Consumption of functional foods in Europe; a systematic review

Objective: To assess differences in functional foods consumption between European countries. Design: Systematic review. The literature search was conducted in Medlars Online International Literature (MEDLINE), via Pub Med (c) and Scopus. Twenty two studies were identified to examine the differences in functional food consumption between European countries. Results: Figures on consumers of functional foods reveal differences across European countries. Functional foods are popular in most of European countries like Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Cyprus, but not so in other countries like Denmark, Italy and Belgium. A high percentage of adolescents in the European Mediterranean countries (Spain and Cyprus, but not Italy) consume functional foods. Evaluation of functional foods consumption according to gender is difficult, because results differ from one study to another. Conclusions: Functional foods have become very popular in Europe in recent years, but still huge differences exist between Europeans on consumption of functional foods. Further research is needed to find out the reasons behind these differences and to understand consumers' needs for functional foods. ; The study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Health and Consumption Affairs (Programme of Promotion of Biomedical Research and Health Sciences, Projects 05/1276, 08/1259, and 11/01791, Red Predimed-RETIC RD06/0045/1004, and CLBERobn CB 12/03/30038), Grant of support to research groups no. 35/2011 (Balearic Islands Gov. and EU FEDER funds), Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (FPU Programme, PhD fellowship to M.M.B.). The Research Group on Community Nutrition and Oxidative Stress, University of Balearic Islands belongs to the Exernet Network.