Promoting Food Additive Innovation and Health Industry Development

During the 2024 National People's Congress, Lu Qingguo, a deputy to the National People's Congress and the chairman and general manager of Chenguang Bio-technology Group Co., Ltd. submitted a number of proposals, including 'Promoting the development of new varieties of food additives' and 'Promoting the development of China's health industry'.

Lu Qingguo introduced that the number of approved food additives in the world is about 15,000, more than 4,000 in the United States and more than 2,300 in China. Although the number of new approvals in China has increased significantly in recent years, the varieties of food additives are still not complete, the scope of use is limited, and the overall level of development does not match the development of China's food industry, which to a large extent restricts the development of the food industry.

To promote the development of new varieties of food additives, Lu Qingguo suggests that the relevant departments should introduce policies to encourage scientific and technological innovation and cultivation of new varieties in the food additive industry, continue to improve the approval system for food additives with Chinese characteristics, optimise the existing approval procedures and processes, and simplify the approval procedures for additive varieties that already exist in foreign countries. Encourage the research and approval of new varieties of natural and green food additives, and gradually implement an approval-free system for substances that are recognised as safe for use. Food additive-related approval departments, regulatory authorities and industry associations should strengthen training and guidance on the declaration and use of new varieties of food additives, and continue to carry out guidance and popularisation of scientific and objective understanding of food additives, so as to promote the healthy development of the food additive industry.

Regarding the promotion of China's health industry, Lu Qingguo said that China's major health industry has shown rapid growth and demonstrated great market potential. However, while developing rapidly, there is still a gap between China's health industry and developed countries in Europe and the United States. The proportion of added value of China's health industry to GDP is lower than the general level of developed countries in Europe and the United States, and there is a big gap between Chinese enterprises in the innovation and research and development of the big health industry and the international advanced level, and the phenomenon of low-level repetitive production and imitation is still obvious. The resources of the industry chain are scattered and lack of effective synergy; most enterprises are small in scale, with insufficient system integration capability, and the number of leading enterprises and their influence are limited.

In this regard, Lu Qingguo suggests that the Chinese government should continue to optimise the industrial environment and provide more industrial policies to promote the rapid and sustainable development of the health industry; encourage upstream and downstream enterprises, cross-industry and other forms of co-operation to create a cluster development model of the health industry and to form synergistic effects. In particular, support and cultivate leading enterprises with potential to become the core force leading the development of the industry. The government should encourage enterprises to increase investment in R&D and enhance their innovation capability, especially in basic research on raw materials, efficacy and clinical research, so as to promote the high-quality development of the industry.