According to statistics, about 300 million residents in China face nutritional imbalances [1]. Nutritional imbalance is one of the factors leading to chronic diseases, and supplementing and balancing dietary nutrition by adding nutritional enhancers to food is an important means to solve malnutrition and imbalance in China, which is also recognized internationally. So, what exactly is a nutrient enhancer? And what does it do? In this issue, the Food Partner Network Registry takes you into the world of "nutrition enhancers".
1 The development process of food nutrition enhancement in China
In the 1950s, when designing infant milk substitute powder, the calcium in the milk powder was strengthened by adding bone meal or calcium lactate; in addition, when preparing feeding meals for infants, vitamin A and vitamin D were supplemented by adding cod liver oil, which created a precedent for food nutrition enhancement in China [2]. At this point, China began to carry out small-scale food fortification, and the source of nutrient fortification is a high content of food or drug nutrients.
In the 1980s, some companies began to strengthen calcium, iron, lysine, etc. in staple foods such as flour, while experiments with iron-fortified soy sauce and iodized salt were also being carried out. However, there is no exact quality standard and dosage limit for added nutrients during this period, and the products on the market are uneven. At the end of 1986, the former Ministry of Health began to promulgate a series of standard regulations, such as the "Sanitary Standards for the Use of Food Nutrition Enhancers", etc., to standardize the management of nutrition-related foods and nutrition enhancers, so that the research and development, production and application of nutritional enhancers are on the right track.
Since the end of the 1980s, the production of commercialized nutrients has increased significantly, and the use and production technology of food nutrition enhancers has continued to mature.
2 Introduction of nutritional enhancers, nutrient supplements, and nutritional supplements
Here's another add-on: we can also see some nutritional supplements for special groups on the market, such as: complementary nutritional supplements, pregnant women and nursing mothers nutritional supplements. The two products are described below.
3 What are the functions of nutrient enhancers?
(1) Make up for the loss of nutrients caused by normal processing and storage of food. For example, there will be a variety of nutrient losses in wheat milling, and often the higher the accuracy of food processing, the longer the storage time, the more nutrients are lost, and by adding nutrient enhancers, you can supplement the loss of nutrients in the intermediate process and maintain the original nutritional characteristics of food.
(2) Improve the health problems of the population caused by insufficient or lack of regional nutrient intake. Due to the different eating habits, food types and food production and processing methods of people in different regions, it is difficult to contain various nutrients in daily diets, which often leads to a certain degree of nutritional deficiency, which in turn affects human health and even causes nutritional diseases. This situation can be improved to some extent by supplementing nutrition enhancers, such as salt iodization for people in iodine-deficient areas can greatly reduce the incidence of goiter, vitamin B1 is used to prevent vitamin B1 deficiency in people who eat rice as the main food, and so on.
(3) Meet the needs of different groups of people for nutrients. People's demand for nutrients often has different needs due to gender, age, occupation and other factors, for example: long-term underwater workers, due to special working environment, easy to lack vitamins, by adding the corresponding vitamin enhancers to food can meet the needs of the body.
(4) Supplement and adjust the content of nutrients and/or other nutritional components in special dietary foods. For example, picky eating or partial eating can easily lead to iron deficiency anemia, and the addition of fortified iron nutrients to infant complementary foods can adjust dietary structure and reduce the risk of disease caused by nutritional deficiencies.
4 What are the main types of nutrient fortifiers?
According to GB 14880-2012 "National Standard for Food Safety Standards for the Use of Food Nutrition Enhancers" and related supplementary announcements of nutritional enhancers, nutritional enhancers can be mainly divided into the following categories.
5 Misunderstandings about nutritional enhancers
Nutritional enhancers can improve the nutritional structure of food and enhance the nutritional value of food, but nutritional enhancers cannot be abused, otherwise they may disrupt the nutritional balance of food, lead to nutritional imbalances in the eating population, and even increase the risk of disease. The body's demand for nutrients and other nutrients is a certain range, not the more supplements the better, for example: fat-soluble vitamin A, vitamin E if too much intake will be stored in fat cells, can not be excreted with urine, continuous intake to a certain dose will produce accumulation of toxicity. In short, when strengthening food, it is necessary to determine the type, quantity and carrier food of the added nutrients according to the existing public nutrition problems, the characteristics of the target population, and the local food consumption habits.
In addition, the public's understanding of nutritional enhancers is manifested in: some people think that "adding is better than not adding", blindly accepting nutritional enhancers, and some people think that "artificial additions are not as good as daily dietary intake" and resisting nutritional enhancers. Therefore, it is still necessary to guide consumers to the correct understanding of nutritional enhancers through extensive education, and promote consumers' scientific understanding of the purchase of nutritionally fortified foods.
According to the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents 2016", it is recommended that the daily diet should include cereals and potatoes, vegetables and fruits, livestock, poultry, fish, eggs and milk, soybeans and nuts, etc. The average population consumes more than 12 kinds of food per person per day, more than 25 kinds of food per week, and all kinds of foods meet the balanced standard to meet the human body's needs for energy and various nutrients.
However, in real life, there may be various situations, such as weight loss, vegetarianism, irregular meals, overtime and other groups, their nutritional balance has certain problems, need to actively improve the dietary pattern, then you can appropriately choose nutritional fortified foods, nutrient supplements, etc., to improve nutritional imbalance, insufficient intake and so on. For pregnant women, nursing mothers, young children, the elderly, etc., because of their special physiological period, they should consult a dietitian, nutrition expert or doctor (hospital, health center) to make reasonable nutritional adjustments, and the means of conditioning may include adjusting diets, nutritional supplements, reasonable exercise, etc. Nutritional supplementation is an auxiliary means of daily diet, but can not be blind, it is recommended that people with nutritional problems and special groups, consult professional dietitians or doctors, on the basis of scientific judgment of conditioning is the correct and effective way.
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【1】JC Ruelbergeron，GA Stevens，JD Sugimoto， et al. Global updat and Trends of Hidden Hunger,1995-2011: The Hidden Hunger Index[J]. PLOS ONE，2015，10（12）：e0143497.
[2] Huang Jian, Huo Junsheng, Sun Jing, et al. Application status and prospect of food nutrition enhancers in China[J]. China Food Industry, 2008(02):49-52.
Author: Food Partners Network
EDIT: Food Companion
Food Partner Network Food Safety Compliance Division original article, reprint please indicate that the article is from the Food Partner Network