Development and evaluation of functional food mixes as a dietary approach to non communicable diseases

Over the last few years consumers’ interest in health and functional foods has increased considerably in industrialized countries thus offering an opportunity for agro-food sector to add value to agricultural commodities. Functional food is any fresh or processed food claimed to have a health-promoting or disease-preventing property beyond the basic function of supply of nutrients. Functional foods offer potential health benefits that could enhance the well-being of consumers and reduce the economic and social costs of treating non-communicable diseases. Today the world appears to be increasingly interested in the health benefits of foods and have begun to look beyond their basic nutritional benefits to disease prevention and health enhancement. Traditional systems of medicine owe their significance to the bioactive components that have their origin in plant sources and most of them were associated with routine food habits. Functional foods include amla, carrot, oats, fatty fish, soy, tomatoes, nuts, grape juice, greens, milk, almond, walnuts, blue berries etc. Functional foods arose as nutritional science evolved from indentifying and correcting nutritional deficiencies. It promotes optimum health and reduces the risk of chronic diseases. Foods like bengal gram dhal, black gram, carrot, tomato, cauliflower leaves, amla, flax seed and soya were selected for the formulation of health mixes for supplementation. Pepper, cumin seeds, red chillies and salt were added to improve the taste and acceptability of food mixes. The present research was planned to formulae and prepare health mixes based on functional foods, study the acceptability, nutrient content, shelf life and cost to know their economic viability.