A lot of growth in China’s functional food industry has come from research into herbs used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and identifying suitable ones that can be integrated into everyday foods and beverages.
However, given the complexity and vastness of herbal and medical knowledge found in TCM compendiums, local food industry academics believe that progress is not as fast as it could be in terms of ‘upgrading’ the functional foods sector.
“The food industry is one of the most important development areas in China, and when it comes to innovation and growth, we must remember that academia is at the core of the R&D and new scientific breakthroughs that make these upgrades possible,” China Ministry of Education Changjiang Chair Professor Zhengqiang Jiang told the floor at the recent Food Ingredients China (FIC) 2025 show in Shanghai.
“One of the major areas that has caught the scrutiny of the government is to upgrade existing traditional foods to improve accessibility to consumers - the government has already expressed plans to lead developments in this area, with mandates to maintain traditional tastes and flavours but use science to improve nutrition and accessibility.
“Other major food areas to upgrade are the development of new and novel foods; improve both traditional agriculture as well as new agriculture such as fermentation; and in terms of additives research and usage.”
Many of the traditional foods hoped to be used to ‘upgrade’ the food supply come from TCM herbs, and in China this area has been named Food Medicine Substances (食药物质）.
“The potential for development and growth in the area of these products is enormous, especially as these really come from the same source at the heart of it all,” China National Centre for Food Safety Risk Assessment Chief Advisor Chen Junshi added.
“As of 2024, there are 106 types of ingredients that have been approved as Food Medicine Substances such as ginseng or mulberry, and many are being used in areas such as functional foods.
“Regulations right now stipulate that these ingredients must be found within the Chinese Compendium of Herbs and have been confirmed as safe to consume, and must also be stable for use across multiple foods - at the moment, the first priority is safety and not functionality when considering new ingredients.
“But what is lacking now to really grow the list of approvals are examples of scientifically proven herbs, and without approvals there is definitely no route to commercialisation - this is where a lot more R＆D is required, and where the important role academics can play lies.”
Why not industry
Chen added that the hope for advancement in this area likely lies with academicians and not industry because investment from the latter tends to come with conflicts of interest.
“There is a clear marketing versus information dilemma that needs to be solved here,” he said.
“Industry players may want to invest in order to bring a product to market - but often, the issue arises where they also want to be able to make health or nutrition claims about the product they have invested in only to be told that this requires another route entirely such as Health Functional Foods.
“This means that they would be unable to market this product they have invested heavily in at the end of the day, so there is no ROI, and no motivation for them to invest in the first place - this is an area that requires a closer look by the government, as without the ability to make claims, it will be very difficult to get industry to invest.
“In the meantime, it is up to academia to do as much of the research as possible to advance the information we have on these products - currently there are over 80 more items that are being studied for their functional benefits, but there is certainly a long way more to go before this sector can reach its full potential.”