Until the late 1990s there were limited scientific data on the microbiological quality and safety of street-vended foods in South Africa, while information was already available in other developing countries, including those within the African region. At that time street-vended foods were perceived as unsafe and street food vending in South Africa was regarded as a practice, which should be out...

The consumer interest in health-promoting foods is almost dramatically increasing because of the increased health consciousness of the modern people. Functional foods are fortified, enriched foods that contain specific health improving nutrients and prevent certain nutrition based disorders. Functional components are naturally present in certain foods (e.g. fruits, vegetables etc.,) and enrichm...

We designed a questionnaire concerned with attitudes and behaviour towards organic foods, environmentally friendly behaviour (EFB), and perceived consequences of organic food choice in terms of human health, the environment and animal welfare. It was mailed in 1998 to a random nation-wide sample of 2000 Swedish citizens, ages 18-65 years, and 1154 (58%) responded. Self-reported purchase of orga...

The overwhelming consensus in the mainstream nutrition community, as well as among vegan health professionals, is that plant foods do not provide vitamin B12. Despite this, some vegan advocates still believe that plant foods provide all the nutrients necessary for optimal health and, therefore, do not address vitamin B12 when promoting the vegan diet. Other vegan advocates acknowledge the need ...

The Japanese government enacted a new regulatory system called 'Foods with health claims' in April 2001, which consists of 'Foods for Specified Health Use' (FOSHU) and 'Foods with Nutrient Function Claims' (FNFC). The FOSHU was set up by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 1991 to approve descriptions on a label regarding an effect of food on the human body. It was enacted as a part of 'food ...

Food regulation aims to protect public health through a safe and nutritious food supply produced by a compliant food industry. Food standards of developed countries generally do not regulate protein content or protein quality because the risk of dietary protein inadequacy in their national populations is very low. Protein is nevertheless regulated for reasons of product quality or protein label...

Few studies have specifically focused on characteristics associated with consumption of combined fatty-salted and fatty-sweetened foods, whereas their identification could be useful for defining effective public health measures. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between demographic, socio-economic, lifestyle and health characteristics and consumption of these types...

The technologies of metagenomics and metabolomics are broadening our knowledge of the roles the human gut microbiota play in health and disease. For many years now, probiotics and prebiotics have been included in foods for their health benefits; however, we have only recently begun to understand their modes of action. This review highlights recent advances in deciphering the mechanisms of probi...

According to Traditional Iranian Medicine (TIM), health preservation and disease prevention are prior to disease treatment. To get this aim, there are recommendations in TIM such as appropriate physical activity (1) and appropriate nutrition which are introduced as two parts of six principles for healthiness (2). Today, these two factors are very important for health preservation and disease pr...

Probiotic bacteria are sold mainly in fermented foods, and dairy products play a predominant role as carriers of probiotics. Functional dairy foods are well suited to promoting the positive health image of probiotics for several reasons: (i) fermented foods and dairy products in particular, already have a positive health image by their traditional use for centuries; (ii) people are familiar wit...