This book represents the second volume and companion to Functional Dairy Products, vol. 1, originally published in 2003.
The book is written as twenty-three up-to-date and excellently referenced chapters, divided into three sections. Part 1 outlines the health benefits of functional dairy products, with a focus on satiety and weight management, infant and child health, gastrointestinal health, HIV/AIDS and oral health. Major areas of health, which have been heavily researched with respect to their association with dairy and dairy constituent consumption, including cancer, CVD and osteoporosis, are not discussed in volume 2, but can be found in volume 1. Section 2 proceeds to examine a number of functional dairy ingredients, and in addition to providing an overview of the literature regarding their health attributes, details regarding their production and addition to food products are described. Section 3 is somewhat of a mixed bag. It begins with a chapter discussing regulatory issues associated with functional dairy products. It then proceeds to outline some of the research methodologies and models which may be employed to establish efficacy when considering the functionality of dairy ingredients. This section has a large focus on probiotics, with a chapter on conjugated linolenic acid (CLA) and dairy weight management products also included. Unlike volume 1, the book does not include an introductory section providing basic information on dairy composition, consumption patterns etc., which may be useful for the less-informed reader and to ‘set the scene’ for the remainder of the book.
This text book is perhaps too product focused to serve as a core academic text book for undergraduate nutrition, dietetics, food science or food technology teaching. However, it is undoubtedly a useful reference for researchers with an academic interest in function dairy ingredients, industrialists involved in the design or improvement of dairy foods, or those with an interest in adding dairy constituents as functional ingredients to non-dairy products.
