Development of functional foods based on physiological activity of amino acids and peptides in japan

摘要

Japan has been playing an important role in developing the concept of functional foods and its practical applications. Numbers of food products pursuing functionality have been actually developed in Japan. In 1991, the Ministry of Health and Welfare started to approve "Foods for Specified Health Used (FOSHU)" on which health claims based on physiological studies have been allowed. Figure I shows the number of FOSHUs approved. Black columns represent accumulated total number of FOSHUs in each year. In 1993, the first year, 10 items were approved. The number of FOSHUs has been increasing rapidly, and currently we have 167 FOSHUs (November 1999). Classification of these 167 FOSHUs by functional ingredients shows that main functional ingredients are oligosaccharides (30 percent), lactic acid bacteria (23 percent) and dietary fiber (23 percent). These three occupied about 80 percent of FOSHUs. In Fig. 1, the white columns represent peptide and protein based FOSHUs, of which there are only 13. Among them, 7 are proteins. All of them have the effect of lowering cholesterol in serum. Six peptides have been approved, and five of them have the effect of lowering blood pressure. We have no amino acid based FOSHUs so far. In this paper I would like to introduce some examples of the functional food products developed in Japan based on physiological studies on function of amino acids, peptides or proteins. Those are branchedchain amino acids for athletes nutrition, lacto-tripeptide for hypertension, meat or organ extracts for antimutagen and so on.