Dictionary.com

functional food

[ fuhngk-shuh-nl food ]
/ ˈfʌŋk ʃə nl ˈfud /

noun

a food that is fortified or enriched to provide beneficial properties beyond the nutritional value of the food in its unenhanced state: in some jurisdictions, as in Canada or Japan, functional foods must be labeled to specify the purported physiological benefits, including disease prevention or treatment.

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Compare nutraceutical. See also FOSHU.

Origin of functional food

First recorded in 1985–90; translation of Japanese kinōsei-shokuhin, from kinōsei “functionality” (equivalent to kinō “function” + -sei, abstract noun suffix) + shokuhin “food”

Words nearby functional food

functional calculus, functional congestion, functional deafness, functional disease, functional disorder, functional food, functional group, functional hypertrophy, functional illiterate, functional imperative, functionalism
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020

British Dictionary definitions for functional food

functional food

noun

a food containing additives which provide extra nutritional valueAlso called: nutraceutical
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012