Collaborative projects from an SME perspective: A call for the development
of fresh functional foods with an integrated approach
Dr Hans van Doorn, HZPC-R&D, Netherlands
Vegetables, potatoes and fruit (VPF) form an important part of the human diet and play an important role in the prevention of specific diseases and disorders. VPF has a general image as being healthy for consumers, but considerable variation in the content of functional ingredients exists between different crops and varieties of the same crop. It is proposed to breed and develop improved varieties with optimal content of specific health promoting components as carriers for health and well-being of consumers. This development should be a multidisciplinary approach by all relevant partners in the food chain and yield VPF varieties with proven health promoting benefits based on solid health claims obtained from human intervention studies. Multidisciplinary projects which are designed for this purpose should cover protocol development for active components, screenings for functional components in germplasms of specific crops, health claim development according to official regulations, communication and education of relevant findings to the stakeholders in the food chain, policy makers and consumers and last but not least deliver functional fresh food to the market based on certified QC principles.
