On March 5, Premier Li Keqiang presented the government work report at the 14th National People's Congress. China's GDP in 2023 exceeded 126 trillion yuan, with a 5.2% growth rate, placing it among the world's top economies. Consumer prices rose by 0.2%. The anticipated targets for China's development in 2024 include a GDP growth rate of around 5%, consumer price inflation rate of around 3%, and synchronized growth in household income and the economy.
The government report also emphasized the development of new productive forces, the silver economy, healthy consumption, and technological innovation.
During the Two Sessions, topics such as health food, the integration of medicine and food, food additives, and nutritional fortification gained significant attention. Here are six hot proposals compiled by the ZMUni Compliance Centre:
1. Develop "Functional Identification Food" to foster new productive forces in the health industry. This proposal suggests adding a new category of "Functional Identification Food" to the existing food framework, allowing claims about its functions and ingredients.
This proposal aligns with the trends in policies and industry development. For example, the General Rules for the Labeling of Prepackaged Foods (GB 7718), released in January of this year, classified food claims into four categories: general claims, health effect claims for food ingredients or components, nutrition claims, and claims about the effects of nutrient components for health foods.
2. Implement "Negative List" management for medicinal food homology health products. This proposal aims to enhance research, establish safety standards, and improve the regulatory system for such products.
3. Encourage research on new varieties of green food additives. There are approximately 15,000 approved food additives globally, with over 4,000 in the United States and over 2,300 in China. Although China has seen significant growth in the number of approved additives in recent years, the variety of food additives is still incomplete, and their usage scope is limited. The proposal suggests introducing policies to promote innovation and the cultivation of new types of food additives.
4. Strengthen support for the natural sweetener industry. The proposal emphasizes popularizing and promoting natural sweetener products, supporting technological development, and improving quality standards. The certification process for new products like allulose should be accelerated.
5. Accelerate the nutritional fortification of dairy products. The proposal calls for incorporating fortification concepts into food safety standards and implementing nutritional intervention programs, particularly for students.
6. Build a modern, sustainable, and healthy food industry system. This includes supporting food industry companies in developing health and wellness products, providing scientific and technological guidance and support for the research and development of functional proteins, dietary fibers, functional glycogens, probiotics, and bioactive peptides for health and wellness products. The entry standard for health food should be low sugar, low oil, low salt, and minimal additives, using advanced production processes to achieve green production, preserve nutrition, and promote health. This will provide consumers with more sustainable and healthy food options.
