293 Nutrient Delivery. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-804304-2.00008-1 Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 8 APPLICATIONS OF NANOMATERIALS IN FUNCTIONAL FORTIFIED DAIRY PRODUCTS: BENEFITS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR HUMAN HEALTH Esmeralda Santillán-Urquiza*, Héctor Ruiz-Espinosa**, Aracely Angulo-Molina † , Jorge F. Vélez Ruiz*, Miguel A. Méndez-Rojas ‡ *Department of Chemical, Food and Environmental Engineering, Universidad de las Americas Puebla, Puebla, Mexico; **Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Benemerita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla, México; † Department of Chemical & Biological Sciences, Universidad de Sonora, Sonora, México; ‡ Department of Chemical & Biological Sciences, Universidad de las Américas Puebla, Puebla, México 1 Introduction In today’s world, consumers are more and more conscious about the very strong relationships between health and nutrition. That has fueled the interest on the development and commercial- ization of healthier and improved foods with better nutritional value, in order to not only offer a benefit to the health-conscious consumer but also to fight against potentially damaging nutri- tional deficiencies. Functional foods are those containing biologi- cally active components, offering health benefits, and reducing the risk to suffer several common diseases. The concept was born in Japan in the 1980s, due to the need of a better life quality to the consumers in order to reduce the elevated health expenses derived from the longer life span of the population and unhealthy feeding habits.