As of March 31, 2026, a total of 20 Foods for Special Medical Purposes (FSMPs) were approved in the first quarter of 2026, bringing the cumulative number of approved FSMPs in China to 310.

As of March 31, 2026, based on publicly available information from the EU information retrieval platform (Open EFSA), CIRS has performed a statistical review of novel food (NF) application trends in the European Union (EU) for the first quarter of 2026.

In recent years, the number of GRAS notices submitted to the U.S. FDA has been on a steady upward trend. Since 2026, the U.S. FDA has been continuously updating its inventory of GRAS notices. CIRS Group has conducted a detailed statistical analysis and summary of FDA GRAS notices from January 2026 to March 2026, which is provided here for companies’ reference.

On April 2, 2026, the State Administration for Market Regulation released the “Catalog of Health Food Ingredients: Lycopene (Draft for Public Comment)”. The deadline for submitting comments and suggestions is May 10, 2026.

Recently, China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) released the “Catalog of Health Food Ingredients: Lycopene (Draft for Public Comment),” proposing to include lycopene in the catalog of health food ingredients and soliciting public feedback.

On March 31, 2026, the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has decided to abandon the proposal pursuant to section 56 of the Food Standards Australia New Zealand Act 1991 (the FSANZ Act).

At the request of the European Commission, the Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods, and Food Allergens (NDA) of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was tasked with providing an opinion on the use of carbon dioxide extract from Cannabis sativa L. as a novel food under Regulation (EU) 2015/2283.

CIRS Group has compiled and summarized the intended uses and use levels of HMOs approved in the EU for industry reference. Among them, chemically synthesized and microbially produced 2’-FL have identical scope of use and use levels; similarly, chemically synthesized and microbially produced LNnT share the same conditions of use. The remaining HMOs are produced via microbial sources, and their intended uses may vary depending on the production organism.

There are more than 200 types of HMOs, each with specific structures and functions, enabling applications across different fields. As a result, regulatory submissions for HMOs are rapidly increasing worldwide, with commercialization first initiated in Europe and the United States. In 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognized the first HMO—chemically synthesized 2’-fucosyllactose (2’-FL) submitted by Glycom A/S—as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS). Since then, multiple HMOs have successively obtained GRAS status in the United States.

This article summarizes the approval status and usage of HMOs in the Australia–New Zealand for industry reference.