Food safety has attracted public attention
In today's society, people are increasingly emphasizing the importance of food safety, which is directly related to human health and life safety. Unsafe food may contain harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemicals that can cause over 200 different diseases, ranging from mild diarrhea to severe cancer. Every year, approximately 600 million people worldwide fall ill due to consuming contaminated food, with 420000 deaths as a result.
Food safety not only affects personal health, but also has significant implications for social stability and economic development. Food safety issues may lead to acute and long-term chronic diseases, increase the burden on the healthcare system, and affect the national economy, tourism industry, and trade. In addition, food safety is also an important indicator for measuring people's quality of life, national legal construction, and social management level.
The safety of food additives in food safety is noteworthy
Food additives play an important role in improving food quality, extending shelf life, enhancing color, aroma, and facilitating production. However, inappropriate or excessive use of food additives may pose certain food safety hazards.
1. Toxic ingredients: Some food additives themselves have a certain degree of toxicity. Although they usually do not pose a threat to the human body under prescribed usage amounts and conditions, long-term high-dose use may cause health problems. For example, colorants such as nitrate and nitrite can be harmful to human health at certain doses; Long term high-dose use of dyes such as lemon yellow may cause symptoms such as bronchial asthma and urticaria; Many substances in spices may cause symptoms such as respiratory inflammation and skin itching.
2. Processing process issues: In the process of manufacturing food additives, if the operation is not standardized and the hygiene conditions are not qualified, it may lead to the quality of the food additives being unqualified, thereby posing a threat to the health of consumers.
3. Violation of regulations: Some illegal merchants may use food additives beyond the scope and dosage in order to improve the color, aroma, or extend the shelf life of food. For example, add lemon yellow, which is not allowed to be used in pasta products, to Mantou, or add excessive preservatives to extend the storage time of food.
Industrial additives: More seriously, some businesses even use industrial additives for production, which pose great harm to human health and can easily lead to poisoning or even death after consumption. The 2008 incident of illegal addition of melamine to Sanlu milk powder resulted in many infants and children developing illnesses.
Food additives play a crucial role in food safety
The global food additive market is growing rapidly. According to QYResearch, the global food additive market sales reached $89.61 billion in 2023 and are expected to reach $138.9 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.0%. However, other reports indicate that the global food additive market is expected to reach $75.61 billion by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 3.9%. Despite differences in data, the overall trend indicates that the market will continue to expand. With consumers' increasing emphasis on health and safety, natural and pollution-free food additives are becoming more and more popular.
With the high demand for food nutrition and the development of science and technology, the functions of food additives will become more diversified in the future, not only meeting the needs of taste, color and other aspects, but also having more health functions. For example, nutritional fortifiers and functional ingredients will become important development directions to enhance consumers' health levels. Governments around the world have also strengthened the management and supervision of food additives, issuing a series of regulations and standards to regulate the use of food additives and ensure food safety.
Food additive companies face challenges and opportunities in various aspects such as changes in consumer demand, diversification of functions, greenization, technological innovation, and strict supervision.
The production process of plant extracts includes steps such as cleaning, cutting, extraction, and freeze-drying, which are suitable for the production of plant extracts such as polyphenols, terpenes, polysaccharides, alkaloids, sterols, etc. During the production process, it is necessary to use extraction media that comply with food safety standards and ensure that the water quality meets the requirements of GB 5749. Plant extracts with large production volumes should adopt a single sample and single machine strategy, and different types of plants should be crushed with different crushers as much as possible. In the process of product development, enterprises must adhere to strict control over quality and raw materials, and add safe, organic, and healthy food additives during product production.
Strictly control raw materials in all dimensions of food processing
1. Quality control: The quality of plant extracts, including target substance content and solvent residue, should be continuously tested while drying. Extract products should comply with the corresponding national food safety standards and relevant laws and regulations.
During the production process, factors such as temperature and vacuum degree need to be considered, and quality control should be carried out through online monitoring.
Raw material safety:
2. Raw material control: The safety indicators of plant raw materials should comply with the provisions of GB 2761, GB 2762, and GB 2763. The extraction medium should also comply with product quality standards and food safety requirements.
3. Strictly adhere to industry standards: The company must strictly comply with various policies and customs inspections issued by the national government to promote the standardized development of the plant extract industry, such as the "Green Industry Standards for Medicinal Plants and Preparations in Foreign Trade". These regulatory measures ensure the healthy development of the plant extract industry, guarantee the quality and safety of products, and also provide direction for the further development of our enterprise.
Future Development Trends of the Food Industry
The Chinese food industry has also been supported and encouraged by the Chinese government, and has been gradually expanding into the world under the nurturing of the digital economy. With the digitalization trend of global trade, agricultural companies need to actively embrace digital transformation. Digital trade is becoming a new trend and growth point in the development of international trade, promoting the digital development of the entire chain and link, including cross-border e-commerce, digital finance, and payment settlement. Enterprises can improve their market development and brand cultivation capabilities by utilizing big data to optimize their production and operation strategies.
1. Adhere to the direction of green trade and sustainable development
Against the backdrop of increasing global environmental awareness, green trade and sustainable development have become important directions for development, constantly focusing on the environmental performance of products and the sustainability of production processes to meet consumers' demand for green products.
2. Adhere to the combination of innovation and technology
In food processing, attention should be paid to the efficiency of plant extracts. Plant extract technology can maximize the retention of effective ingredients in plants by using advanced extraction processes such as supercritical CO2 extraction and molecular distillation, while solving the problems of low bioavailability and poor stability. These technologies not only improve extraction efficiency, but also reduce energy consumption and solvent usage, promoting the development of green processes. Through the application of technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and blockchain, intelligent production processes and optimized supply chain management have been achieved. In addition, the integration of synthetic biotechnology and natural extraction technology has brought new solutions to the plant extraction industry. By using consistent raw materials, synthetic biotechnology can achieve the production of specific ingredients with product determination, controllable content, determined yield, and activity, thereby solving the problem of insufficient supply of plant raw materials and improving product quality. Plant extract products are widely used in cosmetics, food, pharmaceuticals, and other fields.
3. Supply chain innovation and upgrading
The company's development should adopt a diversified supplier strategy, reducing reliance on a single supplier by selecting multiple suppliers, thereby improving the flexibility and stability of the supply chain. When a supplier encounters problems, alternative solutions can be quickly found to ensure the continuity of the supply chain. In terms of transportation strategy, our company provides various modes of transportation, such as sea freight, multimodal transport, etc., which can effectively reduce logistics costs and improve transportation efficiency. By establishing close cooperative relationships with suppliers, logistics companies, and retailers in various regions, the enterprise optimizes resource allocation and improves the overall efficiency of the supply chain. Over the years, our company has been committed to improving the response speed of the supply chain and providing customers with efficient and convenient logistics.
With the development of economic globalization and the continuous promotion of the digital economy, the development strategy of cooperation and win-win has long been deeply rooted in people's hearts. As the Chinese saying goes, it is a pleasure to have friends come from afar. We look forward to every opportunity to communicate and meet with you.
