This paper analyzes statistically the product names, health functions, contents of efficacy ingredients/marking ingredients, main raw materials and other information of 4620 types of health food products that have completed registration and filing from 2013 to 2020, summarizes the data of product functions in each year, counts the efficacy ingredients, analyzes the number of products corresponding to each efficacy ingredient, and analyzes the testing standards of efficacy ingredients, with a view to pointing out the direction of the research on efficacy ingredient testing methods and standards of health food products. In order to point out the direction for the research of health food efficacy ingredient testing methods and standards.

Data source: Health food information database published on the website of the former State Administration for Market Supervision and Regulation.
Query date: As of March 1, 2020
Statistical analysis method: Excel+SPSS 17.0 statistical software.

Functions of Registered and Recorded Health Food

In April 2019, the State Administration of Market Supervision issued a notice on Soliciting Opinions on Adjusting the Health Care Functions of Health Foods, which will adjust or cancel some of the health care function claim expressions of health foods, and conduct further research and demonstration on some health care functions.

The first batch of health functions to be adjusted include immune regulation, anti-fatigue, improvement of osteoporosis, improvement of gastrointestinal function, weight loss, and cosmetology.

Health functions to be abolished include improving skin oil, promoting growth and development, promoting lactation, inhibiting tumors, and preventing youth myopia.

Health functions to be further studied and demonstrated include assisting in lowering blood lipids, lowering blood sugar, lowering blood pressure, and promoting lead excretion.

Prior to 2017, the registered and filed health food products were mainly based on nutritional supplements and immune enhancement, with nutritional supplements accounting for 41% of the total number of health food products and immune enhancement products accounting for 25% of the total number of products.

In the past two years, health food products that enhance immunity, relieve physical fatigue, help promote bone health, tolerate hypoxia, assist in improving memory, help improve sleep and other functions have gradually become mainstream.

Beauty (improve skin oil)/improve skin oil, promote growth and development/improve growth and development, promote lactation, etc. “Market Supervision Administration on the adjustment of health food health care function of the announcement” to be canceled in the number of health care functions of the product is very small.

In recent years, the number of health food products with the functions of assisting in lowering blood lipids, assisting in lowering blood sugar, assisting in lowering blood pressure and assisting in the protection of chemical liver injury, which were more popular in the previous years, has also been significantly reduced, which is consistent with the direction of the health care functions in the announcement that need to be further researched and demonstrated.

Meanwhile, health food products with 10 types of functions, such as helping to regulate intestinal flora, assisting digestion, assisting in the protection of gastric mucosa, assisting in the regulation of body fat, helping to improve melasma, assisting in the improvement of acne, assisting in the improvement of the skin’s moisture status, clearing throat and moistening the larynx, improving iron-deficiency anemia, and supplementing β-carotene which were more popular in the previous few years have also had a relatively smaller number of products in recent years, and even In recent years, there are fewer products and even no product approval for several years, which is directly related to the fact that health food consumers in China are more rational in consumption and the regulation of health food is tightened.

This is directly related to the fact that consumers in China are more rational in consuming health food products and the regulation of health food products is tightening. At the same time, the sorting out of these functions in this part of the report can also provide data support for the subsequent introduction of the consolidation of health food product functions.

Efficacy ingredients corresponding to each health function claim

The efficacy ingredients of health food are the carriers of their function claims. The same efficacy ingredient may have many different health functions, and at the same time, many different efficacy ingredients may have a specific health function claim.

By querying the health food information database, this paper categorizes and summarizes the efficacy ingredients corresponding to each function of 4620 health foods that have been registered and filed from 2013 to 2020.

In this paper, trace elements calcium, calcium, iron, zinc, selenium, magnesium, manganese, chromium, copper and molybdenum are uniformly categorized as trace elements (*), and vitamins A, vitamin D2, vitamin D3, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin B1 (thiamine hydrochloride), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B3 (niacin), niacinamide (14 kinds), vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid), vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride), vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride), and vitamin B3 (niacin). Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid), vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride), vitamin B9 (folic acid), vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin), vitamin H (biotin), vitamin K, vitamin K1, nicotinoyl uniformly categorized as vitamins (* * *), soy glycosides, soy glycosides, genistein, genistein, uniformly categorized as soybean isoflavones (* * *), has been registered in the filing of the current health food contained in the efficacy of the composition of a total of 121 kinds.

In addition to “supplementation of minerals and vitamins”, “helps to enhance immunity”, “relieves physical fatigue”, “helps antioxidants In addition to “supplementing minerals and vitamins”, “helping to enhance immunity”, “relieving physical fatigue”, “helping to resist oxidation”, “helping to improve sleep”, “assisting in lowering blood lipids”, “assisting in the protection of chemical liver damage” and other six health functions claimed to have more corresponding efficacy ingredients. With more corresponding efficacy components, indicating that these functions are more popular in the market, most of which are plant extracts, these efficacy components in a certain dosage range of health effects, but still need to further screen the corresponding health functions and corresponding efficacy components.

Corresponding function claims of each functional ingredient
Number of products, testing methods and standards

The efficacy ingredients of health food products are the characteristic ingredients contained in health food products that are stable in nature, can be accurately quantified, and have a clear correlation with the health care functions of the products, and are the main indicators of the quality of health food products. The number of corresponding products can also reflect the market recognition of the corresponding products.

At present, the quality of China’s health food market is uneven, the market is mixed and has been hovering at a low level for a long time, and the lack of testing methods for some efficacy ingredients is a major factor. In order to ensure the quality of China’s health food and promote the high-quality development of health food industry, the standard system of testing methods for efficacy ingredients of China’s health food should be improved as soon as possible.

In this paper, the health care functions corresponding to 121 kinds of efficacy ingredients are further sorted out. Except for trace elements and vitamins, other efficacy ingredients are classified into 6 categories according to their chemical structures, including fatty acids, sugars, proteins, peptides and amino acids, probiotics, extracts, etc. Among them, 11 fatty acid efficacy ingredients, 17 sugar efficacy ingredients, 17 proteins, peptides and amino acids efficacy ingredients, and 17 probiotics efficacy ingredients, etc. The efficacy ingredients of probiotics are also divided into 6 categories. There are 11 fatty acids, 17 sugars, 17 proteins, peptides and amino acids, 6 probiotics and 68 extracts.

The following summarizes and analyzes the health function claims corresponding to each type of active ingredient, the number of corresponding health food products, and the availability of testing methods and standards.

I. Fatty acids
This paper summarizes the function claims, the number of health food products, and the testing methods and standards of 11 fatty acid ingredients.

Only three efficacy ingredients, γ-linolenic acid, conjugated linoleic acid and oleic acid, have clear functional claims, while most efficacy ingredients have more functional claims, such as linoleic acid, α-linolenic acid, phospholipids, 10-hydroxy-α -decenoic acid and other functional ingredients have more than five functional claims, and the span of these functional claims is also larger. And these efficacy ingredients corresponding to the number of health food products are also more, too many functional claims there are also exaggerated propaganda, for the product and the raw material itself also has a negative impact.

At present, it is understood that DHA raw materials are only filed to assist in improving the functional claims of memory, the future involves other functional claims of DHA health food products will not be able to be filed, so fatty acids corresponding to the functional claims of raw materials also need to be considered and confirmed.

At present, in addition to the lack of γ-linolenic acid test method standards, other products have a larger number of efficacy components have the corresponding test method standards.

Second, sugar
This paper summarizes the functional claims, the number of health food products, and the testing method standards corresponding to the 17 sugar-based efficacy ingredients.

Among them, crude polysaccharide as a complex ingredient has the most functional claims and product quantity, while some small molecules such as glucosamine, oligofructose, oligo xylose, oligo isomaltose, etc. also have a broader product base. At the same time, the table also reflects that, in addition to xylo-oligosaccharides, the number of products with a large number of sugar efficacy ingredients are basically equipped with the corresponding testing method standards, only some more niche sugar efficacy ingredients lack of corresponding testing method standards, to be further evaluated after the development of the standard, and at the same time, should be accelerated to xylo-oligosaccharides testing method standard development work, to promote the normal development of the corresponding products.

Proteins, peptides and amino acids
This paper summarizes the 17 kinds of protein, peptide and amino acid efficacy components corresponding to the functional claims, the number of health food products, testing methods and standards.

Except for oligopeptides and proteins, most proteins, peptides and amino acids have clear functional claims. Among them, immunoglobulin (IgG), collagen and several amino acids are more popular in the market and have more product categories. There are complete standards for testing methods for each of the functional ingredients in this classification.

Probiotics
Probiotics are basically related to the protection of gastrointestinal function, and their corresponding health food products are consistent with the two most commonly used bacteria, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidum, in food. Moreover, the efficacy of each ingredient has a standardized testing method to match it.

V. Extracts
Extracts are one of the major categories of functional ingredients in health food, including extracts of plant origin and extracts of animal origin. In this part, the number of corresponding health function categories, corresponding health food product categories, and the availability of testing methods and standards of the two categories are summarized together.

In addition to total saponins, total flavonoids, total triterpenes, total anthraquinones and other complex mixture of ingredients, of which only 57% of the efficacy of the ingredients have a relatively clear functional claims, while 43% of the efficacy of the ingredients have more than 2 kinds of functional claims, especially proanthocyanidins, tea polyphenols have more than 10 kinds of functional claims, and these two efficacy of the ingredients have a greater number of types of health food products, which inevitably let consumers have the impression of false propaganda, which seriously This will inevitably give consumers the impression of false propaganda and seriously affect the reputation of the health food industry as a whole, so there is an urgent need to carry out research on the screening of functional claims of efficacy ingredients.

In addition, from the point of view of the types of health food products corresponding to the efficacy of extract ingredients, adenosine, taurine, proanthocyanidins, rhodiola rosea glycosides, chondroitin sulfate, β-carotene, tea polyphenols, Panax ginseng saponins and other efficacy of the ingredients corresponding to the types of health food products, the majority of these efficacy ingredients are derived from plant extracts, which is related to the traditional culture of China, which has emphasized the importance of health maintenance and medicinal and food products from ancient times, and the traditional culture of Chinese medicine and food from the same source. This is related to China’s traditional culture that emphasizes on health maintenance and medicine and food from the same source since ancient times, and the theory of Chinese medicine and the theory of medicinal dietary therapy are the important theoretical basis of China’s functional health food industry, and the development of the functional health food industry has the incomparable advantages of the traditional theories and practices of the western countries.

After reviewing and comparing the existing national, industry, local standards and pharmacopoeia standards, most of the common extracts of the efficacy of the ingredients have a matching test method standard, only total triterpenes, total anthraquinones, Schisandra chinensis ethyl acetate, jujube seed saponin B, schisandra chinensis methyl acetate, stilbene glycoside, tanshin, rhubarb phenol, β-sitosterol, cinnamic aldehyde, ferric ferric hemoglobin chloride, Cistanche total glycoside, 1-deoxynojirimycin 13 kinds of efficacy ingredients exist detection method standard missing, and these efficacy ingredients of total triterpenes, total anthraquinone, ferricyanide chloride, Cistanche total glycoside these four kinds of due to the large number of products, should be formulated as soon as possible, the corresponding detection method standard, to realize the quality control of the corresponding products.

To summarize, trace elements, vitamins, total saponins, crude polysaccharides and total flavonoids have the largest number of corresponding health food products because they contain a variety of efficacy ingredients. As for single efficacy ingredients, chondroitin sulfate, alanine, glucosamine, taurine, proanthocyanidins, rhodiola rosea glycosides, beta-carotene, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), tea polyphenols, collagen, coenzyme Q10 and other traditional common efficacy ingredients corresponding to the number of health food products are also higher.

Since 2017, the Health Food Review Center has organized a series of studies on health food raw materials filing directory projects, which involves the confirmation of functional claims of health food raw materials, and from the current release of the Exposure Draft, there are only 1 to 2 functional claims for health food raw materials such as coenzyme Q10, melatonin, fish oil, wall-broken ganoderma lucidum spore powder, spirulina, and so on, which also reflects the regulatory level’s concern for the current efficacy of health foods It also reflects that the regulatory level attaches importance to the problem of too many functional claims corresponding to the efficacy of health food ingredients, so it is still necessary to standardize the functional claims of the efficacy of each health food ingredient, and the manufacturers should also declare the main functional claims of the efficacy of the main ingredients in a realistic manner, and do not over-exaggerate the functions of the products, so as to promote the standardization of the market order.

After reviewing and comparing the existing national, industrial, local standards and pharmacopoeia standards, most of the common efficacy ingredients have matching testing method standards, but there are still oligosaccharides, total triterpenoids, total anthraquinones, ferricyanin chloride, Cistanchis total glycosides and other efficacy ingredients with a high degree of market acceptance that have the problem of missing testing method standards, and it is necessary to formulate the corresponding testing method standards as soon as possible, so as to realize the quality control of the corresponding products. Quality control of corresponding products should be realized by formulating corresponding testing method standards as soon as possible. Moreover, the three raw materials of Bifidobacterium longum, Lactobacillus, and Streptococcus thermophilus have only local standards at present, but no national standards or industrial standards, and the corresponding testing method standards should be formulated as soon as possible.