The conditions of the future are changing day by day. The increase in consumption, which took place after the climate crisis made itself more evident and after the pandemic, and war and energy crises started to change our consumption habits. 

People began to gradually reduce their number of meals and make out with one fully nutritious meal. This change causes an increase in quality changes in foods. For this reason, we are going to encounter enriched foods, known as "Functional Foods", more frequently especially in 2023 and beyond. 

Functional foods are defined as healthful food as well as being nutritional. A bakery product enriched with vegetable proteins can be given as an example of functional foods. A bakery product which we can describe as plain contains 9 grams of protein per 100 grams in general. However, a bakery product enriched with vegetable proteins obtained from plants through biotechnological methods (from sunflower seed pulp, tomato peel, etc.) contains 18-23 grams of protein per 100 grams. A protein-rich diet helps strengthen health and lose weight. Besides, vegetable proteins are very important in ensuring energy balance and strengthening immunity. 

A lot of R&D is needed for a bakery product enriched with vegetable proteins. This is because the vegetable proteins disrupt the gluten structures and prevent the bakery product from rising easily, especially in foods containing gluten. For this reason, many factors such as the size of the vegetable protein granules and when to add to the bread need to be known. This requires intensive experimental R&D studies. 

Similarly, in the future, the matter of nutrition with "bioconcentric" foods is on the table. Bioconcentric foods are those that contain many food components in a single food, fortified with vitamins and minerals, as well as antioxidants. These foods will become very important in the future. Its significance is affiliated with inuring people with the habit of getting more nutrients through consuming on lesser scales. These foods can be the ones enriched especially with vitamins and minerals or the ones enriched with different antioxidants and that reduce the risk of developing diseases. 

When developing functional food, especially if the product we are going to develop is in the bakery product industry, the "cooking temperature of the product" is of great importance. This is because many bioactive components decompose when exposed to heat for a long time, and consequently, the component added before cooking may not be found in cooked food. Therefore, bakery products with a high water activity (such as bread) are more suitable bakery product options in terms of functional food development compared to less moist foods such as biscuits. Because no matter how many degrees the bread is baked, its internal temperature does not exceed 99.9 degrees. This ensures that many functional components are preserved in the bread. This is not possible for products such as biscuits. The internal temperature, which increases regularly during cooking, reaches high degrees and causes many components added to deteriorate. 

All bakery products of the future will be enriched and high-quality bakery products. Increasing wheat costs show us the fact that the products produced with wheat will be more filling and far from being wasted. Within this scope, especially bakery products of which "protein value is increased by vegetable proteins" come to the fore with both their filling and nutritious properties.

Enriching bakery products not only with vegetable protein but also with antioxidants, and thus producing foods that protect and strengthen health, will be one of the foremost areas of the future. For example, bread enriched with "lycopene", which is obtained from tomato peel wastes and gives the red color to tomatoes, or bakery products that are rich in lutein which strengthens eye health and gives the yellow color can be developed. Bakery products enriched with hundreds of different antioxidants like this and are good for health must be developed. 

The "supercritical extraction" method is one of the most important applications when developing this type of food. With supercritical extraction, it is possible to obtain the desired component or all bioactive components from a plant with high efficiency and in a nature-friendly way. The products obtained in this way have great health benefits because, in the supercritical method, it is possible to get the beneficial components out of a plant very effectively. 

The extracts obtained by this method must be mixed with the foods and the functional foods to be obtained must be examined in terms of "total antioxidant capacity" and "total polyphenol", and bakery products with increased antioxidant properties must be developed accordingly. Food control laboratories and universities can perform these analyzes very easily. 

Companies that develop functional bakery products can establish an in-house laboratory and perform all these analyses. This laboratory has to include equipment such as precision balances, HPLC and a spectrophotometer.

The future consists entirely of foods enriched in this way. For our companies to claim their places in the future, they have to interiorize these infrastructures and this awareness. In order to claim its place in the future, these infrastructures and this awareness must be embedded in our companies. The future is no longer a place where ordinary products sell well. It's rather a place where differentiated, specialized and even personalized foods are designed. And we have to be ready for this future.