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Vol 1 | Issue 1 | Apr - Jun 2020                                                                                             Indian J Pharm Drug Stud | 1 

Review Article 

Nutraceuticals and Fortified Foods Supplements in India: Challenges and 

Opportunities – A Comprehensive Review 

Praveen Tahilani1, Jitendra Banweer1, D P Chatterjee2, Gaurav Goyanar2, Abhishek Sharma1 

From 1Sagar Institute of Research Technology &Science Pharmacy, Bhopal, 2Department of Pharmaceutical Science, SAGE  

University, Indore M.P 

Correspondence to: Prof. Praveen Tahilani, Sagar Institute of Research Technology & Science Pharmacy Bhopal, India, Email: 

tahilanipraveen@gmail.com 

ABSTRACT 

Background: As the growing interest in the overall health of the community the term nutraceuticals, functional foo d ingredients, and 

dietary supplements are gaining importance worldwide. Objective: The study aimed to identify and study th e importance of food 

fortification and the importance of nutraceuticals for their efficacy and effectiveness in India. Methods Pubmed and Google Scholar 

were searched and only article and information relevant to the topic was selected for review. Results: A total of 53 articles were selected 

for review which included information about the nutraceuticals and fortifie d Foods Supplements. Conclusion: There are no 

scientifically proven functional foods for improving public health. There is a requirement to change the platform of a balanced and 

nutritious diet required for healthy people. 

Key Words: Fortification, Nutraceuticals, Functional Foods, Public Health, Dietary Supplements 

unctional foods are termed as products that resemble 

traditional foods but possess different physiological 

benefits. However, nutraceuticals are those derived from 

foods, but are used in the medicinal form of pills, capsules or 

liquids and again have demonstrated physiological benefits. In 

other parts of the world, the latter group has now been termed 

under a new category as natural health products that promote 

health. Food fortification (FF) is defined as the addition of one 

or more essential nutrients to a food, whether or not it is 

normally contained in the food, to prevent or correct a 

demonstrated deficiency of one or more nutrients in the 

population or specific population groups [1].  

Fortification therefore differs from enrichment, which is the 

process of maintaining the nutrients to a food removed during 

the process or production. FF includes many process like bio 

fortification, microbial bio fortification and synthetic biology, 

commercial and industrial fortification, and home fortification. 

As we know that bio fortification involves creating 

micronutrient crops using traditional breeding techniques and 

biotechnology, the term biotechnology (genetic engineering) is 

to bio fortify staple crops is more modern and has gained much 

attention in recent years. Example of this approach is the 

transgenic ‘Golden Rice containing twice the normal levels of 

iron and significant amounts of beta-carotene [2]. Microbial bio 

fortification involves method using probiotic bacteria (mostly 

lactic acid bacteria), which ferment to produce carotene either 

in the foods we eat or directly in the human intestine [3].  

Rice and wheat are the main staple foods in India; especially 

the eastern and southern parts mostly depend on rice while the 

northern and western part of the country depends on wheat. 

From the world scenario, on average 30% of calories come from 

rice and it could reach up to more than 70% in some low-income 

country [4]. According to the GAIN report, the domestic 

consumption of milled rice is shown at about 97.6 MMT in 

2017/18 and wheat consumption has been given at about 93 

million. Moreover, the milling process causes the loss of almost 

all vitamins and minerals of nutritional importance [5]. As we 

know that the principle reason for the growth of the functional 

food market is necessity of the current population and health 

trends. As the populations are aging, includes life expectancy 

continues to rise, as does the contribution made by older 

individuals to the total population. People today are more 

nutrition-concern than ever before, their interest in health-

related information being met by many courses of information. 

[6] 

F 

mailto:tahilanipraveen@gmail.com


Tahilani et al.                                                                           Nutraceuticals and Fortified Foods Supplements in India  

Vol 1 | Issue 1 | Apr - Jun 2020                                                                                             Indian J Pharm Drug Stud | 2 

Technical information: As we know that all foods are 

functional to some extent because all foods provide taste, aroma 

and nutritive value. As the foods are now being examined 

intensively for added physiologic benefits, which may reduce 

chronic disease risk or otherwise optimize health. It is these 

research efforts that have led to the worldwide interest in the 

growing food category and now recognized as “functional 

foods.” [7] Another term often used as a synonym with 

functional foods is “nutraceuticals,” Several factors are 

responsible for the fact that this is one of the most promising 

areas of research in the nutrition sciences today which gives an 

emphasis in nutritional and medical research on associations 

between diet and dietary constituents and health benefits, and a 

favorable regulatory environment including the consumer self-

care phenomenon, and rapid growth in the market for health and 

wellness products is observed [8]. According to the Department 

of Health and Human Services, diet plays a role in 5 of 10 of 

the leading causes of death. An accumulating body of research 

now suggests that consumption of certain foods or their 

associated physiologically active components may be linked to 

disease risk reduction [9]. 

Functional foods of animal origin: Recently the most popular 

class of physiologically-active components derived from 

animal products are the (n-3) fatty acids, predominantly found 

in fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines and 

herring [10]. AS we know that DHA is a vital component of the 

phospholipids of cellular membranes, especially in the brain 

and retina of the eye, and is necessary for their proper 

functioning [11]. 

Functional foods of plant origin: Many plant foods or 

physiologically active ingredients derived from plants have 

been investigated for their role in disease prevention and health. 

However, only a small number of these have had substantive 

clinical documentation of their health benefits. An even smaller 

number have surpassed the rigorous standard of “significant 

scientific agreement” required by the FDA for authorization of 

a health claim. These plant foods currently eligible to bear an 

FDA-approved health claim include oat soluble fiber [12], 

soluble fiber from psyllium seed husk [13] soy protein [14] and 

sterol- and stanol-ester–fortified margarine [15].  

Nutraceuticals and Functional Food: The term nutraceuticals 

is a combination of a nutrition and medicine, this term was 

introduced in 1989 [16]. Nutraceuticals are defined as “any 

substance that may be considered a food or part of a food and 

provides medical or health benefits, including the prevention 

and treatment of disease [17]. According to International Food 

Information Council (IFIC) “foods or dietary components that 

may provide a health benefit beyond basic nutrition” [18]. 

Another body that is International Life Sciences Institute of 

North America (ILSI) given “foods that by virtue of 

physiologically active food components provide health benefits 

beyond basic nutrition” [19]. Finally the Nutrition Business 

Journal classified functional food as “food fortified with added 

or concentrated ingredients to functional levels, which 

improves health or performance [20]. 

Plant foods as nutraceuticals: Plant foods are a rich source of 

phenolic and poly phenolic compounds, there are blueberry 

leaves that are excellent sources of antioxidants [21]. The study 

shows that the leaves are useful to suppress the expression of 

hepatitis C virus RNA [22]. In cereals and legumes, the bran 

portion are also rich in phenolics as compared to the endosperm 

[23]. In recent studies, scientists had focused on marine algae 

and their constituents as nutraceuticals and functional foods for 

health-promotion [19,20]. As we know that marine algae are 

primarily used for the production of single-cell oil rich in DHA, 

and other PUFA [21], long-chain Omega three PUFA are 

chosen as their effectiveness in prevention and treatment of 

coronary heart disease [22], hypertension [23], diabetes [24], 

arthritis and other inflammations [25], autoimmune disorders 

[26] mental health and neural function as in depression and 

schizophrenia and cancers [27] and are essential for 

maintenance and development of normal growth, especially for 

the brain and retina [28]. 

Food fortification: Not a New Approach FF or enrichment is 

the term used for addition of essential vitamins and minerals to 

the basic foods improve the nutritional value and could 

overcome nutritional gaps in human beings. As we know that 

adding iodine to salt has been started simultaneously in many 

parts of the world [29]. Another is addition of Vitamin D and 

Vitamin A to the dairy products by 1932 [30]. As the time 

passes the addition of iron and folic acid to flour become 

common in the many western countries [31].  

In this growing world the very important aspect of human 

life is health benefits of functional foods, it is not surprising 

that major companies are interested in developing such foods 

for the health and well-being of human race. A recent survey 

of 38 Chief Research Officers of major food companies 

conducted by the Institute of Food Technologists ranked 

research efforts into the development of foods considered to 

be healthful well ahead of research efforts directed toward 

food safety, or toward the development of either organic or 

reduced fat foods. After several studies over the last few 

years the tendency for consumers to view the “kitchen 

cabinet as the medicine cabinet” was initially identified as a 

leading trend in the food industry in 1994. This “Self-care” 

phenomenon remains a leading consumer trend today. The 



Tahilani et al.                                                                           Nutraceuticals and Fortified Foods Supplements in India  

Vol 1 | Issue 1 | Apr - Jun 2020                                                                                             Indian J Pharm Drug Stud | 3 

10th annual consumer trend report from the Food Marketing 

Institute and Prevention Magazine found that that 76% of 

consumers strongly or mostly agree that eating healthy food 

is a better way to manage illness than medication [32]. The 

need of research is currently directed toward increasing our 

understanding of “functional foods.” efforts to identifying 

how functional foods and food ingredients might help 

prevent chronic disease or optimizes health, thereby reducing 

healthcare costs and improving the quality of life for many 

consumers. An emerging discipline that will have a profound 

effect on future functional foods research and development 

efforts is nutria genomics, which investigates the interaction 

between diet and development of diseases based on an 

individual’s genetic profile [33]. 

Other fields that will greatly influence the future of 

functional foods is biotechnology, and bioinformatics. Recent 

examples of biotechnology-derived crops which have 

tremendous potential to improve the health of millions 

worldwide include golden rice and iron-enriched rice [34]. The 

wide range of fortified foods has been justified by the fact that 

given dietary allowances for many nutrients are commonly not 

met through the normal diet. However, the virtual elimination 

of micronutrient deficiencies in developed countries has been 

attributed in large part to fortification [35]. Although it is well 

identified that FF is one of the preferred and cost-effective 

approaches in overcoming micronutrient malnutrition, its 

effectiveness in developing countries is yet to be demonstrated. 

One of the factors which have to be taken an account is the lack 

of simple and affordable technology to fortify foods with stable 

and bio available nutrients without compromising commonly 

accepted taste and appearance [36]. 

Global Issues of Fortification: The WHO issued guidance for 

the fortification of maize and wheat flour in 2009 based not on 

the distribution of intake across different segments of the 

population but on national per capita in takes and assuming that 

no other source provided the referred micronutrients [37]. As 

the fortification is implemented, there is often reluctance on the 

part of policy makers to reduce the content of the nutrient being 

fortified, even in the face of evidence that higher doses are not 

needed to demonstrate benefit. Folic acid fortification of grain 

products is well established as a means to reduce the incidence 

of neural tube defects [38]. The major group of nutraceuticals 

is endogenous in origin, being natural products responsible for 

eliciting activity in healthy humans. A number of plant 

constituents are increasingly becoming available, some 

individual entities e.g., resveratrol from grapes and wine and 

some complex combinations of constituents e.g., pycnogenol. 

The two glycol samino glycans (GAGs), glucosamine and 

chondroitin are derived from various animal materials. [39] 

Recent advances in nutraceuticals & fortified food in india: 

Numerous studies conducted over the last few years have 

concluded that there are increasing numbers of consumers 

taking responsibility for well-being of their family, they are 

knowingly being aware regarding the current need for personnel 

health [40]. The “selfcare” concept of an individual is gaining a 

vast popularity in the world. As studied the 10th annual 

consumer trend report given by the Food Marketing Institute 

and Prevention Magazine summarized that 76% of humans are 

strongly or mostly agree on the concept that eating healthy food 

is a better way to overcome illness than medication. As the age 

is a very important factor as it affects the immunity of a 

individual so the humans of above 50 years are more prone to 

get ill in comparison to others. 

CONCLUSION 

As many functional foods may have promised for improving 

public health, but still claims are not scientifically proven. 

There are many pitfalls where studies need to be conducted 

to get the best results in every human body. Nutrition 

deficiency is a serious problem in India as well as many 

different parts of the world. FF can be expected to play a 

wide role in the improvement of this condition. So far, the 

studies conducted with FF in India found having positive 

results to improve condition in pregnant and lactating 

women, the elderly population, as well as a population of 

different socioeconomic categories. To fulfill a balanced and 

nutritious diet required for the healthy people FF approach is 

gaining par importance for the betterment of society. 

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How to cite this article: Tahilani P, Banweer J, Chatterjee 

DP, Goyanar G, Sharma A. Nutraceuticals and Fortified 

Foods Supplements in India: Challenges and Opportunities 

- A Comprehensive Review. Ind J Pharm Drug Stud 2020; 

1(1):1-4. 

Funding: None;                 Conflict of Interest: None Stated 

 


