Abstract: Scientists have recently turned their attention to the health benefits of dietary nutritive and non-nutritive food components, such as those in plant foods used in disease prevention. India is a country with diverse cultural, ethnic food habits. Dietary intervention of probiotic/prebiotic(s) and incorporation of the new scientific knowledge gained more attention in management of diseases. Advances in food technology are improving the foods that are available to consumers and promoting good health both through basic nutrition and through enhanced benefits of food products. Foods are being improved through the reduction or removal of certain components in a food, increasing the amount of certain components normally found in the food, or adding components to a food which are not normally found in the food. Food culture is most influenced by the locality of its origin and culture, which will have been one of food acquisition and processing by various means. With the growing interest in self-care and integrative medicine coupled with our health-embracing increasing population, recognition of the link between diet and health has never been stronger. As a result, the market for functional foods, or foods that promote health beyond providing basic nutrition, is flourishing. Within the functional foods movement is the small but rapidly expanding arena of probiotics - live microbial food supplements that beneficially affect an individual by improving intestinal microbial balance. Probiotic foods have been consumed for centuries, either as natural components of food or as fermented food products. However, the development of probiotics in the past decade has signaled an important advancement in the food industry.
The Food and Nutrition Board (1994) of the American Institute of Medicine defined functional food as “any modified food or food ingredient that may provide a health benefit beyond the traditional nutrients it contain.” The functional component could include an essential macronutrient with specific physiological effects such as an essential micronutrient components that have some nutritive value but are not classified as “essential“, such as oligosaccharides, or food components with no nutritive value, such as live microorganisms (probiotics) or plant chemicals.
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