"Leading product production with consumer demand, vigorously improving market momentum, and helping the optimization and upgrading of the fermented food industry with biotechnology innovation, so as to achieve the goal of empowering a healthy China with biological fermentation." At the 2022 Wudaokou Food Salon and Fermented Food Industry Development Seminar hosted by the Regulatory Research Center, the participating experts reached a consensus on the future development direction of the fermented food industry after thorough discussions.

Enzyme products market is becoming more and more popular

　　According to Zhang Yongjian, director of the Food and Drug Industry Development and Supervision Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, fermented food refers to food processed and manufactured by people using beneficial microorganisms and has a unique flavor. Consumers prefer to obtain healthy ingredients when choosing food.

　　In recent years, the scientific research and innovation of fermented food has been active, which has promoted the rapid development of the fermented food industry.

At present, the fermented food industry is no longer limited to improving production efficiency through bacterial culture, screening and process improvement, but more research on the health attributes of fermented products, and has spawned a large number of products that are favored by consumers, including probiotics, Enzymes and other products meet the growing health needs of consumers.

　　According to Lu Tao, Secretary-General of the Enzyme Industry Branch of China Biological Fermentation Industry Association, in the past 10 years, my country's enzyme industry has been in a stage of rapid development, and the enzyme product market has become increasingly popular.

In 2011, the size of my country's enzyme market was only 380 million yuan.

By 2019, the market size has reached more than 20 billion yuan.

In the past 8 years, the market size has increased by more than 50 times.

　　In 2021, among the top 10 categories of general dietary nutritious foods on the Tmall platform with year-on-year growth, in terms of year-on-year incremental transaction volume, enzyme foods will rank third, second only to vitamins and probiotic foods.

In recent years, with the improvement of research and development strength and the reputation of domestic brands, fermented food companies such as Tomson By-Health and Zimeitang have grown rapidly.

Health Demand Drives Industrial Innovation

　　Professor Ji Baoping from the School of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University said that the key to the development of fermented food is functional strains, functional ingredients, functional evaluation, fermentation process, sensory quality, and shelf life.

The development of the fermented food industry must be based on scientific research, and market promotion and dissemination need the support of scientific research data.

　　Lu Tao emphasized that enzyme food has good health attributes and is suitable for supplementary nutrition for sub-healthy people.

In Europe, America, Japan and other countries and regions, the popularity of enzyme food is very high, and there is huge room for development of my country's enzyme food industry.

　　"The enzyme industry has certain technical thresholds. Bacteria are the key, technology is the core, and regulations are the guarantee." Duan Shenglin, deputy director of the China Food and Fermentation Industry Research Institute, said that enzymes are divided into liquid, powder, tablet, paste and other forms , has anti-oxidation, improve immunity, improve intestinal health and other effects.

In the future, the research on the efficacy of enzyme products will focus on the characteristics of raw materials, low GI (glycemic index), intestinal health and other fields.

　　Chen Wei, deputy director and chief physician of the Nutrition Department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, said that the effect of enzymes on human health is not to treat diseases, but to promote human health by improving human metabolism.

Due to significant individual differences, different precision nutrition support programs should be adopted for different groups of people.

To achieve precise nutrition, it is necessary to strengthen basic research and technological innovation.

Standards need to be established and improved

　　Lu Tao pointed out that in recent years, the enzyme industry has been criticized due to the imperfect standard system of the enzyme industry, the inconsistent implementation standards of enterprises, and the non-standard operation of a few companies. It is urgent to establish and improve the enzyme industry standard system.

On July 1, 2019, two industry standards, "Enzyme Product Classification Guidelines" and "Plant Enzymes" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology were officially implemented, effectively promoting the healthy development of my country's enzyme industry.

　　Zhang Yongjian believes that my country should vigorously strengthen the supervision of the fermented food industry, carry out timely and effective regulation of new technologies and new products, and promote the healthy development of technologies and new products in the standard.

At the same time, it is necessary to prevent bad money from driving out good money, establish and improve the market mechanism for fermented food to survive the fittest, and create a good external environment for production and consumption.

In addition, industry associations and enterprises should vigorously strengthen the popularization of fermented foods, help consumers better choose enzymes and other new fermented foods, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

　　"my country's enzyme industry has four advantages: rich raw materials, profound technical background, national policy support, and green ecology." Lu Tao said that in the future, my country's enzyme food industry should strengthen industry self-discipline, establish benchmarking enterprises, support industry-university-research cooperation, and improve standards. system, improve product quality, promote basic research and nutritional evaluation, and actively promote the high-quality and rapid development of the enzyme food industry.