​Management Status Quo and Trend of Raw Materials for Health-care Foods in China

 
Zhao Hongjing from China Food and Drug Administration, talked about the management status quo and trend of raw materials of health-care foods at 2015 China Natural Ingredients Conference.
 
The management system for raw materials of health-care foods refer to the administrative management measures, 27 health caring functions, and technical codes for inspection and evaluation of health-care foods, which are formulated by the supervising departments and issued through list of items allowed for health-care foods and list of items disallowed for health-care foods to regularize the use of raw materials for health-care foods, including the management methods for registration of health-care foods, and management system for raw materials of health-care foods.
 
The raw materials management include those disallowed for use in health-care foods: list of items disallowed for use in health-care foods(totally 59 items); Class I and II national preservative wildlives and their products; artificially reproduced or cultivated Class I national preservative wild animals and plants; endangered wild animals and plants as protected by international conventions; creatine, bear gall powder and metallothionein. Management of natural ingredients also include products containing the extractive raw materials, accounting for some 30% of the total amount of approved functional products. Naming: major components, chemical components, and related to the functions submitted.
Raw materials application and status quo: raw materials of health-care foods include herbal drug raw materials, common foods, bacteria alga, nutrients, new raw materials, etc. Herbal drug raw materials include Chinese wolfberry, Tuckahoe, Chinese yam, hawthorn, kudzu vine root, semen cassia, etc.
Commonly used extractives: from gingko, Chinese wolfberry, kudzu vine root and pseudo-ginseng.
Raw materials of commonly seen foods: bitter melon, green tea, oolong tea, Pu’er tea, soybean protein and garlic oil.
Raw materials for alga: glossy ganoderma, B. bifidum, and spirulina; nutrients of special health-care functions such as vitamins, folacin, inositol, calcium, magnesium and collagen. New raw materials: S. glabra, and rootofthree-nervedspicebush. Other functional raw materials: chondroitin sulfate, melatonin, and coenzyme Q10.
Natural ingredients originate from gingko and ginseng. Effects and iconic components include active components of 9 categories and 38 subcategories, carbohydrate and phospholipid and phenolic compounds as the most, followed by terpenoid and nitrogen containing compounds(excluding alkaloid); products with total saponins, total flavonoids and crude polysaccharides as effective/iconic components accounting for the largest part of nearly 79%.
What problems do health-care products currently have? Difference between definitions(management and consumption) of raw materials for health care products and for ordinary foods, medicines and new foods; relations between raw materials and effects, and between raw materials and effects claimed(ordinary foods and effects claimed); problems of the list of raw materials: usable parts and Latin names; raw material standards; and raw material formula and scientific reference. Raw materials for natural ingredients include quality standard for raw materials: uniformity, authority, effective components and content, and other components; relation between TCM raw material and TCM ingredients; formula and scientific reference; connection between registration and supervision(production permission and supervision)
The largest highlight and expectation for this reform of health care food supervision system: combination of registration with recording, leveled and classified management, health care foods collectively enlisted into the food supervision system; management of list of health care food raw materials: raw material and corresponding effects; management of list of health care functions.
Foreign management experiences are based on the principle of risk benefit management, multiple management mode, self-compliant, filing plus registration and classified registration. The classified management mode(registration plus filing) is adopted for different raw materials and function claims. In the US: filing management based on supplements, and self-compliant new dietary supplements. Registration shall be evaluated before being listed. In EU, the filing system is applied for food supplements. Raw materials beyond the list of permitted ones shall be reviewed. In Canada, registration management system is applied for natural health-oriented products. Brief application shall be made for natural health-oriented products listed in the standards. In Japan, registration management system is applied for specific health care foods, while filing management system for foods with nutrient claims. In South Korea, filing management system is applied for general health/function oriented foods, while specific health/function oriented foods shall be approved before being put on market. In Australia, auxiliary medicines and products of rather high risks are regarded as registered products, while products of smaller risks as recorded products.
List of allowed health claims of the US:
❀ Calcium with osteoporosis, and calcium and Vitamin D with osteoporosis
Dietary fat with cancer
❀ Sodium with hypertension
❀ Dietary saturated fat and cholesterol with coronary heart diseases
❀ Fiber cereal products, fruits and vegetables with cancer
❀ Fruits, vegetables and cereals products containing fiber, especially soluble fiber           Risks with coronary heart diseases
❀ Fruits and vegetables with cancer
❀ Folacin and neural tube defect
❀ Dietary, non-cariogenic carbohydrate sweeteners with dental caries
❀ Soluble fibers in specific foods with risks of coronary heart diseases
❀ Soybean protein with risks of coronary heart diseases
❀ Phytosterol/sterol lipids with risks of coronary heart diseases
 
Listing management system is applied for raw materials of health care products in China, which specifies multiple categories and combinations, without one-to-one correspondence with health care functions. Promulgation of the new Law of Food Safety will promote the establishment of the list of traditional food raw materials, as well as relevant researches and new reform particularly in functional claims. The management system combining filing with registration, list with catalogue, and central government with local ones, is intended to carry forth a relatively high efficiency of administration and lower the R&D cost. Management of raw materials entails efforts of all stakeholders, and comprehensive, systematic guarantee initiatives.