Lipids for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals

Functional foods and nutraceuticals have become ‘hot topics’, with an increasing number of books, college courses, and meetings devoted to this area of interest. Foods can be regarded as functional if they can be satisfactorily demonstrated to contain bio-active molecules that reduce the risk of disease or act positively to promote good health.

The active ingredients and components of functional foods and neutraceuticals often include lipids. They are required in their own right and also for the important minor components such as carotenoids, tocols, and sterols which accompany the oils and fats. This is the first book to address specifically the use of lipids in functional foods and neutraceuticals and it will be essential reading for those who produce the lipids and those who seek to incorporate them into appropriate food products.

The first chapter is an overview of the development of functional foods. This is followed by chapters devoted to materials which are either lipids or are compounds that are fat-soluble and co-occur with oils and fats. These include: carotenoids, tocopherols, phytosterols, n-3 (omega-3) oils, diacylglycerols, structured lipids, sesame oil, rice bran oil, and oils and preparations containing palmitoleic acid, y-linolenic acid, stearidonic acid, or conjugated linoleic acid.