• The concept was first developed in Japan in
the 1980s when, faced with escalating health
care costs, the Ministry of Health and Welfare
initiated a regulatory system to approve
certain foods with documented health
benefits in hopes of improving the health of
the nation’s aging population.

4. • In China, designer food (referred to as health
foods) is used in their traditional medicine.
– About 3000 varieties of health foods are available
in China and widely accepted among the
consumers due to their long history.

5. Functional components
• Carotenoids:
• Of the various classes of pigments in nature,
the carotenoids are the most widespread and
important ones -their varied functions.
• These are fat-soluble pigments
• Found mostly in plants, fruits, flowers, algae,
and photosynthetic bacteria

6. Applications:
• as anti-oxidants in dietary supplements,
• as colors in foods and beverages
• as well as pigments in poultry and fish.
• Carotenoids used as food ingredients include:
Astaxanthin, canthaxanthin, beta-carotene,
lutein, zeaxanthin, lycopene

7. Beta-carotene
• Sources: carrots,
pumpkin, sweet
potatoes, spinach,
tomatoes
• Potential benefits:
neutralizes free radicals
which may damage
cells; supports cellular
antioxidant defenses;
can be made into
vitamin A in the body

8. Dietary fibers

9. Dietary fibers
• Dietary fibers include
cellulose, hemicellulose,
polyfructoses,
galactooligosacharides, gums,
mucilages, pectins, lignin and
resistant starches such as
inulin, and are classically
divided into soluble or
insoluble.

10. • Both pass through the stomach and small
intestine undigested. In large intestine they are
fermented by colonic bacteria in different
extensions.
• Short chain fatty acids are produced, providing
the important health benefits of fiber.
• Functional fiber -deliberately added to food
products to provide similar health benefits to
those of dietary fiber, without adding significant
calories.
• Functional fibers - isolated from foods where they
occur naturally.

11. • Insoluble fiber:
• Wheat bran, corn bran, fruit skins
• Supports maintenance of digestive health;
may reduce the risk of some types of cancer
• Soluble fiber:
• psyllium seed husk, peas, beans, apples, citrus
fruits
• Reduce risk of coronary heart disease and
some types of cancer

12. • Whole grains:
• Cereal grains, whole wheat bread, oatmeal,
brown rice
• Reduce risk of cardiovascular disease and
some types of cancers; supports maintenance
of healthy blood glucose levels

13. Potential health benefits of dietary and functional
fibers:
– ability to lower the incidence of constipation and
irritable bowel syndrome,
– lower cholesterol and diminish the incidence of
coronary and cardiovascular heart diseases,
– prevent obesity and diabetes,
– avoid colon cancer
– and increase survival in several cancers

14. Excessive intake of dietary fiber
• adverse effects like intestinal obstruction (in
susceptible individuals),
• dehydration (due to a fluid imbalance),
• increase in intestinal gas, resulting in
distention and flatulence,
• and reduced absorption of vitamins, minerals,
proteins, and calories from the gut

15. Fatty acids
• Essential fatty acids (EFAs):
– are long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids
– an important role in human health promotion,
– and since they cannot be synthesized by the human
body they must be obtained through diet.
• They are “good fats” that compete with “bad
fats”, such as trans fats and cholesterol, and they
increase the levels of HDL (good cholesterol), and
decrease the levels of LDL (bad cholesterol)

16. • Omega-3 fatty acids - derived from linolenic
acid
• Omega-6 from linoleic acid
• Omega9 fatty acids from oleic acid.
– is not properly “essential”, since the human body
can manufacture a small amount on its own from
other EFAs

17. omega-3 fatty acids-types
• The three major types of omega-3 fatty acids:
– alpha linolenic acid (ALA), which is the basic
omega-3 fatty acid,
– eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)
– and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).
• The human body converts ALA into EPA and
DHA, which are more readily used

18. • The primary omega-6 fatty acid is:
– linoleic acid (LA), which is converted by the human
body into gamma linolenic acid (GLA), being latter
broken down into arachidonic acid (AA)
• The EPA synthesized from omega-3 and the GLA
synthesized from omega-6 acids are later
converted into eicosanoids, which are hormone-
like compounds having an important role in many
body functions, including vital organ function and
intracellular activities

20. Significance of Essential fatty acids
• It is important to maintain an appropriate balance of the
two types of fatty acids, omega-3 and omega-6, since these
two work together to promote health.
• Essential fatty acid deficiency and omega 6/3 imbalance is
linked with serious health conditions:
• An omega-6 to omega-3 ratio that is too high may
contribute to excess inflammation in the body, potentially
raising the risk of various diseases
– such as heart attacks, cancer, insulin resistance, asthma,
schizophrenia, depression, accelerated aging, stroke, obesity,
diabetes, arthritis, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD), and Alzheimer's disease
• the ideal omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid ratio is 4:1. This
means that you should aim to consume 1 gram of omega-3s
for every 4 grams of omega-6

21. Sources of fatty acids
• walnuts,
• flaxseeds,
• flaxseed oil,
• salmon,
• tuna,
• marine and other fish oils

22. Probiotics
• Viable microorganisms that are beneficial to human health
• Probiotics are defined as living microorganisms, which
when ingested in sufficient amounts, beneficially influence
the health of the host by improving the composition of
intestinal microflora
• Probiotic microorganisms that are known to be beneficial
to human health can be ingested :
– through fermented dairy products,
– enrichment of various foods with these bacteria
– and consumption of pharmaceutical products that are obtained
by using viable cells (lyophiled preparations and tablets).

23. Health benefits
• In addition to improving gut health, probiotics
may play a beneficial role in several medical
conditions, including lactose intolerance,
cancer, allergies, hepatic disease,
Helicobacter pylori infections, urinary tract
infections, hyperlipidemia and assimilation of
cholesterol

24. • It is thought that a wide variety of live
microorganisms can contribute to human health,
although the evidence is mainly from animal studies.
• In addition to numerous strains of Lactobacillus
acidophilus, other strains of lactobacillus are being
incorporated into functional food products now on the
market including L. johnsonii La1, L. reuteri, and L.
casei Shirota.

25. Members of the genus Lactobacilli such as:
• Lactobacillus acidophilus,
• L. casei,
• L. paracasei,
• L. rhamnosus,
• L. delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus,
• L. brevis,
• L. johnsonii,
• L. plantarum
• and L. fermentum are commonly used as probiotic
products.

28. Effective in preventing antibiotic-associated diarrhoea
• Studies have shown that certain strains of Lactobacilli are
effective in preventing antibiotic-associated diarrhoea.
• Lactobacilli species are commonly selected as probiotics
since they express many crucial properties such as:
– high tolerance to acid and bile,
– capability to adhere and colonise the intestinal epithelia,
– inhibiting potentially pathogenic species (antimicrobial
activity),
– Able to maintain viability
– resisting antibiotics,
– producing exopolysaccharides
– and removing cholesterol

29. Effective against viral-associated
pulmonary damage
• Lactobacillus rhamnosus CRL1505 has even
been effective in reducing viral-associated
pulmonary damage through controlling
immune-coagulative responses and clearing
respiratory viruses.
• Lactobacillus were safe and effective in
preventing recurrent urinary tract infections.

30. Safety of probiotics
• As viable, probiotic bacteria have to be consumed
in large quantities, over an extended period of
time, to exert beneficial effects; the issue of the
safety of these microorganisms is of primary
concern.
• Until now, reports of a harmful effect of these
microbes to the host are rare.
• However, many species of the genera
Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, Pediococcus,
Enterococcus, and Bifidobacterium were isolated
frequently from various types of infective lesions.

31. • L. rhamnosus, L. plantarum, Leuconostoc mesenteroides,
Pediococcus acidilactici, Bifidobacterium eriksonii, and
Bifidobacterium adolescentis have been isolated from
bloodstream infections and many have been isolated from
local infections.
• Infections with probiotic bacteria has been reported in
immunocompromised patients or those with intestinal
bleeding

32. Regulations
• When dealing with the selection of probiotic strains, the
FAO/WHO recommends that probiotic microorganisms
should not harbor transmissible drug resistance genes
encoding resistance to clinically used drugs.
• For the assessment of the safety of probiotic microorganisms
and products, FAO/WHO has formulated guidelines,
recommending that probiotic strains should be evaluated for a
number of parameters, including antibiotic susceptibility
patterns, toxin production, metabolic and haemolytic
activities, and infectivity in immunocompromised
individuals.

33. ADDITIONAL HEALTH BENEFITS
• There are several additional health benefits that have been
attributed to probiotics.
• Lactose intolerance, attributed to an insufficient amount of lactase
in the small intestine to hydrolyze lactose, is an important problem
when consuming milk or lactose containing foods. Dairy products
containing probiotic bacteria could aid the digestion of lactose by
their β-galactosidase enzyme when crossing or colonizing the gut
• Other nutritional effects of probiotics relate to the production of
vitamins. They play a major role in helping humans to meet their
needs for these essential nutrients. In vitro studies have documented
the capacity of some probiotic strains to synthesize vitamin K,
folic acid, vitamin B2, and B12
• Probiotics may also have a protective role against oxidative stress
in the host. Oxidative stress has many physiological consequences
to the host including aging, carcinogenesis, etc.

34. COMMERCIAL PROBIOTIC SUPPLEMENTS
• Protexin® (a commercial product containing L. plantarum, L.
bulgaricus, L. acidophilus, L. rhamnosus, Bifidobacterium
bifidum, Streptococcus salivarius ssp., Thermophilus,
Enterococcus faecium, Aspergillus oryzae and Candida
pintolopesii) significantly increases weight gain in growing as
well as in the whole production period in a feed trial which
was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of
dietary protein and Protexin® (a commercial probiotic
compound) on broiler performance
• Similar observations were recorded by using Lactina®,
another commercial probiotic supplement, in the diets of
broiler chicks.
• Biovin-40 resulted in maximum profit and proved to be the
most economical – for broiler chicks