I'm at the BIO International Conference in San Diego this week and attended my first break out session today. BIO 2008 is HUGE with 20,000 plus attendees and exhibitors from 50 countries here to take in the speakers, trade show, and business development sessions. I started with "Science You Can Eat: The Rise of Functional Foods". We're surrounded by what are often referred to as functional foods even though there is no legal definition or standards associated with them. The session started off though with what seemed to
be a pretty good 'functional' definition. "Food or food components that may provide a health benefit beyond basic nutrition"."May" it turned out was key to the discussion.

We've all seen them and the market now goes well beyond the health food store or organic food shelves. Supermarkets and even your corner 7-11 offer foods or beverages that promise to improve your health or general well being in some way. What was clear from the session was that for every food or supplement with proven evidence of its value, there are more out there without such proof. However it is a market worth over a billion dollars worldwide so the confusion may simply get worse.
To get arond the hype reputable companies and research organizations need to take the lead in good solid research. The panelists believed that ultimately consumers want verifiable claims and results they can "feel, see, and touch". Here at Genome Alberta we feel much the same way and see a role we can play in sorting out the proven from the unproven and the area in between. We have put forward a funding proposal that will bring the rigour of science to the field of nutrigenomics and I'll be sure to let you know how that progresses. 
Finally a tip of the hat to the BIO 2008 organizers. The staff are helpful, the sessions have started on time so far and once we actually found the shuttle stop the transport committee seems to have done its job as well. Good work !
We're posting some pictures taken at BIO so visit our Picasa Photo Sharing site to see what it is all about, or check the Genome Alberta group on Facebook.