**5. Functional food management**

Country management of functional food is important for effectiveness and safety, but it varies in each country. Japan has been a pioneer in the field of multifunctional food standards. The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare of Japan, for instance, was the first regulatory agency to designate food products as a distinct food section as discussed before in the above topic [22]. The Food for Specified Health Uses (FOSHU) program, which launched in 1991, was the first one to enable health decisions for functional foods backed by scientific data. The Food for Specified Health Uses (FOSHU) seal of approval may be used on the labeling of commodities that have been acknowledged as FOSHU [23]. The volume of Food for Specified Health Uses (FOSHU) approved foods has continuously increased to around 950 as of 2011 [24].

*Categories and Management of Functional Food DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.104664*


#### **Table 3.**

*Cardiovascular disease trained healthcare benefits in terms of dietary element, qualifying authority, region, and claim levels.*

Food is governed in the United States by the Food and drug administration (FDA), Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, which does not include a description of functional foods. This seems to be due to the belief that there are currently sufficient rules regarding the use of food ingredients to cover functional food elements. The main determinant of changes in the laws, as per the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is the original function of food, and foods in their basic way are regulated. The Nutritional Labeling and Education Act of 1990 covers equally common goods and products for certain health purposes [25].

However, food companies can now make four types of claims on labeling to transmit health messages to consumers. These are some of the subgroups [26]:


On functional labeling requirements, all four kinds of assertions are permitted if they match the established requirements for each benefit to the customers [27]. The FDA webpage has further information concerning the sorts of decisions that can be made on functional foods in the United States. After a rigorous assessment of scientific data submitted to the FDA, food is permitted to bear a health benefit, as per the Nutritional Labeling and Education Act. Extraordinary statements are allowed if there is sufficient scientific consensus or if a single expert of the US government or the National Academy of Sciences issues an acceptable declaration. Whether they may be used on food labels, health claims must always be approved by the FDA. There are now 12 health claims that achieve this important scientific requirement, as well as health claims that are backed up by authoritative statements. The FDA webpage highlights these health decisions [28].

Whenever the statistical backing for a statement has not achieved the greatest degree of scientific proof, trained healthcare claims are used to give details about the diet-disease association [29]. Dermatitis risk, cancer risk, cardiovascular disease risk, cognitive function, diabetes, and hypertension are among the six illness areas for which qualifying health claims are now permitted. **Table 3** lists the dietary components that can be used to make a trained healthcare statement for cardiovascular disease, as well as the statement's particular wording and degree of scientific proof [30].
