Nutraceutical and Functional Food Processing Technology, First Edition

The book will begin with a comprehensive overview of the current and emerging trends in the formulation and manufacture of nutraceutical and functional food products. This introductory chapter will highlight the distinctions between foods falling into the nutraceutical and functional food categories, and will provide the context for the remaining chapters in the book. The second chapter, on "ecological foods," will focus on sustainable and environmentally-friendly approaches to the production of health foods. Ensuing chapters will address guidelines and regulations, and methods for assessing safety and quality of nutraceutical and functional food products. Specific applications of nutraceuticals in emulsion and salad dressing food products, beverages and soft drinks, baked goods, cereals and extruded products, fermented food products will then be covered. Novel food proteins and peptides and methods for encapsulated nutraceutical ingredients and packaging will be discussed. The later chapters in the book will provide information on the impact of processing on the bioactivity of nutraceutical ingredients, allergen management and the processing of allergen-free foods, health claims and nutraceutical food product commercialization.

While each chapter in the book will be independent, they will be organized in a way to provide a coherent flow. Once approved, identified experts in different areas of nutraceutical food processing will be invited to contribute chapters to the volume.

What makes it different?

The book will address an important gap in the area of nutraceutical and functional food processing. Several books on functional and nutraceutical food products have been published in the last decade or so. The majority of these books have focused on the extraction and characterization of functional ingredients, and much information exists on the specific health benefits of various food components (nutraceuticals and functional foods) and their properties and mechanisms of action. However, there is currently no comprehensive body of work that specifically looks at the challenges involved in processing these ingredients and incorporating them into foods. The proposed book will provide a comprehensive body of knowledge on practical approaches that can be used to innovate in the nutraceutical and health food sectors. The information to be compiled will be timely, comprehensive, up-to-date, relevant to various food sectors, and will benefit both academia and industry personnel working in the health food sector.