【正文】
nd the demand for functional foods has bee increasingly urgent. Functional food markets in developed countries are more than 10% per year growth rate。 also China39。s functional food industry has entered a period of rapid growth. Although China’s functional food industry has made a lot of impressive achievements, it faces many problems and challenge, and functional food industry in China undergoes a constraint to the bottleneck factor. From 2006 to 2010 Chinese Ministry of Science and Research Fund were allocated 45 million Yuan, together with local government and enterprises billion Yuan, for carrying out functional food research including twolevel, nine categories related research to enhance scientific and technological level of functional foods. Scientific and technological researches of Chinese functional food industry have an initial progress as following: (1) functional foods key technologies and mon technologies。 (2) key new product research amp。 development and industrialization demonstration。 (3) functional extension of traditional food。 (4) functional studies of functional food factors. These funds are important to improve research and development of functional food industry, to enhance the petitiveness of functional food products. However, in the field of the scientific research of functional foods in China there is still a gap pared to developed countries as the following: (1) functional studies of functional food。 (2) functional ponents origin from plant。 (3) preparation and detection technology of functional factors。 (4) resource database of functional food. Universities undertake three major functions of human resource education, knowledge innovation and social services. With the development and the facing challenges of functional food industry, universities face the challenges of how to develop the discipline of functional food science and technology. Discipline of functional foods has made some achievements in China. Many universities have set up the theory courses of functional foods and experimental courses and have carried out academic conferences. Universities in China have developed the educational system of undergraduate and graduate education with the full range of food science and technology talents training. However, it is still much to be done in the development of discipline of functional foods in Chinese universities. We should set up functional food as the secondary subject of food science and technology, and a wide range of research directions including (1) functional studies of functional food。 (2) formulations of functional food。 (3) physiologically basic research of functional factor。 (4) safety research of functional food。 (5) preparation and detection technology of functional factors and (6) stabilization technology of functional factors. Universities and enterprises should cooperate and set up the integrated and open platform of scientific research and new product development. In general, the development of functional food discipline should be to study the main objective of the relationship between food and human health. In the recent further scientific studies should set the directions of the food’s function, functional food safety technology and research, preparation and detection technology. Universities and enterprises coestablish the integrated and open platform of scientific research and new product development to accelerate product innovation in these areas. Written by Jin Zonglian, Jiang Zhaofeng, Huang Hanchang, Chen