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Making claims: functional foods for managing appetite and weight

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 6, pages 53–56 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Functional food products promote claims such as 'freedom from hunger' and 'feel fuller for longer'. A legislative framework has been established by the European Food Safety Authority to evaluate the validity of such claims: a claim must be substantiated by scientific evidence and should be clearly understood by consumers. Since consumed foods influence appetite by means of a system of physiological satiety signals, functional foods could in principle act by increasing the potency and/or duration of these signals. Importantly, what constitutes a useful action: a reduction in hunger, an increase in fullness, a change in food intake at a meal, an adjustment in daily energy balance or a reduction in body weight? Any claim should not go beyond the scientific evidence of an effect, and methods exist to scientifically evaluate claims. The wording of a claim is, therefore, critical. The difference between a proof of concept and a guarantee of success is an important point that needs to be conveyed to the consumer.

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Figure 1: Satiety cascade showing the relationship between satiation and satiety, and some mediating psychological and physiological processes.

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  1. Institute of Psychological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    John Blundell

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Competing interests

J. Blundell is an expert consultant to the NDA Panel of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), a Scientific Governor of the British Nutrition Foundation, and Treasurer and Trustee of the European Association for the Study of Obesity. He is also an advisor/consultant to industrial companies in the food and pharmaceutical sectors (Consultant: Merck, Amylin, Covance, Barilla, Danone; Speakers bureau: Kellogg's, Fonterra; Grant/research support: National Starch, Coca-Cola, Sanofi-aventis, Unilever).

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Blundell, J. Making claims: functional foods for managing appetite and weight. Nat Rev Endocrinol 6, 53–56 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2009.224

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