|
|
|
You can get e-magazine links on WhatsApp. Click here
|
|
|
|
|
|
Functional Foods, bridging gap between bioactive ingredients and health benefits
|
|
Thursday, 13 August, 2026, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
|
|
Our Bureau, Bengaluru
|
India is at an inflection point with functional foods from turmeric and millets to next-generation probiotics and postbiotics. “We are seeing genuine science move from the lab to the plate”, said Pariksha Rao, Clinical Nutritionist, Medical & Nutrition Affairs professional and founder, NuWe.ai
As a clinical nutritionist and medical and nutrition affairs professional, I believe the category will only earn lasting trust if we hold it to the same scientific lens we apply to any health intervention, she noted.
The key question is whether a particular ingredient contains a bioactive compound. And more importantly, whether the finished product delivers it at an efficacious dose in a bioavailable form, one that reaches the body and produces a measurable benefit, Pariksha Rao said at the recently concluded 4th Edition of the India Food Safety Conclave (IFSC 2026), organised by the Innovative Food Foundation in partnership with Food Safety Works and the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC).
Currently, too many products are built on a promising molecule in a petri dish not on evidence that it works in humans, at a realistic serving, over time. Crucially, that evidence has to be Indian. Our diets, our gut microbiomes, our genetics and our metabolic burden are distinct, so efficacy and dose established in Western populations cannot simply be assumed to translate here, she pointed out.
“We need well-designed clinical trials on Indian populations, studies that account for the Indian gut, and real-world evidence (RWE) that shows how these foods perform in everyday life — not just in controlled settings. If the industry commits to bioavailability, efficacious dosing, India-relevant trials and RWE, functional foods can move from marketing claims to credible, evidence-based nutrition and that is how we protect both the science of health and the safety of scale,” said Rao.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|