Overview of the overall market size of the global special medical food industry
The total annual global consumption of special medical food is 56 billion to 64 billion yuan, and the market size is increasing at an annual rate of 6%. The previous clinical application practices in developed countries in Europe and America and our country have clearly shown that formula foods for special medical purposes designed through scientific research can effectively meet the nutritional needs of people with disease states, reduce their body tissue burden, and accelerate their physical recovery. At the same time, such products have good social value and economic effects, and play a positive role in reducing consumers' medical burden and reducing national medical and health expenditures.
Globally, the special medical food market is highly concentrated, and its market share is almost divided by Abbott, Danone, Nestlé, Fessen and others.
At present, many countries have formulated regulations and standards for FSMP, such as the International Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), the European Union, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, etc., and such products have been used more and more widely in countries around the world in the past 30 years.
The Chinese government emphasizes the supervision of the special medical food market
On January 3, 2020, under the guidance of the China Association for Science and Technology, hosted by the China Food Science and Technology Society, and co-organized by China Economic Net, the "2019 Food Safety and Health Hotspot Scientific Interpretation Media Communication Conference" was held in Beijing. Regarding the topic of “special medical food”, Ren Fazheng, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor of China Agricultural University, said that formula foods for special medical purposes are designed to meet the special nutritional or dietary requirements of people with restricted eating, digestion and absorption disorders, metabolic disorders, or specific disease states. If necessary, formula food prepared by special processing.
Special medical food "nutrition support" is indispensable clinically, but it cannot replace drugs. Special medical food must be registered by the state and consumed under the guidance of a doctor or clinical dietitian. Food companies should produce special medical foods in accordance with registered formulas, and product labels, instructions, and advertisements should comply with relevant laws, regulations and standards. Special medical food cannot be produced without obtaining registered formula and production license.
1. False propaganda has attracted special attention
The emergence of formula foods for special medical purposes has effectively solved the nutritional intake problems of some patients with special symptoms. However, in May 2019, a news that "solid beverages pretended to be special medical milk powder sneaked into hospital stores" attracted media attention.
According to the monitoring data of the Public Opinion Center of China Economic Net, in 2019, a total of 1974 paper media reports related to special medical food, 7488 articles on news websites, 3464 articles on mobile terminals, 7759 articles on WeChat public accounts, and 22,000 original and forwarded Weibo articles were monitored. More, 69 blog posts, 286 forum posts. Beijing, Shanghai, Shandong, Guangdong, Hebei, Jiangsu and other regions have relatively high public sentiment.
2. "Strict production and strict control" to avoid mixing of fish and fish
The "Report on the Status of Nutrition and Chronic Diseases of Chinese Residents" pointed out that chronic diseases accounted for 86.6%, and the central cerebrovascular diseases and malignant tumors accounted for 3/4. And special medical food can play a positive role in improving the effect of treatment and rehabilitation, shortening the course of disease, reducing medical expenses, increasing the turnover rate of hospital beds, and reducing the rate of readmissions.
The country implements strict supervision and management of special medical foods, and special medical foods shall be registered by the food safety supervision and management department of the State Council. The formula of special medical food should be based on the research results of medicine and/or nutrition, and its safety and clinical application (effect) need to be scientifically /confirm/ied.
In this regard, ordinary foods such as solid beverages have not obtained special medical food registration qualifications, but claiming and pretending to be special medical foods and suggesting disease prevention and treatment functions are false propaganda.
The concept of special medical food has gradually become familiar to people in recent years. In the future, special medical food has a broad space for development, but market chaos is looming, and it is necessary to clean up the source and avoid confusion.
For ordinary consumers, special medical food is special, not suitable for anyone, and different special groups of people have different needs. It is necessary to strengthen the popularization of special medical food science so that consumers can understand its particularity and follow the doctor's instructions.
Competition landscape of special medical food companies in 2019
Special Medical Foods As of the end of July 2019, 27 products across the country have been approved for registration. Among them, overseas companies such as Abbott, Danone and Nestlé lead the way. More than 90% of the domestic special medical food market share is monopolized by multinational (joint venture) companies, including Nutricia, Huarui Pharmaceuticals, Abbott Pharmaceuticals, etc., whose enteral nutrition is mainly based on the sales of drug standards. There are only dozens of companies involved in the field of special medical food in my country, and only a few companies have the ability to do research and development. Most of them are still in the imitation stage, and the products are highly homogenized in terms of taste, taste, and shape.
2019 China Special Medical Food Industry Registration News
As of May 2019, 167 approval documents have been accepted and 26 have been registered. Among them, 50% are special medical infants and 50% are adult special medical doctors. The full nutritional formula of adult special medical doctors accounts for half, and protein components are the majority of the components. As of July 5, 2019, 35 products will be registered.