ON THE BORDERLINE OF FOOD AND DRUG: Constructing Credibility and Markets for a Functional Food Product

This article addresses the subject matter of functional foods by analysing commercialization and marketing of a functional food product. Functional food is an evolving hybrid concept: certain substances in a food product are claimed to have health-promoting or disease-preventing qualities (e.g. Best, 1996). Consequently, functional food advertises a food product with medical qualities, which evokes various debates and difficulties in its definition from the point of view of the medical community, regulatory authorities, food industry and consumers. Globally, the approval of functional foods is a complex matter, as it depends on national criteria and practice. For instance, functional food is not a legal term in many countries, such as the USA, but the health claims of functional foods that are used in package labelling and marketing are strictly regulated. With respect to clinical evidence, the approval criteria of health claims may even resemble the approval criteria of drugs. Through the health claims, functional foods challenge the clear distinction between food and drugs that has been incorporated into regulatory systems for a long time (Kwak and Jukes, 2000, 2001a).