Making claims: functional foods for managing appetite and weight.
Functional food products promote claims such as 'freedom from hunger' and 'feel fuller for longer'. A legislative framework has been established by the European Food Safety Authority to evaluate the validity of such claims: a claim must be substantiated by scientific evidence and should be clearly understood by consumers. Since consumed foods influence appetite by means of a system of physiological satiety signals, functional foods could in principle act by increasing the potency and/or duration of these signals. Importantly, what constitutes a useful action: a reduction in hunger, an increase in fullness, a change in food intake at a meal, an adjustment in daily energy balance or a reduction in body weight? Any claim should not go beyond the scientific evidence of an effect, and methods exist to scientifically evaluate claims. The wording of a claim is, therefore, critical. The difference between a proof of concept and a guarantee of success is an important point that needs to be conveyed to the consumer.
Blundell
John
J
Institute of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK. j.e.blundell@leeds.ac.uk
D000329:Advertising; D001066:Appetite / Q000502:physiology*; D001835:Body Weight / Q000502:physiology*; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D005062:European Union; D055951:Functional Food; D006801:Humans; D007883:Legislation, Medical; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D012528:Satiety Response; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology