Grasp the core of nutrition to provide optimal solutions to children's dietary problems

Reporter Wang Wei

Relevant data show that in recent years, the compound annual growth rate of China's infant food market has exceeded 20%.

Behind this figure is the comprehensive improvement of living standards and the development level of the food industry, as well as the reshaping of the diet concept of the new generation of parenting parents and the new demand
for children's reasonable diet under the fast-paced pace of life.
The new consumption demand of children's dietary nutrition has stimulated the development of many subdivisions of
children's related dietary products, including children's meals and children's snacks.
How to choose meals scientifically for children has become a stronger demand
for more and more parenting parents.
The recently released White Paper on Children's Reasonable Diet Industry (hereinafter referred to as the "White Paper") focuses on children's reasonable diet research, and decodes how children eat reasonably through
a large number of data and related cases.
The White Paper was jointly drafted and compiled
by the China Food Circulation Association, the Institute of Food and Nutrition Development of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and the infant and child health food enterprise "Woxiaobud".
Recently, the reporter interviewed the main person in charge of drafting the White Paper and relevant experts in the industry to discuss the issues of
child nutrition and industrial development.

Children's nutritional problems are prominent

The nutritional problems of children in our country should not be underestimated
.
In response to the reasonable diet of children in China, in January 2022, the China Food Circulation Association and the Institute of Food and Nutrition Development of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs jointly conducted a survey, and the infant and child health food enterprise "Woxiaobud" also participated
.
The survey results show that the average daily dietary energy intake of children and adolescents aged 12-17 in China is 1995.
0 kcal, carbohydrate intake is 253.
8 grams, fat intake is 84.
5 grams, and protein intake is 61.
4 grams
.
Compared with Europe, the United States, Japan and other countries and regions, the daily energy and carbohydrate intake of children in China is similar, but the fat intake is high and the protein intake is low
.
Although the nutritional status of children in China has been continuously improved, there is still a certain gap
between their dietary diversification and nutritional structure and reasonable state.
In particular, some preschool children have outstanding problems such as overnutrition, insufficient nutrition and micronutrient deficiency due to unreasonable dietary structure and incorrect eating behavior
.

Tong Qigen, a professor at the School of Food Science and Engineering of Beijing Agricultural University, said that from the current point of view, the problems of thinness, obesity, myopia, precocious puberty and autism caused by factors such as diet and living habits in China's children are on the rise
.
Therefore, it is necessary and meaningful
to carry out more in-depth research on children's nutritional diet for the healthy growth of children at different stages of development, children with developmental deviations or underlying diseases.
Carrying out research on children's nutritional diet can provide scientific theoretical support for children's healthy growth, and can scientifically supply nutrients
for different stages of children's development.

He Jihong, president of the China Food Circulation Association, one of the drafters of the White Paper, also pointed out that the research purpose of the White Paper is to promote children's health
by promoting a reasonable diet.
She said that on the one hand, it arouses the attention of the industry, society and parents to children's reasonable diet; On the other hand, it is also to guide us to better carry out the work related to children's reasonable diet in the next step
.

Laying a Solid Foundation We still need to make greater efforts to develop the industry

From the perspective of the market, the public's attention to "children's food" is increasing
.
According to a survey, in a survey of 2003 parents, 86.
2% of respondents usually pay special attention to products marked with the word "children's food" when buying food for their children, and 84.
8% of the interviewed parents are more inclined to buy "children's food"
for their children.
During this year's National Two Sessions, more deputies and members put forward suggestions to establish and improve the "children's food" standard system and guide the "children's food" industry from development to standardization
.

Xu Haiquan, director of the Institute of Food and Nutrition Development of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, pointed out that on the basis of analyzing the development of children's diet industry, the White Paper innovatively puts forward new trends in the development of children's diet industry, including dietary design nutrition upgrade, food quality assurance upgrade, management standardization development, dietary portability development and sustainable development, pointing out the direction for children's diet improvement and industrial development
。

For the development of children-related foods, Tong Qigen said that China's children's dietary products market is still in its infancy and is generally on a reasonable development track, but some of the products should not be avoided with many gimmicks and high prices
.
In his view, children's food is a new concept, and there are fewer relevant standards in the overall industry, which is not conducive to future development
.
At the same time, the basic research on the differentiation of nutrition and safety required by children and adolescents at different stages is insufficient, which also leads to the lack of targeting of individual products currently on the market
.

Tong Qigen emphasized that there is a certain amount of market demand for children's dietary products, which need to be effectively regulated and managed
.
Groups and enterprises should be encouraged to formulate scientific and high-quality standards for children's dietary products to ensure the healthy development of
the market.
At the same time, manufacturers of children's dietary products should also increase talent training and scientific research investment, conduct research on product formulas and processes, and make high-quality children's dietary products
.

According to Fang Xiujuan, founder and CEO of Wo Xiaoya brand, the current demand for professional children's dietary products on the consumer side is becoming increasingly urgent, and the urbanization process and the two-child policy also provide huge space
for the development of the children's meal market.
She stressed that children's catering needs not only to pay attention to the quality of meals, but also to cater to children's eating pleasure, while meeting the needs of convenient and fast food processing or cooking
.

Food education first, learn to choose "better"

In terms of children's dietary satisfaction, families usually choose to give "the best for children"
.
In this regard, Tong Qigen believes that the two attributes of "good" in children's food are nutritional safety attributes and pleasure attributes
.
Parents, adolescents and children should know some about food nutrition and safety
.
When buying food, you do not choose the most expensive, but choose the most suitable for yourself
.
He stressed that society should carry out necessary popular science education, especially the education of primary and secondary school students, and increase "food education" education
in quality education.

For food education, Xu Haiquan believes that it is necessary to give full play to the main responsibility of families, schools and all parties in society, transmit scientific dietary nutrition concepts to children, and cultivate good eating habits
.
At the same time, according to the characteristics of children's nutritional needs, we should develop meal products
that can better promote the healthy development of children.

The first step in meeting children's needs is taste
.
In order to solve the contradiction between "nutrition" and "delicious", Fang Xiujuan's team has been trying for many years to integrate more natural ingredients into products through technology and innovative processes to meet diversified consumer needs
.

Fang Xiujuan said that the sooner food education is carried out, the sooner it can help children resist "all kinds of temptations"
.
At the beginning of the establishment of the operation team, "Nest Little Buds" created an IP food education team to firmly adhere to the scientific research path of children's reasonable diet principles and the "1357" balanced diet rule, and obtained a number of research results
based on this.
Fang Xiujuan said that there is no doubt that nutritional knowledge is boring, so nest small shoots combined with IP food education animation, effectively combining boring concepts with vivid and interesting animated short films, making the dissemination of theoretical knowledge easy to understand
.
In order to further consolidate the concept of "first" food education, Wo Xiaoya has carried out pure public welfare food education work with many schools, and plans to increase the promotion of food education in the future, set up a nutrition publicity group, go to schools and children's hospitals to carry out knowledge publicity, and popularize the concept of
food education to more families.

Xu Haiquan emphasized that the children's food industry not only needs to provide more child-friendly food by improving market standards, but also needs excellent children's food enterprises to improve their professional ability to promote food education, and gradually achieve the goal
of supplying high-quality food in the market and scientific consumption choices.
Consumers should also further improve their own nutritional and health quality, learn to improve children's dietary conditions through the perspective of reasonable and diverse diets, and master the methods of selecting children's foods suitable for their children, so as to promote children to develop reasonable dietary patterns
.

Preliminary review: Li Song Responsible editor: Zhang Jiazhen Review: Peng Zonglu