New Trends and Advances in the Production of Functional Foods

Dear Colleagues,

The European Commission's Concerted Action on Functional Food Science in Europe considers a food to be functional "if it is satisfactorily demonstrated that it beneficially affects one or more target functions in the body, beyond the appropriate nutritional effects, in a way that is relevant to improving the state of health and well-being and/or reducing the risk of disease". In the functional food group, there are natural foods; foods to which a component has been added that confers health-promoting properties to the food; foods from which a component has been removed or its bioavailability has been modified; or any combination of these.

Nowadays, society is seeking to consume foods that have beneficial properties for health. This fact is encouraging more and more research to be done on this type of food in order to take advantage of the benefits that these foods can bring to humans. For this reason, and because these foods can substantially change lifestyles and improve people's health, for example, by preventing diseases, we are interested in articles that investigate new trends and advances in the production of functional foods. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Production and innovation of new functional products.
• Antioxidant activity of functional foods.
• Phenolic and bioactive compounds in functional foods.
• Aromatic profiles of functional foods.
• Probiotics or similar in functional foods.
• Shelf-life study of functional foods, including sensory analysis.
• Nutrition in functional foods.
• Studies related to health benefits derived from functional foods.

Original papers highlighting the latest research and technical developments are encouraged, and review articles and comparative studies are also welcome.

Prof. Dr. María de los Ángeles Varo Santos
Prof. Dr. Azahara López Toledano
Guest Editors

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• functional food
• antioxidant activity
• bioactive compound
• free radical
• probiotics
• nutrition
• shelf life
• aroma
• sensory analysis