December 02, 2025

Formulating for Functional Benefits

With consumers increasingly looking for enhanced nutrition, the functional foods market must find a way to balance the addition of in-demand ingredients with minimal processing.

Assorted bars from The Functional Chocolate Company

Kayt Sukel

Food Technology Magazine

Key Takeaways

Functional Foods

Consumers are increasingly replacing supplements with foods and beverages formulated for targeted functional benefits like heart, gut, or cognitive health.
Nutrient Gaps

While protein dominates functional food formulations, nutrition experts emphasize greater opportunity in under consumed nutrients such as dietary fiber.
Claim Transparency

Brands face mounting scrutiny over “fairy dusting” and unsubstantiated claims, prompting a shift toward transparency, clinically backed doses, and ingredient literacy.

Today’s eaters are looking for more than basic nutrition. And instead of reaching for a supplement to optimize health and reduce the risk of disease, they are instead seeking new food products formulated with functional ingredients. Functional foods, loosely defined as foods or beverages with the power to beneficially affect one or more target functions in the body to improve health and well-being, are not a new phenomenon—food companies have been fortifying a variety of products with vitamins and minerals for decades.

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Hero Image: Photo courtesy of The Functional Chocolate Company