On March 10, 2023, China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSA) issued a public consultation on 3 new food raw materials passing the technical review of the CFSA Expert Review Committee. These 3 new food raw materials are: Yellowhorn seed kernel; Yellowhorn leaf; and Yeast protein The deadline for public comments is April 10, 2023.

On March 2, National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China (NHC) issued an announcement (No. 1 of 2023) for “Three New Foods” with 28 products approved, including one new food raw material, 16 new food additives, and 11 food-related products

What do you know about the acceptance and approval status of new food raw materials in China between 2018 and 2022? In this article, our food expert will take you to more detailed information about the registration status of new food raw materials in China. According to the statistics, a total of 60 new food raw materials have been accepted between 2018 and 2022 with 8 in 2019, 11 in 2020, 27 in 2021 and 14 in 2022.

Recently, European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published the updated list of QPS-recommended microorganisms, in which six new taxonomic units (TUs) received the qualified presumption of safety (QPS) status and one existing microorganism was withdrawn. In China, the QPS list can be commonly found in the approval information of microorganisms from the announcement interpretation of “Three New Foods” issued by the national health commission (NHC). People may be confused about what the QPS list is, and how it works in the compliance of microorganisms in China. Therefore we will cover the two questions mentioned above in three parts: the introduction of QPS; the content of the update; and its significance in the declaration of “Three New Foods”.

On November 30, 2022, the European Commission issued Regulation (EU) 2022/2340 amending Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 1925/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which included green tea extracts containing (-)- epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) in restricted substance list. The Regulation has been in force since December 21, 2022, and food items that include green tea extracts containing EGCG, which do not comply with the requirements of this Regulation and were lawfully placed on the market before the entry into force of this Regulation will no longer be allowed to be on the market from June 21, 2023.

In 2022, the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China (NHC) issued three announcements for “Three New Foods” (No.1, 2022; No.2, 2022; No.5, 2022), with 75 products approved (including new food raw materials, new food additives, and products related to food). Among the 75 products, five new food raw materials were approved, these are: Kanzan flower, Pyrroloquinolinequinonedisodium (PQQ) salt, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Bifidobacterium longum subsp.longum BB536, and Sugarcane Polyphenols.

Since probiotics have become widely known in the gut health industry, terms such as prebiotics, synbiotics, and postbiotics have emerged one after another. But what do these terms actually mean? According to a survey from the Chinese Nutrition Society (CNS) in 2022, these kinds of terms are a blind spot for consumers. In particular, 66% of consumers showed no comprehension of the word postbiotics. We have prepared a brief introduction on the definitions of these terms to help you to distinguish between them.

With the increasing awareness of health, everyone attaches great importance to physical health. According to health reports, osteoarticular problems (those relating to, involving, or affecting bones and joints) have imperceptibly become one of the top ten problems plaguing national health. Osteoarticular problems are also beginning to impact younger citizens as well including those born in the 90s and even the 00s. Under such circumstances, an increasing number of people have become aware of the necessity of maintaining their bones and are willing to buy some health products with related functions for health care, among which glucosamine products are becoming the most prevalent.

In recent years, NMN (β-Nicotinamide mononucleotide) products are quite popular among businesses and consumers for its “anti-aging” function. In May 2022, SyncoZymes (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. received the first US FDA New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) approval for its NMN ingredient. Recently, however, the FDA has changed its position and stated that NMN cannot be marketed as a dietary supplement because it has been authorized for investigation as a new drug.

On October 21, 2022, China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSA) asked for public comment on Calcium β-hydroxy-β-methyl butyrate (CaHMB). The deadline for public comments is November 21, 2022. CaHMB was approved as a new food raw material in 2011, and then the scope of application was expanded in 2017. This time, the public consultation plans to expand the recommended intake from ≤3 g/ d to ≤6 g/ day.