Abstract

The term “Functional Food” originated in Japan during the 1980s. Japan was the first country in the world to define the concept of functional foods by calling them FOSHU, an acronym that stands for “Food for specified health use” and which indicates a particular category of food or drink, which boast the ability to act on certain organs to prevent and treat particular ailments. A Functional Food is therefore a potentially healthy food, whose positive effect is attributable to intrinsically present components or to components it has been enriched with capable of interacting positively with the organism, obtaining a significant improvement in the state of health and well-being and/or a decrease in the risk of contracting chronic diseases.