**|Knowledge Economy
Author |Ding Xiaobing
With the increasing demand for a healthy life, the health food market has also ushered in a continuous boom, and data show that China is currently one of the most active regions in the global nutrition and health industry. However, the rapid development of the market has also brought problems that should not be underestimated, such as uneven product quality inside and outside the industry, false or exaggerated publicity, etc., so that consumers have more complex emotions about this industry.
In 2023, new regulations (including draft for comments) will be issued in the health food industry, which will send a positive signal for the development of the industry. "Knowledge Economy" sorts out the relevant regulations throughout the year, in order to help the industry clarify the latest signals and maintain competitiveness.
On May 29, 2023, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a notice on publicly soliciting opinions on the Administrative Measures for the Review of Advertisements for Drugs, Medical Devices, Health Foods, and Formula Foods for Special Medical Purposes (Draft for Comments).
In the context of the country's continuous strengthening of the protection of consumer rights and advertising supervision, the law enforcement and frequency of "three products and one machine" advertising supervision have also been continuously improved. Based on this situation, the industry should manage the entire process of product release in compliance, actively learn and understand national and local regulatory laws and regulations, pay attention to the content of new policy documents in a timely manner, and jointly build a healthy advertising environment.
On June 14, 2023, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the National Health Commission, and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine issued the announcement of the "Catalogue of Health Food Raw Materials - Nutrient Supplements (2023 Edition)", "Catalogue of Health Functions Allowed to be Claimed by Health Foods - Nutrient Supplements (2023 Edition)", "Catalogue of Health Food Raw Materials - Soy Protein Isolate" and "Catalogue of Health Food Ingredients - Whey Protein".
The release of this announcement has further promoted the addition of the catalogue of health food raw materials, and a number of nutritional supplements mentioned in it involve a variety of products in the industry.
On August 28, 2023, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Implementation Rules for New Functions of Health Foods and Product Technical Evaluation (Trial)".
According to the announcement, the evaluation principles include health promotion, authenticity and credibility, scientific reasonableness, objectivity and fairness. The new functional positioning includes supplementing dietary nutrients, maintaining or improving the health of the body, and reducing risk factors for the occurrence of diseases. The conditions for inclusion in the catalogue include that the recommended materials are complete, do not cause social and ethical concerns, and that the names and explanations of health care functions are scientific and reasonable, and can be correctly understood by consumers. Those who do not meet the conditions for inclusion in the catalogue of health care functions include contradictory or inconsistent content of the suggested materials, the authenticity of which is difficult to guarantee or the content is incomplete, and the scientific rationality of the recommendations cannot be confirmed; It is easy to cause social and ethical concerns; The names and explanations of health care functions are unscientific, unreasonable, and have the possibility of false publicity, with vulgar or feudal superstition.
On August 31, 2023, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the National Health Commission, and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine issued the "Catalogue of Health Functions Allowed to be Claimed by Health Foods - Non-Nutrient Supplements (2023 Edition)" and supporting documents.
The catalogue adjusts the original 27 kinds of health care functions to 24 kinds, deletes the three health care functions of "improving growth and development", "promoting lactation" and "improving the best oil content", and adjusts the function evaluation method from the mandatory method to the recommended method, implements the main responsibility of enterprise R&D evaluation, and gives full play to the advantages of social resources in scientific research.
On September 29, 2023, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued an announcement on the dosage form and technical requirements for the filing of soybean protein isolate and whey protein as raw materials for health food.
On the basis of the bidding research on the catalogue of functional health food raw materials carried out in the early stage, the State Administration for Market Regulation has formulated the "Catalogue of Health Food Raw Materials - Soybean Protein Isolate" and "Catalogue of Health Food Raw Materials - Whey Protein" based on the actual situation of the formula, function, safety and quality control of previous products, as well as the research results of the Chinese Nutrition Society on the health care function and dosage of soybean protein isolate and whey protein. In accordance with the provisions of the Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China, the State Administration for Market Regulation, together with the National Health Commission and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, released the above catalogue on June 2, 2023. In order to make the product filing work can be carried out smoothly after the formal implementation of the raw material catalog, the State Administration for Market Regulation has refined the requirements for the formula compatibility, registration to filing, daily dosage, and population of protein products in combination with the approved registered products and the actual production situation.
On October 7, 2023, the supporting interpretation documents of "Soybean Protein Isolate from the Catalogue of Health Food Raw Materials" and "Whey Protein from the Catalogue of Health Food Raw Materials" were released.
On October 7, 2023, the interpretation document of the "Nutrient Supplements of the Health Food Raw Material Catalogue (2023 Edition)" was released.
The interpretation document emphasizes that the content of the adjusted and updated nutrient supplement raw material catalog has added 2 new compounds, updated 5 national standards, added food standards to 7 raw materials that originally only had the Chinese Pharmacopoeia and drug standards, and added food standards to 1 raw material on the basis of the original announcement of the Ministry of Health.
On December 22, 2023, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the Guidelines for the Labeling of Health Food Labels.
The Guidelines guide health food producers and traders to further standardize the labeling of health food labels, correctly guide consumption, and create a fair and orderly market order. Before the issuance of the Guidelines, the original health food label regulations did not have detailed requirements for specific contents such as graphic proportions and color standards.
The Guidelines retain the graphics and colors of the health food exclusive logo, the frame of the health food logo, the graphic proportion, etc. Based on the principle of unification of aesthetics and practicability, the graphic and text details requirements in the logo are optimized. The logo presents a symmetrical structure along the middle line, the visual effect is balanced, considering the writing characteristics of "health food", on the basis of maintaining the width of the four characters, the height and width ratio of each word are determined, and the printing color requirements are clarified. Health food producers and traders shall earnestly perform the main responsibility of food safety, mark the health food logo in accordance with the "Guidelines", and use the health food logo in production and business premises, special areas and counters, and advertisements; In accordance with the provisions of laws and regulations, combined with their own actual conditions, the use of health food marks on packaging materials such as transportation boxes and transit boxes of health food products can be standardized.