We are familiar with food and health food, but what are special dietary foods and foods for special medical purpose (FSMP). Many people do not know what type of foods are special dietary foods and special medical foods, and how are they different from health foods?


I. Food and health food

Food: refers to all things for people to use or drink. The main function is to satisfy hunger and satisfy human nutritional needs.

Health food: Broadly speaking, health food is a part of the food category, which is suitable for specific people to take. It can be used to regulate body function, enhance immunity, improve sub-health status, and reduce the risk of disease. However, health food is completely different from drugs in terms of production process and curative effect. Health food is not a drug. It is not aimed at curing diseases and cannot contain or imply a therapeutic effect on the package label.

Briefly speaking, health food emphasizes specific health functions, while food emphasizes nutritional ingredients.

The "blue hat" is a special mark for health food in China. Below the mark are the approval number and the approval department. The batch number approved before 2003 is "卫食健字", and the batch number approved after 2003 is "国食健字".


II. Special dietary food and Food for Special Medical Purpose

1. Special dietary food

Special dietary foods: refer to foods specially processed or formulated to meet special dietary needs under special physical or physiological conditions and diseases and disorders.

Contains 4 categories:

A. Infant formula food

The product implementation standards are: GB10765-2010 National Food Safety Standard, Infant Formula.

GB10767-2010 National Food Safety Standard, Formulas for Older Infants and Young Children.

B. Supplementary foods for infants and young children

The product implementation standards are: GB10769-2010 National Food Safety Standard, Cereal Complementary Food for Infants and Young Children, and GB22570-2014 National Food Safety Standard, Complementary Food Nutrition Supplements.

C. Formula foods for special medical purposes

D. Other special dietary foods

Such as: sports nutrition, the product implementation standard is: GB24154-2015 National Food Safety Standard, General Rules for Sports Nutrition Food.

2. Formula foods for special medical purposes

Formula foods for special medical purposes (FSMP) are one of the special dietary products.

FSMP: for those with digestive and absorption disorders, metabolic disorders, or specific diseases that have special needs for a nutritious diet, they need to be eaten under the guidance of a doctor.

After the implementation of the "Regulations for the Registration of Formulas for Special Medical Purposes" on July 1, 2016, FSMP have been separated from the management of special dietary products and have independent registration management, product standards and production specifications.

According to different applicable people, FSMP can be divided into two categories:

A. Special medical purpose infant formula suitable for people aged 0-12 months

The product implementation standard is: GB25596-2010 National Food Safety Standard, General Rules for Special Medical Purpose Infant Formula.

B. Formula food for special medical purposes suitable for people over 1 year old

Including: full nutritional formula food, specific full nutritional formula food, non-full nutritional formula food.

The product implementation standard is: GB29922-2013 National Food Safety Standard, General Rules for Formulas for Special Medical Purposes.

Full nutritional formula food: can be used as a single source of nutrition to meet the nutritional needs of the target population.

Specific full nutritional formula food: It can be used as a single source of nutrition to meet the nutritional needs of the target population under specific diseases. Such as: full nutritional formula food for tumors, trauma, infection, surgery and other stress conditions, full nutritional formula food for inflammatory bowel disease, full nutritional formula food for food protein allergy, complete nutrition for gastrointestinal tract malabsorption, pancreatitis Formula food, full nutrition formula food for obesity, fat reduction surgery, etc.

Non-full nutritional formula food: can meet part of the nutritional needs of the target population and is not suitable for use as a single source of nutrition.

III. The difference between Special dietary food and FSMP

Special dietary foods and FSMP have obviously different focuses. The medical nature of FSMP is obvious. It focuses on medical treatment, focuses on disease-targeted development, and emphasizes the use under the guidance of doctors or nutritionists. special dietary food is mainly researched and developed according to the nutritional needs of life, which is closer to ordinary food, but the nutritional elements are more targeted.

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Business Division of Food Safety and Regulatory Compliance of Global Foodmate provides food standards & regulations research, labelling compliance consulting/Chinese label design, industry public opinion monitoring and analysis, registration services (of Infant formula, FSMP, Health food, Novel Food Ingredients, Novel Food Additives, New Varieties of Food-Related Products and Overseas manufacturers of imported food) and other comprehensive food safety solutions for domestic and overseas enterprises and institutions in food industry.