title: Nutrition economics: towards comprehensive understanding of the benefits of nutrition.
abstract: There has been an increase in the knowledge and interest on nutrition, and functional foods have gained popularity over the last few decades, and the trend is increasing. Probiotics and prebiotics are among the most studied functional foods. Nutrition economics has been defined as the discipline dedicated to researching and characterising health and economic outcomes in nutrition for the benefit of society. The concept and its application to probiotics and prebiotics will be discussed in terms of health and economic benefits and their evaluation. Health economics and concrete applications showing how to maximise long-term nutritional benefits will contribute to motivate consumers in making food choices based on a rational understanding of their own interest. We present a model that shows that nutrition economics can be used as an analytical tool for product and service network development.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Collaborative Research, Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: Aki
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Koponen
authors.forename: Mari
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sandell
authors.forename: Seppo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Salminen
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lenoir-Wijnkoop
keywords: Nutrition; economics; effectiveness; product development; public health; service networks