Processing ensures nutrition and food safety for people with special dietary needs, new ISDI publication explains
Processing is fundamental to nutrition and food safety in foods for special dietary uses (FSDU), a special category of foods that is tailored to the nutritional requirements of people with special dietary needs.
The new ISDI brochure – ‘Common processes used in the manufacturing of FSDU and the rationale for their use’ – explains the specific role of different processes used in the manufacture of FSDU, as well as the function of different categories of additives, which are used only if technologically needed and only in appropriate amounts.
Jean Christophe Kremer, ISDI Secretary General, said: “Processing is really essential in the production of FSDU to ensure both the nutritional quality and safety of foods for people who have very specific dietary requirements and vulnerabilities.
“Considering the broader debates about food processing and, especially, the negative connotations of the term ‘ultra-processed’, it is very important to remember the benefits that processing provides and ensure that FSDU are not mischaracterised as unhealthy, which would be to the detriment of public health.”
“Perfect illustration of the advantages of food processing”
The publication builds on ISDI’s webinar in September 2024 on ‘Specialising Nutrition: The benefits and necessity of processing in FSDU’.
Explaining the function and benefits of benefits from a food technology perspective, Prof. Bruno De Meulenaer from the University of Ghent said that FSDU “are the perfect illustration of the advantages of food processing”, whilst also highlighting the “sophisticated knowledge and knowhow” that underpin food processing.
Background
People with special dietary needs are a group of people requiring special attention to nutrition such as infants and young children, professional athletes, people who are immunocompromised or who have metabolic disorders, patients and the elderly. FSDU are the foods developed to address those special dietary needs.
They are defined by Codex Alimentarius (CXS 146-1985) as ‘foods which are specially processed or formulated to satisfy particular dietary requirements which exist because of a particular physical or physiological condition and/or specific diseases and disorders and which are presented as such. The composition of these foodstuffs must differ significantly from the composition of ordinary foods of comparable nature if such ordinary foods exist.’
Download the brochure and processing flowcharts here.
Note to the editors:
ISDI is the leading international expert association on special dietary foods, including foods specifically designed for infants and young children. ISDI members are national and international associations that are active in this sector from more than 20 countries over 6 continents. Our members manufacture and market foods that are formulated, in accordance with applicable Codex Alimentarius standards, to meet the compositional criteria, quality requirement and nutritional needs of infants and young children.
Further Contact:
Jean Christophe Kremer
ISDI Secretary General
M: +32 476 82 03 90