One of the mail applications of Hydroxytyrosol is as functional food and nutraceutical in the farma industry. A nutraceutical compound can be defines as "dietary supplement, presented in a non-nutritional matrix (pills, capsules, powder, etc.), of a concentrated natural bioactive substance usually present in food. These natural bioactive substances posses a favorable effect on health (greater than normal food) due to its higher dose".

Nutraceuticals difer from medicines in that the latter are usually synthetic products and do not have a natural biological origin. A functional food and a nutraceutical do not intend to cure any disease, but prevent it within a healthy diet.

In summary, nutraceutical products are those that include bioactive compounds from food but are marketed in pharmaceutical form. They contain concentrations of these substances in greater quantity than they would have, in one or several normal rations of the food from which they come.