Positioning and Thinking of Functional Food in Food Classification in China
Functional food and health food have very close connection,but neither of them can be simply equated.Health food,as a food category,has clear and strict management regulations in China;correspondingly,functional food has a wider scope,and functional food is more suitable as a comprehensive concept composed of food with certain functional characteristics,rather than referring to a specific food.The functional food was defined as food that placed more emphasis on regulating the physiological functions of the human body,in addition to provide the body with necessary nutrition and satisfying people's demand for delicious food.On this basis,combined with China's policy system and existing research results at home and abroad,functional food was placed in the food system,and the positioning of functional food was proposed from 3 perspectives:the definition of food,the regulatory perspective of food and the classification of food raw materials,which provided suggestions for improving China's functional food policies,laws and regulations,as well as providing decision-making basis to the production and operation activities of functional food producers.