The following 5 papers were presented at a special symposium on "Functional Foods for Promotion, Modifiers of Efficacy" at the 2000 Experimental Biology, in San Diego, Calif, that was sponsored by the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) North America Technical Committee on Food Components for Health Promotion with the support of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences. John Milner, PhD, Chief, Nutritional Sciences Research Program in the Division of Cancer Prevention at the National Cancer Institute in Washington, DC, and Pamela A. Anderson, PhD, RD, Section Head for Regulatory Affairs at Ross Products Division, Abbott Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio, once again served as general editors in preparing these papers for inclusion in Nutrition Today.

ILSI is a nonprofit worldwide foundation established in 1978 to advance the understanding and global harmonization of scientific issues related to nutrition, food safety, toxicology, risk assessment, and the environment by bringing together scientists from academia, government, industry, and the public sector to solve problems with broad implications for the well-being of the general public.

ILSI has branches worldwide, but its international and North American headquarters are in Washington, DC. A significant portion of the work of ILSI North America is conducted under the auspices of technical committees, which comprise ILSI North America corporate members interested in the areas being addressed. Each committee focuses on a different scientific issue and typically carries out its efforts by sponsoring scientific meetings, publications, or research.