China's probiotic industry is booming.

Original title: China's probiotic industry is booming
, the concept of probiotic health has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The study of probiotics has become a hot topic in many fields, such as food science, microbiology, medicine, nutrition, immunology and intestinal health science. With the deepening of scientific research, the probiotic industry has ushered in a good era of basic research and technology application "100 competitions".
industry relies on science and technology, and the academic community is committed to the study of the health benefits of probiotics, innovative products continue to emerge. From May 24th to 26th, the 12th International Symposium on Probiotics and Health, hosted by the China Society of Food Science and Technology, was held in Hohhot. With the theme of "Probiotics: Technology and Industrialization", the conference attracted more than 300 representatives from industry authorities, academia and the business community to discuss the relationship between probiotics and human health, and how to create an effective interface between probiotic research and industrial diversification.
1, 100 billion yuan level industry ushered in a blowout development
in the hundred billion yuan level of large health industry, born with healthy genes probiotic industry, from its birth began to burst into vitality. The global probiotic market is worth about 40 billion euros, according to the latest Euromonitor international figures. Most probiotic products have formed more mature markets in developed countries. In recent years, with the domestic consumer market demand for probiotic products increased significantly, probiotic industry has also ushered in a blowout development. Related reports indicate that China's probiotic market has great prospects for development, the size of products in 2020 will be close to 85 billion yuan.
, with the deepening of scientific research and the increasing level of consumer cognition, the application of probiotic technology in the industry is more scientific and rational, and the whole industry has entered a new period of steady growth. "In 2016, China's probiotic products market was about $4.4 billion, reaching a larger capacity." Chen Wei, vice president of Jiangnan University and chairman of the probiotic branch of the China Food Science and Technology Association, said that the global consumption pattern of probiotics in 2016 continued in previous years, with the Asia-Pacific region accounting for 47%, followed by Europe (15% in Western Europe, 7% in Eastern Europe), North America (16.5%) and the Middle East (6.5%). Probiotic products have become the pioneers and explorers of the health transformation of the food industry. From the form of probiotic products, including fermented dairy products, beverages, pharmaceuticals, dietary supplements, candy snacks, oral care products, daily necessities and many other products;
industry is that consumer awareness of probiotics is increasing year by year. According to the survey, 94.6 percent of consumers surveyed considered probiotic products to be healthy foods, while 49.8 percent of consumers who needed probiotic foods. In addition, public awareness of probiotics may be skewed, but 70% of the population surveyed had knowledge about probiotics. However, only 19.9 per cent of people regularly buy probiotic products, compared with 40 per cent who are willing to consume more probiotic products. "This suggests that consumers recognize the healthy nature of probiotics and have clear consumer intentions, but further efforts are needed to translate consumer intentions into actual consumer buying behaviour." Chen Wei said.
" probiotic industry has also attracted global attention. In March, General Mills invested $6.5 million in probiotic food and beverage companies to enter the probiotic market, and DuPont Nutrition and Health has recently launched probiotic expansion programs in the U.S. and Europe to meet consumer health needs, said Yu Wei, vice president and secretary-general of the China Food Science and Technology Association.
, more and more new faces appear in the probiotic industry. Chen Wei introduced that traditional health food enterprises, such as infinite probiotic products will soon be on the market, revision, sunflower, Jiang medium traditional pharmaceutical enterprises, for health food or ordinary food form to launch probiotic products are also enthusiastic. Domestic emergence of Koto Hengtong, micro-health and other professional bacteria powder providers, some large enterprises with financial advantages in order to transform, but also functional food, probiotic products are very concerned.
2, research is getting deeper
The current probiotic industry is still probiotic food, probiotic dietary supplements and probiotic over-the-counter drugs, among which dairy products still occupy the main part. The industry's demand for differentiated competition is becoming more and more urgent, which promotes the research on probiotics in science and technology.
2016, research on intestinal micro-ecology and health continued to receive attention from the scientific and technological community, with research on probiotics and intestinal micro-ecology, probiotics and human health being the focus of academic research. Experts said that the scientific and technological community, using molecular biology, macrogenomics, probiotic genomics and other fields of technology and methods, in-depth study of digestive tract microorganisms or probiotics and host nutrition metabolism, immunity, growth and development, health, disease and product quality of the relationship and action between the process, especially through the intestinal macrogenome, the discovery of valuable microbial functional genes, and to explore, develop and use, has become the focus of basic theoretical research in recent years.
with the accelerating aging of the global population, the health relationship between probiotics and the elderly population has also attracted much attention. At the conference, researchers at Japan's LedoMoto University shared the latest research findings on the immune health benefits of probiotics in older adults, sharing the role of LcS and reducing the risk of infection and stress-stressed abdominal symptoms in the elderly population.
, scientists are actively exploring the "magical relationship" between probiotics and human emotions. With the gradual emergence of the concept of "bacterial cerebrointestinal axis", including irritable bowel syndrome, depression, autism, chronic fatigue and other neuropsycological areas, will be a new target of the probiotic market. At the meeting, Professor Tsai Yingjie of Yangming University's Institute of Chemical and Molecular Biology in Taiwan discussed the psychophysiological effects of probiotics and how the gut can begin to improve mental health and relieve symptoms such as stress, depression, anxiety and autism.
Wang Wei, Director of the Rural Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that the Ministry of Science and Technology has always attached great importance to the development and support capacity-building of china's probiotic industry, and has deployed a number of major and key projects during the 11th Five-Year Plan, the 12th Five-Year Plan and the 13th Five-Year Plan period to promote the basic research and development and industrialization of probiotics, and strive to achieve the marketization of probiotic species, fermentation agents and probiotic products with independent intellectual property rights, and strengthen the international competitiveness of probiotic products processing technology in China. He stressed that in the future, it will face the long-term strategic needs of the country, realize the systematic planning and forward-looking layout of industrial science and technology innovation, with the in-depth implementation of innovation-driven development strategy, support supply-side structural reform as the main line, and guide the development of leading industries that rely more on innovation-driven and give full play to the first-mover advantages.
3, the industry calls for standardized construction
the vibrant probiotic industry, the rapid development is also facing some difficulties and problems. Chen Wei said that the probiotic industry is currently facing the following problems. One is the lack of industry standards. At present, probiotic products a large number of solid beverages, milk powder, fruit juice and other industry standards, otherwise it will not be able to register for the record. Second, manufacturers over-exaggerate and blindly tout the function of probiotics. Probiotics are the main role of dietary conditioning and sub-health intervention, some irregular manufacturers even the function of probiotics exaggerated to be able to cure a hundred diseases. Over-touting is not conducive to the development of the industry. Third, consumer expectations of probiotic products are too high, many consumers think that probiotics have weight loss, sugar, blood pressure and many other functions. Fourth, probiotic products in the market a wide range of disputes, a coax and easy to cause a mix of fish and dragons, industry regulation is difficult to keep up. In addition, probiotic products, whether liquid or solid, it is important to ensure a certain amount of bacteria, mycobacteria. Some probiotics are sensitive and need to be stored in refrigerated conditions, which is rarely done by solid products, so there is a risk of unstable product quality.
" probiotic industry is like a fast-growing small tree, need time to grow, the industry only continue to enrich themselves, in order to grow. In order to ensure the healthy development of the probiotic industry and reap the dividends of the global probiotic research boom, China urgently needs to introduce relevant standards to guide scientific research and industrialization. According to reports, as an important raw material in the food industry, food probiotic species has been widely used in dairy products, meat products, seasonings, fermented vegetables and other types of food. At present, China's food bacteria to "list system" mode of management. In order to further standardize the management of food strains and constantly improve the national standard system for food safety, the National Health and Family Planning Commission has been formulating relevant national standards for food safety since 2013 to ensure the safety of such products. It is worth mentioning that in 2016, the "National Standard for Food Safety" standard-setting project task issued, the Chinese Food Science and Technology Association as one of the standard-setting units, actively collect industry-related data, deep participation in the writing of the standard text, and on the eve of this conference held a standard working group meeting to discuss the writing of the standard text.
4, to unblock scientific research and industry effective docking road
At present, probiotics in addition to being used in lactic acid bacteria drinks, yogurt, kimchi, in leisure food and health food, infant formula and other special foods have also been widely used. At the beginning of this year, The team of Professor Xie Mingyong of Nanchang University jointly won the second prize of national scientific and technological progress with the project "Key technology and industrialization application of fruit and vegetable probiotic fermentation". The project has made a series of breakthroughs in the key technology of probiotic fermented fruits and vegetables, and developed a new series of probiotic fermented fruits and vegetables with "safety, nutrition, deliciousness, convenience" and other distinctive characteristics, enriching the products of the probiotic market.
diversified of probiotic products, it is necessary to take solid scientific research as its solid foundation. How to unblock the effective docking road between probiotic research and industrial diversification is an important problem facing many research institutions and enterprises.
zhu Hong, vice president and general manager of research and development management center of Junlebao Dairy Group, said that "one library, one platform" is the core idea of Junlebao's strategy of promoting "probiotics plus". Through cooperation with Vanderburg University in the United States and universities and research institutions at home and abroad, such as Peking University, China Agricultural University, Sichuan University and Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, we will build a new research platform for the integration of industry, education and research. Based on this, Junlebao successfully developed three series, dozens of single products. How does the industry, science and research dock? Chen Wei said that from the long history of human diet, people and probiotics are actually a process of mutual selection, different regions, different ethnic groups of people long-term consumption of fermented milk is different, where the probiotic species also have great differences. Therefore, the diversification and localization of probiotics is of great significance. How to select and commercialize the probiotic strain suitable for Chinese people will be one of the research priorities of the probiotic industry in china in the future. At the same time, the creation and cultivation of strains is coming out of the laboratory, commercial companies then industrialization, and then expand its visibility. Foreign industry has accumulated rich experience in the selection, cultivation and industrialization of bacteria, especially the technical advantages in the application of back-end industrialization, which is worthy of reference by relevant research institutions and enterprises in China.
" good probiotic product must determine its efficacy, not exaggerate it. Chen Wei believes that at present, China's research on probiotics is mainly limited to diarrhea, constipation, allergic population, lack of strong evidence to support and clinical research, and efficacy research is essential to the development of probiotic products industry. In addition, further strengthening public information and science and technology will require the joint efforts of the scientific and technological community and the industrial sector. (Reporter Lu Yue)