Clarify probiotic product definitions and establish a unified framework for the industry.

Zhang Yuchen Wang Cuizhu Zhang Cong, a reporter for this newspaper. With the improvement of people's health consciousness, "probiotics" is no longer a strange term. Currently, the latest and most authoritative official definition of probiotics comes from the 2002 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization - probiotics are living microorganisms that are beneficial to host health when sufficiently replenished. Although China's probiotic industry started late, but the development is relatively rapid, in 2010 China's probiotic products market size of about 22.2 billion yuan, by 2017 has risen to 55.3 billion yuan, an annualized growth rate of 17%. If this growth rate is maintained, China's probiotic products are expected to reach 142 billion yuan in 2023 market size.data show that in China's probiotic market raw materials, the United States DuPont and Denmark Cohansen two companies accounted for about 85% of the share, only four companies in the country's output value of more than 10 million. In terms of application, about 85.9% of probiotic applications into the general food field, about 8.6% into the field of health care products and pharmaceuticals, about 5.6% of probiotics circulating in the food industry production process, about 78.4% of probiotics into the field of fermented dairy products, many of the above areas are an important driving force for the growth of China's probiotic industry. Health food (dietary supplements), China's market is dominated by foreign brands, a large number of foreign finished products through cross-border e-commerce channels into China - according to 2017 Taobao data, Australian brand life-space accounted for the entire cross-border probiotic product sales of 47.36 percent. Domestic industry as a whole started late, regulatory restrictions and the mass market awareness of probiotic products lag behind the development of domestic probiotic finished products lag behind foreign countries.At the first China International Probiotics Industry Exchange Forum held on June 18 at Regal World East Asia Hotel in Shanghai, George Paraskevakos, Executive Director of the International Probiotic Association ("IPA"), gave an overview of the industry, gave a presentation on the different developments of probiotics in International and China and the market situation of probiotics themselves, and shared with guests the work and research results of the IPA Association in recent years.market situation of probiotics in Chinarecent years, the probiotic industry has developed rapidly. According to data from the probiotic branch of the Chinese Academy of Food Science and Technology, the global probiotic product market has maintained a high growth trend since 2005, with a growth rate of about 10% to 15%, with the probiotic market in the Asia-Pacific region performing well. Recently, the global share of probiotic consumption in Asia Pacific has expanded further, to 47%, well above the 22% in Europe, 16.5% in North America and 6.5% in the Middle East. In terms of global market conditions in 2018, the total retail value of probiotics is about $44 billion, up from $38 billion five years ago. From within the industry, probiotic supplement market is broad, the market share is about 13%, the development is on the rise and the market share growth rate is accelerating.. George Paraskevakos explains that the IPA Association is committed to expanding probiotic programs with regulators in food-related fields in various countries, and has established offices of the International Probiotic Association around the world, proposing educational programs for health managers and consumers, and publishing numerous articles on probiotic topics. As an international non- government, non-profit organization, the IPA Association's research content is all-inclusive - has been committed to promoting the development of the entire probiotic ecological chain upstream and downstream industries. Currently, the Association has more than 100 member companies from more than 30 countries around the world in all fields of the probiotic industry, with more than 1,900 scientists, researchers, scholars and other stakeholders focused on research and development in probiotic research. This fits well with the IPA Association's vision of providing references for the probiotic industry, promoting the safe and effective consumption of probiotics worldwide, promoting the establishment of industry standards for probiotics, becoming recognized by global regulators as an authority on probiotics, and allowing end users to learn more about probiotics."China's probiotic market started late, but the pace and potential of development can not be underestimated, from known data can be found that China's probiotic market sales from 47% of the Asia-Pacific market in 2018 to 53% in 2019. China's probiotic industry is just taking off, IPA hopes to actively integrate into the Chinese market, to help Chinese enterprises jointly deal with the problems facing the probiotic industry. George Paraskevakos said with great anticipation when talking about the development of our probiotic industry.probiotics?probiotics are active microorganisms that are beneficial to the host by probiotics that change the composition of a particular part of the host's microbiome through their adjudication in the human body. It promotes nutrient absorption by regulating the host mucosa's immune function with the system's immune function or regulating the balance of the gut microbiome, resulting in a single microorganism or a clear mix of microorganisms that are beneficial to the host's health." countries' definitions of probiotics are mostly based on those of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization, which also leads to differences in their specific probiotic guidelines when formulating probiotic-related policies. George Paraskevakos continued, "Different understandings of definitions vary from country to country in terms of probiotic safety, and the question of whether 'microbes are beneficial' is understood to be that microorganisms that are beneficial to the human body are not necessarily probiotics."In daily life, the popular familiar with traditional products such as yogurt tablets, its product labels can enable buyers to see the food contains bacteria, and now many non-traditional products are also marked to contain probiotics, but whether the product contains probiotics is not known - many products do not actually contain probiotics, because of the definition of ambiguity, many businesses take the opportunity to label "contain probiotics" and other words to attract consumers. This behavior not only reduces the user experience, but also has many disadvantages to government regulation, and even has an impact on the entire food market. "In short, the development of the probiotic industry as a whole is positive to the good, but probiotics can not cover a hundred diseases, enterprises should be careful to use probiotics, government departments should also be clear interpretation of probiotics." For probiotics to be rolled out in different countries, companies should pay attention to the country's policies and requirements and confirm that the product is eligibe for sale in that country. George Paraskevakos concluded.Science-level probiotics There are currently more than 21,000 articles, literatures and reviews on probiotics worldwide, and their research focuses on the effects of probiotics on gastrointestinal and health, as well as the current focus on the use of probiotics in pharmaceuticals. It can be seen that the study of probiotics is almost consistent in scientific cognition and understanding. Since the discovery of probiotics, their role in human health has been a hot topic of research. In recent years, some functions of probiotics have been scientifically confirmed, and various probiotic products on the market have been emerging, as representative products of probiotic dairy products have gradually become the "new favorite" of modern human health. However, from a professional point of view, the safety and effectiveness of probiotics are always worthy of consideration and research, and the mechanism of improving the balance of gut bacteria is still an important hot research topic in the academic field.research, enterprises need to think about how scientific research should be used and transformed into commercial services. At present, the probiotic market regulatory environment is complex and chaotic, countries in the WHO (World Health Organization) on the basis of the definition of probiotics developed a variety of regulations, guidelines and frameworks, its use of probiotics are different, identified different, which will affect consumer understanding of probiotics. "The IPA hopes to improve this chaotic situation, fully understand the results of practical applications, strengthen communication with the government, and understand its views on the commercialization of industry and theory." "In Canada, for example, it was the first government department IPA communicated between 2009 and 2010 and received good feedback - the Canadian government established probiotic safety standards and evaluated companies to issue safety statements to demonstrate the reliability of their products," says George Paraskevakos. "With Canada as a success story, the United States, Brazil, and parts of Europe have established communication and cooperation with the IPA Association to promote the labeling of probiotics and the popularization of probiotic education among users, thereby helping countries to establish probiotic lists., as in Argentina, has established a special committee of experts and defined probiotics, and has established professional agreements and frameworks for the commercialization of probiotics. In addition, the Government of Argentina has taken the initiative to engage with the Codex Alimentarius Commission and to enact a series of non-mandatory, non-dominant principles and frameworks to promote cogeneration of national regulatory measures. However, this work is difficult and involves multi-national legislation, so it will take a long consultation and discussion to bring national laws into agreement. Of course, such unification will have a huge positive impact on the probiotic industry, helping to reduce the regulatory blind spots and definition confusion between manufacturers and regulations, and will certainly become a model for the industry.meanwhile, IPA Association members actively communicated with our government and enterprises to discuss the future direction of
food additives
and their industries, and introduced the Canadian government's more successful industry model. In the future, IPA will promote the cooperation between the General Administration of Market Supervision and Administration and the Government of Canada to establish coordinated regulations. George Paraskevakos said, "IPA hopes to complete a series of white papers to educate people about probiotics, ultimately to reduce health care costs, improve the health and well-being of citizens, and promote the long-term health of China's probiotic industry." "
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