Increasingly, scientists are finding that diet can play a positive role in degenerative disease risk reduction. Foods that promote health by reducing the risk of degenerative disease, termed functional foods, are becoming nutritional scientists’ main focus as we enter the 21st century. Key to the evolution of any functional food is the process of building a consensus concerning its efficacy and safety. Such a process requires the networking of leading nutritional scientists, both regionally and globally.
Danone Institutes provide a unique opportunity for the creation of such a network. By bringing together nutritional scientists within individual countries and internationally, the Danone Institutes can play a highly positive role in the advancement of functional foods and contribute, through advances in nutrition, to improving the health of the world’s populations.