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Functional aspects of dairy foods: An overview |
W. J. HARPER, Dept. of Food Science & Technology, The Ohio State Univ., 2121 Fyffe Rd., 205 Vivian Hall, 205 Vivian Hall, Columbus, OH 43210 Functional foods have been defined as “any food or food ingredient that may provide a health benefit beyond the traditional nutrients that it contains”. Although having received less attention than products from fruits and vegetables, dairy products and their derivatives have a very real potential to have a major impact on the functional foods of the future. In the early 1980’s, the Japanese recognized dairy components as having significant contributions to “physiological functional foods”. Since then there has been an increasing number of investigations that have supported this view. Probiotics, milk lipids, milk proteins and peptides and some minor components have been reported to have physiological functionality. These minor components include oligosaccharides, sphingolipids, conjugated linoleic acid, butyric acid, whey protein concentrates, immunoglobulins, alpha-lactalbumin, lactoferrin, lysozyme, lactoperoxidase and a number of milk protein derived peptides. Invitro studies and animal investigations have suggest that milk products and their components may be involved in a large number of biological functions in the body. These include antimocrobial action and wound healing, antiviral activity, passive immunity and disease protection, probiotic action in the gut and control of gut microflora, inactivation of selected microbial toxins, anti-cancer activity, immunomodulation, promotion of growth of some animal cells, platelet binding, anti-inflammatory action, anti-hypertension action, control of cell glutathione levels, diet suppression, control of PKU, iron transport and opiod effects. Limited human clinical trials support some of these claimed benefits, but much more work with human subjects will be required for dairy functional foods to meet their full potential. Support is strongest for biological functionality in respect to probiotics, lactoferrin and the casein glycomacropeptide.
Session 48, Dairy foods: More than just good nutrition
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