Nutraceuticals and their definition: a scoping review

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.1595325090110

• Palavras-chave: ANVISA, definition, functional foods and legislation.

• Keywords: ANVISA, definition, functional foods and legislation.

• Abstract: Over the years, concern about healthy eating habits has increased, given the relationship between food and health. This is how nutraceuticals emerge, capable of integrating food and medicine to promote health. However, these are confused with functional foods or present concepts that differ from their essence. This work aims to propose a new definition for nutraceuticals that allows it to be differentiated from functional foods. A scoping bibliographic review was carried out in the PubMed, Scielo and Scopus databases using the following keywords: nutraceutical, nutraceuticals, functional food and functional foods. Regulatory aspects were also researched on the electronic portals of ANVISA and the Official Gazette of the Union. Of the 15 articles analyzed, 60% of the authors designated nutraceuticals as substances present in food, and 40% as a product containing some bioactive compound with therapeutic activity, characterizing the need for standardization and regulation of this concept. Therefore, it is understood that nutraceuticals are pharmaceutical products containing quantities of bioactive compounds greater than those ingested in the normal diet and that they must be used under medical supervision to prevent diseases and/or as complementary therapy to medications.