China focus: Probiotics, beauty trends and new scientific project in the spotlight
China still Asia’s probiotic powerhouse, but India and South East Asia next to watch - Growth Asia Series expert panel
China will continue to cement its standing as Asia’s biggest probiotic market, but an expert panel has predicted that India and South East Asia are the emerging hotspots to watch.
The APAC probiotics market is predicted to grow from US$17.5bn in 2018 to more than US$25bn by 2025, while the prebiotic market is set to grow at a double-digit CAGR over the same period.
The panel discussion was part of our Growth Asia 2020 edition on Prebiotics and Probiotics. (Listen on demand here)
Nutrition and beauty in China: Formulas and active ingredients the key purchasing factors – Swisse research
A white paper on beauty and nutrition from Swisse focusing on the demographics in China found that consumers are most concerned with dark facial spots and the key determining factor for buying a product lies in the formula and active ingredients used.
The white paper was written based on an online survey which Swisse had conducted with major digital platforms such as Tencent.
A total of 14,352 survey responses was received between July 29 and August 25. Nine in ten of the respondents were females, only 7% of the respondents were males.
Almond’s microbiota impact: Combi diet improves depression and sugar metabolism and microbiome in diabetics – China RCT
A randomised controlled trial in China has shown that consuming a low carbohydrate and almond-rich diet could improve depression and sugar metabolism in Type II diabetic patients.
The researchers also found positive gut microbiota changes in patients who took such a diet and suggested that the changes could have occurred via the gut-brain axis.
Forty-five patients completed the trial in the First and Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University and the research findings were recently published in Nutrients.
Undernutrition and digestion care: Nestle Health Science launches China’s first ready-to-drink protein-based FSMP
Nestle Health Science has launched China’s first ready-to-drink protein-based total nutrition Foods for Special Medical Purposes (FSMPs) for undernourished individuals.
At present, all the other liquid FSMPs in China are electrolyte drinks or liquid infant formula for premature or low birth weight babies.
Known as Nutren Novasource GI, the liquid protein-based total nutritional formula comes in a 250ml bottle and was officially launched during a nutrition academic summit held in Shanghai.
COVID-19 protease inhibitor search: Chinese researchers to screen one million functional foods ligands
A group of Chinese researchers is screening one million functional foods ligands (or molecules) in their search for the ones that could potentially inhibit the main protease of COVID-19.
The screening has already reached the halfway mark and the researchers hope to complete the screening on the remaining 500,000 ligands in the next two months, researcher Dr Binglin Li from the Northwest University, Xi’an, told NutraIngredients-Asia.
In fact, the present project is an extension of their findings published in the Journal of Food Biochemistry last month.
