Development of a database for government-funded health/functional food research

The Korean Health/Functional Food Act of 2002 has led to the promotion of research on health/functional foods (HFFs). In order to track government-funded studies on HFFs, a free accessible database (National Research & Development on Functional Food, NaReaD(ff)) has been established by the Korea Food and Drug Administration. About 200 project reports funded by government agencies from 1993 through 2007 were retrieved, using existing government-wide online databases created by the Korea Institute Science and Technology, Evaluation and Planning and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information. In 2008, the database was released with information regarding individual projects and technological achievements for individual ingredients with a vision for HFF development. Overall, government-funded HFF research has primarily involved botanicals including herbs and food plants. The immune system, oxidant stress alleviation, and the cardiovascular system are the three leading health systems being investigated. With regard to the types of studies performed, the majority were in vitro studies and animal studies with limited numbers of human intervention studies. Government funds have been fragmented for many different ingredients, and this represents a major gap in HFF development. This database is most valuable for evaluating trends in government-funded HFF research. It is also useful to identify research overlaps and gaps and to help research scientists within academia and industry identify potential sources of government funding.