Bioactive Food Components Meetings

Widespread consumer use and the potential role of bioactive components in foods and supplements in health promotion and disease prevention are of public health interest. The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP), Office of Public Health and Science, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), acting on behalf of an ad hoc Federal working group have undertaken the tasks of defining bioactive components and exploring approaches to evaluating their significance in health promotion and disease prevention. The ad hoc Federal working group includes representatives from HHS, The Department of Defense (DoD), and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and agencies within these departments, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and The Food and Drug Administration (FDA).The goal of this cross-agency effort is to stimulate discussion and research.

Related activities include:
  • Assessing the Health Effects of Bioactive Food Components
    April 1, 2005 (Workshop)
    The Office of Dietary Supplements and other interested parties in the Federal Government are exploring approaches to evaluate the significance of bioactive food components in health promotion and disease prevention. Because the outcomes of these efforts could influence future research in this area, this symposium should attract the attention of researchers interested in examining the health effects of these substances.
  • Assessing the Health Effects of Bioactive Food Components
    March 24 - 25, 2005 (Conference)
    Assessment of the health effects of bioactive food components requires an understanding of (a) health promotion and disease conditions, (b) what causes healthy cells/tissue/organ systems to become diseased, (c) appropriate models for research and evaluation, and (d) how external factors such as bioactive food components affect these processes and the resultant adverse health effects. This conference will focus on existing and new approaches to assessing health effects and the suitability of these approaches to assessing the health effects of bioactive food components.
  • Federal Register, Vol 69, No 179: Sept 16, 2004, pp 55821-55822. [Text] [PDF, 51kB] Solicitation of written comments on a proposed definition of "bioactive food components" The working definition states that, "Bioactive food components are constituents in foods or dietary supplements, other than those needed to meet basic human nutritional needs, that are responsible for changes in health status."
  • Summary of comments (PDF, 53kB)
List of groups/individuals that responded to the September 16, 2004, Federal Register notice: