Does wine have real opportunities in the functional food market?

The functional food market is growing rapidly as people are more interested in their health and life expectancy, while health costs and disposable incomes have increased. The health functionality of wine is demonstrated by in vitro, in vivo animal, epidemiological and human intervention studies. Scientists believe that cell oxidation is responsible for various diseases, especially aging related degenerative diseases and it is proposed that wine contributes to reduce the risk of these diseases through free radical scavenging activity. The success factors of functional foods are conventional food form, good taste, convenience, disease prevention and competitive price. However, upper safe limits of wine's active compounds needs to be established for the development of wine as a functional food, while consumer acceptance of wine as a functional food needs to be tested.