Abstract

This work has been conducted as a part to set up the regulations and the scientific evaluation systems for the functional dairy products with health claims in Korea. Toward this end, current regulations, requirements, and all kinds of provisions related to the functional dairy products overseas were taken into accounts and feasible recommendations of new initiatives on the current regulations as well. By doing so, not only protecting hopefully the innocent consumers from the false labeling statements and fake advertisements, but also eventually to revitalize the stagnated domestic dairy industries. Currently, functional daily products are simply regarded as "Dietary Supplements" in the United States, and subjected to the regulations under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, established m 1994. Manufacturers and sales distributors should notify their products to the FDA, which is in charge of the dietary supplements on nutrition and labeling, in advance when they start marketing a new dietary ingredient or any foods containing it in the States. For EU countries, there exists keen interests about the functional food products between the member countries of the European Union even though the products are categorized into "Food Supplements" similar to those in the United States. Therefore, they maintain a cautious attitude in applying the health claims to the functional food products. On the other hand, under the Japanese health food system, functional foods are qualified to the functional health foods in terms of legal status as long as any traditional foods can meet the legal standards in its effectiveness, safety as well as quality, along with significant scientific evidences related to the products, thus categorized into "Foods for Specified Health Uses and "Foods with Nutrient Function Claims". Through this study, we may have some expectations and potential utilizations as follows: Legal regulations of dietary supplements especially for the dairy products will be implemented by the outcomes of this research and proposed a tentative amendment of functional ingredients for the sake of consumer protection from the false advertisements and overstatement labeling. Current regulations on the animal foods processing and advertisements will be amended and supplemented in order to revitalize the current downturn dairy sales and to harmonize the international Codex recommendations. The results obtained from this study will make the consumers a wise selection of the dairy products with health claims and be utilized for consumer education and advertisement of the functional products as well.

Keywords

• functional dairy products;
• health claim;
• dietary ingredient;
• dietary supplements;
• regulations