What changes are happening in the health food industry

In recent years, with the enhancement of residents' health awareness and the arrival of an aging society, the market demand for health food has been steadily increasing. The scale of China's nutritional health food industry has reached 588.5 billion yuan in 2022 and is expected to exceed 800 billion yuan by 2027. At the same time, consumer demand has also undergone fundamental changes; the consumer population has also changed. The traditional consumer group for health food is mainly middle-aged and elderly people, but in recent years, with the popularization of health concepts and changes in lifestyle, the demand for health food among young and middle-aged people is also rising rapidly.

For a long period of history, the functions of nutritional health food such as enhancing immunity, supplementing vitamins, and calcium supplementation have been highly concentrated, accounting for as high as 76.9%. The products of the old three have far been unable to meet the current market demand, and it is obviously not enough to rely solely on marketing concepts to win consumer favor. The nutritional health food industry has officially entered the era of "rolling technology".

"If the high-quality development of China's special food industry wants to achieve new breakthroughs, it must vigorously develop new quality productive forces." From October 15th to 18th, at the 9th China Special Food Conference hosted by the China Nutrition Health Food Association, Bian Zhenjia, the former deputy director of the former State Food and Drug Administration and the former president of the China Nutrition Health Food Association, said.

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Selling products without talking about technology is no longer feasible. "Since the birth of the nutritional health food industry, there are different rolls at different stages, and the most prominent feature at present is 'rolling price'. Only 'rolling technology', the industry has a future." Wang Dahong, the secretary-general of the Market Work Committee of the China Health Association, said to the First Financial.

With the increase of scientific research investment in the entire industry, the results of healthy food are gradually emerging. According to Gong Guoqiang, the deputy director of the Food Department of the National Health Commission, since the "14th Five-Year Plan", the National Health Commission has announced and approved 31 new food raw materials, 117 new varieties of food additives, and 102 new varieties of food-related products. At the same time, the number of applications, reviews, and announcements and approvals for "three new foods" in recent years has been on the rise."Nowadays, selling products without technology is no longer feasible, as the entire industry has gradually entered an era of technological competition and research and development (R&D) driven growth," said Zhang Xuguang, Vice President of Mengniu Group, at the forum. "We have observed that over the past five years, consumers, practitioners, and regulators have increasingly focused on scientific concepts, formulations, substance content, and efficacy evidence, among other technical details in products."

Zhang Xuguang believes that companies need to build a complete technology-market system that organically integrates the innovation and R&D ends of the market with the consumer end. This would help the successful market transformation of innovative products and also enhance the development level of the entire industry. This implies that traditional sales and marketing methods still need to be further improved to adapt to the new technology-market system.

Enterprises enhance the nutritional value and quality of their products through technological innovation, thereby standing out in fierce market competition. This is highly beneficial for the high-quality development of the entire nutrition and health industry. However, at the same time, the phenomenon of "sales-assisting" scientific bandwagoning has also become a significant issue that cannot be ignored.

Qi Peilin, Vice President of the China Nutrition and Health Food Association and Head of Business Access at Hikma Pharmaceuticals China, believes that some new technologies can be transformed into effective and timely regulatory measures. Additionally, the development of digitalization and personalization is crucial. By establishing knowledge graphs and artificial intelligence in related fields, it can help the public obtain genuine, rapid, effective, advanced, and scientifically verified nutrition and health knowledge.

New Growth Points

According to Euromonitor data, the global dietary supplement market size exceeded 187 billion US dollars in 2023, with an average annual compound growth rate of 6.5% over the past three years. The United States, China, and Europe remain the main markets for global nutrition and health foods, while emerging markets such as Southeast Asia are also gradually emerging.

In recent years, under the gradually saturated competition in the infant formula and dairy markets, the health food industry has higher gross margins and larger market growth space. The rise of the big health industry has undoubtedly made nutritional health products a must-contest territory.

As a nutrition and health food company, Wei Yanqing, Executive President of Ausnutria (China), said that driven by the corporate vision of "becoming the world's most trusted formula milk powder and nutrition and health company," Ausnutria is gradually transitioning from an infant formula milk powder company to a high-value comprehensive nutrition company. Ausnutria looks forward to fully leveraging its strategic layout advantages in global R&D, production, and supply chain in the wave of industry development, striving to be a participant, promoter, and leader in the industry.

Currently, Ausnutria has established a "1+6+N" global R&D system in China, Europe, Australia, and other places, forming a life-stage nutrition care system covering infant formula, health foods, special medical foods, personalized nutrition products, and services. Its innovative R&D not only leads products towards diversified development but also further promotes the personalized development of the industry. For example, nutritional products developed for specific groups (such as infants, the elderly, athletes, etc.) not only meet their basic nutritional needs but also have specific health functions such as enhancing immunity, promoting digestion, and reducing cholesterol.

Mengniu Group directly released the research results of plant extracts for regulating blood sugar health at this forum. The results were discovered by the Peking University Medicine-Mengniu Group Nutrition and Metabolic Health Joint Laboratory. Based on the new target of blood sugar regulation through microbial host isozyme, the research systematically completed the screening and verification of more than 400 new blood sugar-lowering raw materials, developing a new type of plant extract with microbial DPP4 inhibitory effects.Bian Zhenjia believes that although the health food market is growing, special food companies in various segments are facing tough challenges. In terms of health food, against the backdrop of a comprehensive acceleration of review speed, companies need to deal with a series of challenges such as faster promotion of innovative product research and development registration, shortening the approval cycle, and occupying the high ground of new function declaration; at the same time, companies should also find the right path, seek differentiated competition, and break the internal volume situation.