functional food

noun

Any fresh or processed food claimed to have a health-promoting and/or disease-preventing property beyond the basic function of supplying nutrients.

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Meanings

nounfunctional food (plural functional foods)

plural functional foods

  1. Any fresh or processed food claimed to have a health-promoting and/or disease-preventing property beyond the basic function of supplying nutrients.

    These “functional foods”, which included protein powders and shakes, were branded as sports nutrition and primarily targeted at men.

    2021 September 15, Sirin Kale, “Muscles and methane: how protein became the food industry’s biggest craze”, in The Guardian

Translations

Finnish terveysvaikutteinen elintarvike
  • terveysvaikutteinen elintarvikehealth-promoting food
Spanish alimento funcional
  • alimento funcionalhealth-promoting food
Swedish mervärdesmat, nyttomat
  • mervärdesmathealth-promoting food
  • nyttomathealth-promoting food
Vietnamese thực phẩm chức năng
  • thực phẩm chức nănghealth-promoting food
Welsh bwyd gweithredus
  • bwyd gweithredushealth-promoting food
Cite this entry
APA

functional food. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/functional%20food

MLA

“functional food.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/functional%20food. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “functional food,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/functional%20food.

Source: functional food on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.