On October 30th, the 2^rd China Health Food Conference hosted by the China Nutrition and Health Food Association was held in Beijing. In the keynote speech, Bian Zhenjia,the president of the China Nutrition and Health Food Association, said that the opportunities and challenges of the health food industry coexist, and the development of health food should follow the six principles.
 

At present, there are two major problems that have plagued the health food industry. One is that there are many controversies about the current functional evaluation criteria for health foods, and another problem is marketing exaggeration and fraud.

For the future development of the health food industry, opportunities and challenges are going to coexist in the new era. First of all, the purchasing power of the people in China has increased significantly, which has noticable  increased investment in personal health care. As disposable income has increased year by year, China's per capita health care spending has also grown rapidly. The average consumption of health foods by Chinese consumers is quite different from that of developed countries such as Europe, America and Japan. The growth of China's health food market has a huge potential.
 

Bian Zhenjia believes that China's health food development should follow the six principles.
 

First, improve scientific and technological support and promote independent technology innovation. Track international health foods to accelerate the frontier of technology and industry, enhance the independent innovation of the health food industry, integrate innovation and introduce the ability to absorb and re-innovate. Actively adopt high-tech and advanced technologies to improve the quality of the development of the health food industry, accelerate the promotion and application of scientific and technological achievements and the pace of the industry, and improve the scientific and technological content of health food.
 

Second, Focus on nutrition structure, development of natural nutrition and health food. Following the guidance of nutrition science and medical science, health food manufacturers shall pay attention to retaining the inherent nutrients of health foods, optimizing the nutritional structure of products, improving the quality of processed nutritious foods, and meeting the growing nutritional and health needs of the people.
 

Third, the government shall regulate the market environment and maintain fair competition. With the support system consisting of various measures such as laws, regulations and policies, health food manufacturers will manage their business in a fair market environment, with safeguarded and guaranteed legitimate rights and interests of investors, producers and intellectual property owners of the health food industry, and promote the healthy development of the health food industry.
 

Fourth, highlight a variety of advantages and promote the health food industry to rapid development. First, follow the laws of the market economy, take the comparative advantages between different regions, accelerate the capital and technical personnel and other factors, move to the advantageous production areas and advantageous industries, promote industrial extension, and cultivate health food clusters. The second is to highlight the advantages of traditional culture and promote the enrichment and development based on the elements of health care in China.
 

Fifth, improve the core competitiveness and cultivate well-known brands. We will use various effective methods such as effective industrial policies and scientific management methods to improve the competitiveness of China's health food industry and strive to cultivate and build the competitiveness of the health food industry. Provide necessary support and protection to enterprises with regional and national well-known trademarks, do a good job in trademark promotion, and enhance their brand value. Encourage and support Chinese companies to participate in international competition, open up international markets, and strive to create well-known brands of international health food.
 

Sixth, adhere to an environmental friendly development. Health food manufacturers will comprehensively establish the concept of circular economy, improve the comprehensive utilization level of resources, use efficiency, ensure the utilization of resources and sustainable development, and strive to develop deep processing of resources and effectively extend the industrial chain.

Please note: Original article of Global Foodmate of Information Service and Business Department, please indicate the source from the Global Foodmate if reprint.