Abstract: The most important purpose of functional foods is to improve people’s health. In recent years, problems in the functional food market appear frequently in China. The major problem is imperfect standard system and unscientific and unreasonable functional evaluation. A growing number of studies have demonstrated that functional foods exert the healthcare roles through cytokine network in human body. Based on these research results, the best way to resolve the credit crisis of functional foods is to create a functional evaluation system using cytokines. This functional evaluation system can not only ensure the inspection authority, but also can provide a reliable guidance for consumers according to their demands.

Key words: functional food, functional evaluation, cytokine, human trials