Food Security: Local and Individual Solutions to a Global Problem
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However, at the same time, services are being advertised on the internet for genotyping as a basis for the recommendation and delivery of personalized dietary advice and even as a service for the delivery of meals, similar to those sold as part of weight control regimes. While Gibney’s overview of the field (2005) is interesting, the most authoritative evaluation has been given in a report by the Public Health Genetics Unit (PHGU) (2005) of Cambridge University, UK, which has cast doubt on the value of any individualized dietary advice based on present genomic information. For the individual living in a developed country, there are a number of questions that need answers: Are current advertised services and diets based on nutrigenomic information merely fanciful or grossly misleading? Is the food industry rushing into this new market too early, in search of quick profits, as happened with dietary supplements (SNE, 2004)? What are the ethical implications of a general exchange of individuals’ genetic information? Will this information and its related dietary advice be used to judge compliance with the more individual responsibility for diet-related health, as outlined in successive UK Department of Health White Papers (DOH, 2004, 2005)? The pros and cons of applying current nutrigenomic information for dietary advice seem to derive from the food industry and medical geneticists, with many other scientists and a large part of the general public found somewhere between the two extremes. The food industry, its spin-off companies, and its entrepreneurs have a responsibility to their shareholders and financial backers to make a profit on their operations. New raw materials, processes, products, and services provide fertile ground for these developments. One of the earlier developments in this field was functional foods, closely followed by nutraceuticals. Karla (2003) defines both concepts as well as clarifying their differences from dietary supplements. He refines the original definition of nutraceutical by its originator, DeFelice (Brower, 1998), as ‘. a food (or part of a food) that provides medical or health benefits, including the prevention and/or treatment of a disease,’ but would run into opposition on functional foods as defined by Just-Food (2006) as ‘. those foods or food components (whole, fortified or enriched with functional food components) that are scientifically recognized as having physiological benefits beyond those of basic nutrition.’ The current market for such foods is estimated by Just-Food to be US$7–63 billion and is expected to grow to US$167 billion by 2010. Its advantage is in being seen as a ‘natural’ medicine and that it requires no testing as a pharmaceutical product. If each potential customer could be