Not for the purpose of treatment, but related to disease. Make clear the concept of health food

Source: on July 1 of this year, measures for the administration of registration and filing of health food (hereinafter referred to as the "measures") were put into effect in China food journal Compared with the "measures for the registration and management of health food" (Trial Implementation) "which has been implemented for 10 years, the" measures "not only adds the filing content according to the requirements of the food safety law, but also has an obvious difference, that is, although the food safety law emphasizes the registration and management of health food as a special food, the" measures "has not said anything about health food from the beginning to the end So an embarrassing phenomenon appeared: in the current laws and regulations, there is no definition of health food What's the function of health food? What's the relationship between health food and disease treatment? What's the difference between health food and medicine? These problems once again aroused the thinking of the industry The concept of efficacy health food has not been clearly stated According to the insiders, the measures does not define health food, because this definition is to be written in the regulations for the implementation of the food safety law However, the regulations on the implementation of food safety law has not been published in time, thus forming a vacuum period for the definition of health food regulations At present, the definition of health food is based on the national food safety standard health food (GB 16740-2014): "food that claims and has specific health function or aims to supplement vitamins and minerals It is not only suitable for specific people to eat, but also has the function of regulating the body, not for the purpose of treating diseases, and does not produce any acute, subacute or chronic harm to the human body " In addition, the regulations for the implementation of food safety law (Revised Draft for comments) published by the State Food and drug administration has such a definition for health food: "health food refers to the food that claims to have health care function or to supplement vitamins, minerals and other nutrients for the purpose of regulating human function, not for the purpose of treating diseases, containing specific functional components, suitable for special purposes It should be eaten by a certain number of people and a certain amount of food " Although the definition has not been officially released, it can be considered as the basic attribute of health food The relevant provisions in the measures are also based on these attributes But these definitions of health food do not make the concept of health food clear Jia Yaguang, vice president of China Health Care Association, said that according to the traditional saying, health food refers to the tonic products that can strengthen the body and the conditioning products that have therapeutic effects on some diseases Before the "health food management measures" was issued in 1996, consumers understood and consumed health food according to such a simple concept After the legal concept of health food was established in 1996, another health medicine and health food coexisted for 8 years, which caused many people to blur the difference between food and medicine The definition of "not for the purpose of treating disease" in the existing health food also links the health food with the disease in an inexplicable way In the concept of health food, there are three key descriptions: "specific health function", "suitable for specific people" and "not for the purpose of treating diseases" In fact, there is a certain relationship between health food and disease treatment Normal people can use these products to improve their health status and reduce the risk of disease If the patients use these products well, they can improve the efficacy of health enhancing drugs According to statistics, 75% of the population is in sub-health status, and these people are the "specific population" who need health food Therefore, although health food is not the basic necessities of life, it plays an important role in improving the health level and quality of life of sub-health people and reducing the risk of disease This is the "specific health care function" of health food or its relationship with disease treatment Guo Haifeng, Deputy Secretary General of China Nutrition and health food association, said that theoretically, any food has certain functionality All health food and many ordinary food contain substances that are beneficial to human health Many raw materials used in the formula of health food are substances that can be used as medicine, but the content of these ingredients is not up to the level of medicine, so naturally There is no therapeutic effect People always regard health care function as curative effect Consumers often ask the following questions: does this health food work? "Work" is the consumer's demand for health food Its original intention is that my body has discomfort symptoms, can I improve after eating this health food? This demand violates the nature of health food It needs to be emphasized that in reality, there are indeed cases of "effective use" of health food, but this is only a case without scientific evaluation and lack of scientific basis A person who has adverse symptoms has improved the symptoms of health food It can be said that the food contains functional ingredients for the disease, but it is impossible to say the dose-response relationship between these ingredients and the treatment of the disease; it can be said that eating a certain food improves the symptoms of a certain disease, but it is impossible to say the pharmacological effect of the food and the mechanism of the treatment of the disease Since the implementation of "health food management measures" in 1996, the concept of health food has existed for 20 years During this period, laws and regulations have been continuously improved, and the registration and approval system has been adjusted several times, but the regulatory means have been lagging behind the upgrading of health consumption At present, more than 16000 domestic and imported health food products have been approved in China However, problems in the supervision of health food industry, such as functional limitations, cumbersome examination and approval, expensive costs, claimed restrictions, etc., have been bothering the health food industry In such an environment, enterprises are not willing to pass on the correct idea that "health food cannot cure disease" to consumers On the contrary, for the sake of profit, they are willing to treat health food as drug consumption Improper marketing creates a pain point by taking advantage of consumption mistakes "Shushi" phosphatidylserine · tablet pressing candy produced by Shandong baianrui biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd is a common food, but it claims to be "the first in China, the leading in the world", "improve memory, alleviate brain fatigue, and prevent amnesia" A health food named "Baibang brand garlic seabuckthorn oil soft capsule" has been approved with the health function of "enhancing immunity", but it claims to have effect on cardiovascular system and other diseases It has become a more common illegal phenomenon to claim that food is regarded as medicine According to the insiders, service marketing is an effective sales mode of health food, facing mostly the frail and sick elderly These old people are most concerned about eliminating their own suffering caused by diseases The most effective way of communication for them is to say that their diseases can be treated by health food in various ways to meet their "effective" demands There is no doubt that it is illegal for food to say curative effect Food safety law clearly points out that: food refers to all kinds of finished products and raw materials for human consumption or drinking, as well as articles that are both food and traditional Chinese medicine according to the tradition, but does not include articles for the purpose of treatment Article 73 of the food safety law stipulates that the contents of food advertisements shall be true and lawful, shall not contain false contents, and shall not involve the functions of disease prevention and treatment Article 79 provides that: in addition to complying with the provisions of Article 73 of this law, health food advertisements shall also state that "this product cannot replace drugs"; its contents shall be examined and approved by the food and Drug Administration of the people's Government of the province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the central government where the manufacturer is located, and the approval documents for health food advertisements shall be obtained The concept innovation tells us that the phenomenon of the huge contrast between health food and health demand is that health food science popularization or vacuum zone Many consumers do not know what is health food, the difference between health food and ordinary food and medicine, and the connotation of health food registration and approval In the face of health food, consumers can not eat, dare not eat These blind areas naturally become the space for illegal people to walk Jia Yaguang said that to let consumers understand the nature and role of health food, the key lies in the change of the concept of regulatory authorities The first is to allow enterprises to describe the relationship between health food and disease in a legal way, at least allowing them to say more about their functions Now there are many products talking about the function of functional ingredients in labels and instructions Instead of letting enterprises work hard to wipe the edge, it's better to give an open and standardized policy Secondly, we should vigorously promote science popularization, so that consumers can understand that many products that can cure diseases are not health food Real health food is regulated and regulated, and the vast majority of them will not illegally claim the therapeutic effect Industry insiders pointed out that the illegal claims of health food mainly come from marketing communication How to accurately describe the relationship between product and disease is the key It is an effective way to reduce the illegal claims of products by standardizing marketing terms and spreading correct knowledge of health concept to consumers in a scientific manner After decades of development, the health food industry has produced a number of excellent and powerful brand enterprises, they have begun to actively resist illegal acts Gather the resource advantages of these large enterprises together, do a good job in public science popularization, and tell consumers the true attributes of health food The promotion of integrity quality and scientific spirit will generate positive energy to promote the healthy growth of the industry, and the illegal acts of exaggerating publicity will be reduced.