Member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Yu Ruifen: Suggests including food for minors as a key focus of supervision and sampling, and standardizing the elderly-friendly health and pharmaceutical industry.

Pointing out issues such as “some products for minors mainly follow adult standards” and “insufficient supply of high-quality products suitable for the elderly,” this year, Yu Ruifen, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and President of Laiyifen, has offered multiple suggestions on refining children’s food health standards and activating the silver economy and health potential.

Yu Ruifen noted that currently, there is no systematic and scientific grading and age-specific standard system for foods aimed at minors over 3 years old in China, making it difficult to meet the growing demand from parents for higher quality and more precise children’s food.

She believes that the prominent problems in this area include obvious gaps in standards, lack of market regulation, and insufficient regulatory support. In response, Yu Ruifen recommends: first, improving the standard system by accelerating the development of the national standard “General Technical Requirements for Food for Minors,” establishing differentiated technical requirements by age group and category to fill the standard gaps as soon as possible. Second, strictly controlling quality by refining limits on sugar, salt, fat, and other indicators according to age groups, researching and establishing a negative list of additives for children’s foods of different ages, and regulating additive use scientifically. Third, strengthening supervision by making foods for minors a key focus of sampling inspections, improving food labeling regulations, strictly handling false labeling and false advertising, and promoting nutrition labels for easier and more scientific consumer choices. Fourth, promoting the establishment of a long-term mechanism by strengthening research on children’s nutrition and metabolism; integrating nutrition and health knowledge into primary and secondary education in collaboration with health authorities; encouraging industry groups to develop standards stricter than national standards, establishing a credit restraint mechanism for dishonest enterprises, and creating a healthy ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Yu Ruifen also believes that the concept of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) being both food and medicine aligns well with the needs of the elderly for gentle conditioning and chronic disease management, serving as an important lever for developing the silver economy and implementing Healthy China initiatives. However, core issues such as weak science popularization, chaotic market order, lack of standard systems, and lagging service regulation still exist.

Based on the above, Yu Ruifen suggests: first, strengthening science popularization by conducting educational campaigns in communities and elderly care institutions to establish scientific health concepts. Regarding market regulation, she recommends that regulatory authorities include relevant products in key supervision lists, strengthen traceability and sampling across the entire supply chain, and severely crack down on illegal activities to raise market entry thresholds. Additionally, accelerate the formulation of national standards for age-appropriate food and medicine products, aligning with existing laws and industry standards, clarifying raw material and compatibility indicators, and detailing consumption guidelines for the elderly. Furthermore, improve service ecosystems by creating integrated scenarios of “health + culture + services + digital,” promoting elderly-friendly renovations, and providing policy support for R&D and taxation to achieve a win-win situation for elderly health security and the silver economy.

Yu Ruifen emphasizes that establishing unified national standards for age-appropriate food and medicine products will help improve the quality of life for the elderly, unleash the vitality of the silver economy, and provide strong support for the construction of Healthy China.

Editor: Wang Can, Lin Chen

Keywords: Food Laiyifen