What Does The Future Hold For Therapeutic Foods?

By Isaac Fletcher, contributing writer, Food Online

Therapeutic foods could one day provide health benefits that would otherwise come from pills or vaccines. However, manufacturers of these foods have a long way to go toward overcoming public concerns and regulatory complexities

To many people, the idea of therapeutic foods calls to mind nutritional products or supplements, typically designed with a specific audience in mind like athletes or the elderly. However, there is more potential for therapeutic foods than providing added nutrition or functional ingredients. By combining various beneficial drugs or biologic medical products — those which are created by a biological process — with foods to act as the carrier, therapeutic foods can address health and wellness issues similar to the way a pill or syringe functions.

Take Lazy Cakes, for example. These Melatonin-containing brownies provided a way for individuals to take Melatonin in a convenient — and arguably tastier — way than alternative methods. However, this type of product has come with some regulatory concerns over whether or not it is safe to put things like Melatonin into foods. The FDA even issued a letter to the makers of Lazy Cakes stating that Melatonin is not safe as a food ingredient.

Regulation of therapeutic foods is a slippery slope, since people are free to go to the store and purchase Melatonin and brownies as they please, as long as they are packaged separately from one another. Though once the two are combined by a food producer, it becomes cause for concern. This means that the perceived problem lies not within the individual components, but within the method of delivery. Ultimately, Lazy Cakes were removed from store shelves due to health concerns and packaging that was deemed as being too kid friendly.

So what could this mean for the future of therapeutic foods? Effective use of food as a carrier for medication could mean edible vaccines or food products that could serve to lower cholesterol or provide numerous other health benefits. However, it is important to keep in mind the regulatory complications that will come with such products. Food processors will be wise to not make any label claims, such as “this product promotes sleep, relaxation, and stress relief” as the makers of Lazy Cakes put on the product’s packaging. Had the product simply stated “brownies containing Melatonin” — an implied label claim — the concerns may have not been so severe. As it turns out, successfully marketing and labelling therapeutic foods in a way that complies to regulations may be just as important as the technological developments themselves.