China - The Evolution, Current Situation and Prospects of China's Health Food Regulatory System
China
Jul 03, 2025

Health foods have developed into an independent food category in China over the past 30 years, with the industry scale and number of manufacturers steadily growing. The Food Safety Law promulgated in 2015 classified health foods as special foods, establishing a separate chapter with explicit requirements for strict supervision and management. This paper systematically reviews China's regulatory system for health foods, analyzing both its historical evolution and current supervision and management framework. Combining with the authors’ understanding on the current status of health foods, the paper summarizes ten key characteristic aspects of the sector. From the perspective of promoting high-quality industry development, four recommendations are proposed based on its unique features, including refining the institutional design, implementing categorized measures, stimulating innovation, and strengthening whole lifecycle management.
Author(s): Chen, G & Shen, G.
Published in: Food Nutrition.