At present, the Chinese government is attaching unprecedented importance to the health of people. In recent years, the government has successively released a number of important documents about health policies, including Planning Outline of Healthy China 2030, National Nutrition Plan (2017-2030) and Healthy China Initiative (2019-2030). A promotional committee on healthcare has been established. “The implementation of Healthy China Strategy” is coordinated and promoted as an integrate part of China’s overall development strategy. As an important part of Healthy China Initiative, Healthy diet action is to prioritize the nutrition, health and quality of food itself, while National Nutrition Plan emphasizes the development of nutritional food industry and proposes to speed up the nutritional transformation of food processing, etc. In order to improve the nutrition, health and quality of foods and promote the research and development of nutritious foods, it is critical to fully play the major role of technological innovation in the food nutrition industry. In this context, it is of significant value to the achievement of Healthy China Initiative to promote the innovation and application of food nutrition science and technology, and to foster the development of food nutrition and health industry.

In recent years, more and more countries are attaching great attention and emphasis to the innovation of food technology and the R&D of nutritious and healthy food. On one hand, it has become a common practice in most countries to apply frontier science and technology in the food industry. In particular, as the most widely-used one, bioengineering technology, such as transgenic microorganism fermentation being applied to producing human milk oligosaccharides (HMO) as a nutrition fortifier in infant formula, plays a major role in the development of new resource foods and functional foods. On the other hand, the innovative development of food nutrition technology has also fostered new nutritious foods, such as vegetable protein meat, which has been promoted and developed in many countries. For international food industry, tackling climate change, environmental pollution and resource shortages is also an important consideration for the application of bioengineering technologies such as transgenic microorganism fermentation, and the promotion and development of vegetable protein technology and vegetable protein meat products. From a global perspective, boosting the innovation and application of food nutrition technology provides a more economical, efficient, and synergistic solution for promoting the development of food industry, improving national health, and achieving human’s goal of environmental protection and sustainable development.

Nowadays, National nutrition issues are highly concerned. Chinese government have fully recognized that China is still facing a challenging situation due to the coexist of multiple diseases and nutrition problems and attached great importance to national nutrition and health. At the same time, as consumers are increasingly inclined to choose nutritious and healthy foods, food processing industry pays more attention to the development of nutritious and healthy products. However, it is slow to introduce new food nutritional technologies and nutrition products, and the perception, application and popularization of technically innovative nutrition products still need to be strengthened. These issues, such as access of HMOs or other nutrition fortifiers, registration of infant formula and foods for special medical purposes (FSMP), perception of plant-based meat and FSMP, etc., have become the challenges to the application of new food nutritional technologies.

Download the full report：Food Nutrition Technology & Innovation: A Driver for the Healthy China