On November 30, 2022, the European Commission issued Regulation (EU) 2022/2340 amending Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 1925/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council, which included green tea extracts containing (-)- epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) in restricted substance list. The Regulation has been in force since December 21, 2022, and food items that include green tea extracts containing EGCG, which do not comply with the requirements of this Regulation and were lawfully placed on the market before the entry into force of this Regulation will no longer be allowed to be on the market from June 21, 2023.

In 2022, the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China (NHC) issued three announcements for “Three New Foods” (No.1, 2022; No.2, 2022; No.5, 2022), with 75 products approved (including new food raw materials, new food additives, and products related to food). Among the 75 products, five new food raw materials were approved, these are: Kanzan flower, Pyrroloquinolinequinonedisodium (PQQ) salt, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Bifidobacterium longum subsp.longum BB536, and Sugarcane Polyphenols.

Since probiotics have become widely known in the gut health industry, terms such as prebiotics, synbiotics, and postbiotics have emerged one after another. But what do these terms actually mean? According to a survey from the Chinese Nutrition Society (CNS) in 2022, these kinds of terms are a blind spot for consumers. In particular, 66% of consumers showed no comprehension of the word postbiotics. We have prepared a brief introduction on the definitions of these terms to help you to distinguish between them.

With the increasing awareness of health, everyone attaches great importance to physical health. According to health reports, osteoarticular problems (those relating to, involving, or affecting bones and joints) have imperceptibly become one of the top ten problems plaguing national health. Osteoarticular problems are also beginning to impact younger citizens as well including those born in the 90s and even the 00s. Under such circumstances, an increasing number of people have become aware of the necessity of maintaining their bones and are willing to buy some health products with related functions for health care, among which glucosamine products are becoming the most prevalent.

In recent years, NMN (β-Nicotinamide mononucleotide) products are quite popular among businesses and consumers for its “anti-aging” function. In May 2022, SyncoZymes (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. received the first US FDA New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) approval for its NMN ingredient. Recently, however, the FDA has changed its position and stated that NMN cannot be marketed as a dietary supplement because it has been authorized for investigation as a new drug.

On October 21, 2022, China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSA) asked for public comment on Calcium β-hydroxy-β-methyl butyrate (CaHMB). The deadline for public comments is November 21, 2022. CaHMB was approved as a new food raw material in 2011, and then the scope of application was expanded in 2017. This time, the public consultation plans to expand the recommended intake from ≤3 g/ d to ≤6 g/ day.

Since 2016, China has formally proposed to carry out the "three reductions and three health" action, advocating that citizens could eat less salt, less oil, and less sugar and maintain oral health, weight health and bones health”. To encourage "sugar reduction", several government functional departments have released related policy documents, these include: On June 24, 2019, the State Council issued the Opinions on the Implementation of the Healthy China Action, and the Healthy China Action (2019-2030) at the national level, which clearly proposing the strategic goal of "sugar reduction”. The National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China also released the Health Oral Action Plan (2019-2025), further proposing the goal of “sugar reduction”. China Beverage Health Consumption Forum released the White Paper on Sugar Reduction Action for Healthy China's Beverage and Food (2021), which advocates "sugar reduction" in beverages and food.

In the past, except for registration of new enzymes produced by GMMs, other registrations of new food additives or food raw materials produced by GMMs are unacceptable by National Health Commission (NHC) in China, which means, these new food ingredients have no chance to enter the Chinese market as a food additive or food raw material. In the year of 2021, NHC opened the application channel for GMM food additives.

With the vigorous development of the nutrition and health industry in China and further standardize the licensing examination work, more and more new food raw material has been widely used after approval. The use of some approved raw materials is restricted. If enterprises want to expand the use scope, they also need to do the application in order to achieve the purpose of expanding the market.

In the first half of 2022, the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China (NHC) issued two announcements (No.1 of 2022; No.2 of 2022) in the form of ‘Three New Food’ with a total of 68 products approved, including new food raw materials (novel food), new food additives, and food-related products (new food contact substances). Among them, 5 new food raw materials (novel food) were approved.