Development of multifunctional foods

Abstract Foods contain various biologically active substances with extent physiological effects. Among them, some substances, such as dietary fibers, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and antioxidants, exert multiple activities. In addition, combinational uses of some components, such as sesamin and α-tocopherol, enhance their biological effects each other. The expression of multiple effect leads to the production of multifunctional foods which prevent the occurrence of various diseases. Furthermore, synergic effects between biologically active substances allow us to decrease the dose of each component, which lead to the improvement of safety and reduction of production cost of multifunctional foods. To use these active components for human health, studies on their adsorption and transportation are important, since distribution of some components, such as tocotrienols, is limited to some tissues. In addition, extent safety studies are essential to use artificially synthesized substances such as 10t, 12c derivative of conjugated linoleic acid for human health.