On October 29, 2010, Haematococcus pluvialis was approved as a "new food ingredient", which can be used in health food (dietary supplement). Several products made from Haematococcus pluvialis were approved and registered after the ingredient was approved for use, but the number was not too large. Although the development of Haematococcus pluvialis industry in China lags behind that in Japan, Europe and the United States, the domestic competition environment is relatively loose, and Haematococcus pluvialis has a better market potential in the Chinese domestic market.

Functional food includes health food (food supplement), but the scope of functional food is more than just health food (food supplements). Based on the active ingredients and nutrition of the products, functional food consists of functional carbohydrates, functional lipids, plant ingredients, probiotics and other food products. With the high incidence of “lifestyle diseases”, the reasonable intake of functional foods could modify organic functions of the humans to some extent.

In recent years, with the rapid improvement of social medical level and the living standard, Chinese consumers are paying close attention to health. Besides, the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic since the beginning of 2020 has made everyone become more aware of the importance of health and the pursuit of health has become more urgent. Therefore, health food with specific health functions and/or could regulate body functions have gradually become the focus of consumers.

In 2021, China has expanded the health food filing dictionary, some functional ingredients such as Coenzyme q10 has been officially included in the filing dictionary, also DHA and protein may be included in the filing dictionary soon. A series of new regulations are assisting the health food filing to a new stage. However, the functional evaluation test method for the registration process has not been implemented, how do the enterprises plan for new product registration becomes the focus. In the meanwhile, the authorities have published many food supplement label related regulations, and many of them have the big impact on the health food labels from 2022.

Since the nutrition supplement (health food) filing policy was implemented in 2017, CIRS has been summarizing the approved filing products every year. According to the data published by China authorities, the number of approved domestic nutrition supplements is much more than the approved imported nutrition supplements (see figure 1).

Filing is a new policy for health food (dietary supplement) in China, which become effective in 2016. And since former Guangdong FDA issued the first domestic filed health food on 27th July, 2017, the number of approved filed products is growing rapidly in China. In order to help relevant enterprises have an overview of this kind of products, CIRS counted the data of the approved domestic and imported health food filing products from 2017 to 2021, and made an analysis for your reference.

Since the Administrative Measures for Health Food was implemented in June 1, 1996, China has approved 18,593 health food products in total by Dec. 31st 2021. The number of domestic and imported approved health food are 17,808 and 785 respectively. In order to help enterprises have an overview of this kind of products in China, CIRS counted the data of the approved health food registration products from 1996 to 2021 in the Special Food Information Query Platform of State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), and made an analysis for your reference.

In 2021, Chinese authorities issued a series of health food regulations to support the implementation of the dual-track system of health food registration and filing. CIRS has comprehensively summarized the key points of health food regulations issued in 2021, and made an outlook on the development trend in 2022.

On January 13, 2022, SAMR issued five drafts about the permitted health functions and the corresponding evaluation methods for functional health food to solicit opinions for the second time. The deadline for public comment is February 12, 2022. The important information in these drafts are as follows:

In order to help enterprises better understand the filing status of health food (dietary supplement) in China, CIRS counted the data of filed products published in 2021 and made an analysis for your reference.