Functional Innovators

摘要

The concept of health-oriented food in Japan was first born from the national research project 'Systemic analysis and development of food functions', supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (MESC) of Japan in 1984. The health benefits of foods were studied in this project, and the project proposed for the first time the new concept of 'functional food'. Food with physiological functions was paid particular interest, because such food would be useful for improving the health of the general public, thus reducing the national medical costs that had been predicted to increase rapidly in the near future.