Any kind of food product that is claimed to provide additional health benefits to an individual is termed as ‘functional food’. Certain categories of food such as processed orange juice, butter, margarine and fermented foods can be classified as functional foods. Functional foods may either inherently possess such beneficial qualities or they may be artificially modified to do so. The recent wave of urbanisation, coupled with an increasing tendency among people to lead a healthy lifestyle has provided a major boost to the functional foods industry in India. At the same time, the relatively low penetration of such food products in rural areas presents significant potential for future growth. Hide this