Functional Herbal Foods: A Process and Product Development

Herbs have been used as food and medicine for centuries. In recent era, an interest in “natural health” and the use of herbs and its products has been increasing. It plays a significant role in the maintenance of the quality of human life through offering an abundant source of antioxidants and medicinal constituents. The utility of these incredible valuable food sources appears in the history of many parts of the world. It has also suggested several forms viz. paste, tray dried and freeze dried powders and solvent extracted herbal ingredients for incorporation into foods. Food technologists are finding the ways to incorporate these herbal nutraceuticals into food products without having any adverse effect on their aesthetic quality. Hundreds of food processed products are availing in the form of jams, jellies, squashes, ready to eat, ready to cook, herbal powders and enriched health drinks with herbs. The food industry has been showing an immense interest in developing new technologies that allow processing of new herbal food products with less quality changes. Still much attention has been attempted to resolve the biologically active ingredients and their physiological health benefits so that they could be extracted and incorporated into a food matrix to prepare/formulate functional foods. Nowadays, herbal foods have received high interests due to their potential nutritional, safety and therapeutic effects. The interest in herbal foods continues to grow, powered by progressive research efforts to identity the properties, bioactive components and potential applications and which are coupled with public interest and consumer demand. In this context, authors developed a process and technology development of herbal foods and acknowledge the Inntellectual Property of India for filing a patent.