HNC and Fi & Hi Asia-China 2024: “Punk health” combines traditional Chinese medicine with prepackaged snacks

26 Jun 2024 --- Functional foods and supplements are finding their way into younger hands as China’s new generation adopts a more proactive approach to health. Traditional Chinese medicine is a strong source of inspiration, from orange peel tea in ready-to-use coffee capsules to rose cakes infused with donkey skin collagen. At the same time, science-backed and traceable ingredients are taking off in beverages, powder mixes, gummies and yogurts. 

Food Ingredients First spoke with a host of functional food ingredient suppliers and brands on the Hi & Fi Asia-China show floor in Shanghai last week to uncover industry trends and market opportunities in China.

Food as medicine
“The biggest trend right now in the industry is incorporating medicine into the daily diet,” says Hui Tang, general manager at Tongrentang, a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) F&B and supplement brand that has been making products since 1669. 

The younger generation is following a new concept called “punk health.”

“They want to be healthy, but they want to do it on their own terms, not like the generations before them,” explains Tang.

“Older consumers will still want to see the herbs laid out, boil it themselves and drink the decoction directly.”

Tongrentang promotes rose-flavored cakes fortified with donkey skin for women’s health.“But young people are very busy, so they prefer prepackaged foods when it comes to traditional Chinese medicine, such as gummies or snacks.” 

The company presented various fortified foods at the show, such as a rose-flavored cake made with donkey skin. The product is positioned for women, containing natural collagen that “makes women glow and gives them energy.” 

The company also highlighted “energy balls” made with black sesame and rose that are low in sugar and a ready-to-drink vitamin C liquid supplement made from a puree of sea buckthorn, a fruit that only grows in the desert. 

“These types of snacks are very popular. It is much different to take vitamin C produced in a lab and from a natural ingredient found in nature,” says Tang.

He adds that the company is seeing increased interest in its products from Japan and Germany, where consumers value ingredients from natural sources. 

Foods over pills 
Meanwhile, Thong Chi Luu, senior VP and general manager for China at Aker BioMarine agrees that young consumers in the country have a growing interest in functional health ingredients and claims that “functional snacking is the next frontier.” 

Damin promotes its herbal teas like “orange peel” in an easy-to-use capsule format.“If you look over the past 10-15 years, Chinese consumers didn’t start taking supplements until they were much older or diagnosed with a chronic disease. The younger generation doesn’t want to take pills because they associate them with being old,” says Luu.

Aker BioMarine innovated in the space to create a microencapsulated krill oil powder that can easily be incorporated into powder mixes. “Krill oil is traditionally challenging in foods because of its’ fishy odor and red color, but microencapsulation allows it to easily disperse into products like ready-to-mix or ready-to-drink products,” explains Luu.

Rousselot also displayed product concepts that fortified dairy foods with its Peptan collagen peptides. The company demoed a yogurt and ice cream concept as an inspiration to brands. Zhihang Chen, marketing manager at Rousselot says there are already some yogurts on the market with collagen in China and in Japan, and some noodles have added collagen for more health benefits. 

TCM F&B brand Damin also featured collagen drinks at the trade show — one in a coffee beverage and one in a pineapple beer-flavored drink. The company also unveiled coffee capsules that contain traditional tea or coffee replacements like orange peel or ginseng so that users can prepare a traditional drink at the press of a button. 

Meanwhile, the beauty brand Genlai promoted functional beverages like a strawberry collagen milk cap drink and a whitening drink containing purple tomato and green grape.

Tapping into local culture
According to Helen Hu, president of Health & Wellness APAC at ADM, functional foods are a natural fit for Chinese consumers, who already connect food with health.

IFF developed a product concept in a jelly stick format to appeal to Chinese consumers who are less apt to take pills.“Chinese consumers already understand that eating certain foods can bring certain benefits. For example, if they eat something strong that makes them feel hot, they will look for a cooling food to bring their body into balance,” she says. 

“So [functional foods] are a unique selling point in China if you can link them with the habits and culture already in place. Chinese consumers like bakery and beverages, which our newly approved probiotic DE111 can be easily formulated into.” 

Susan Jin, head of BU IFF Health in Greater Asia, concurs that tapping into local culture is essential. She explains that IFF isolates strains from local Chinese vegetables to resonate with consumers and that creating foods, rather than pills, is a strong force for Chinese consumers.

“We know that science is global, but taste is local. Americans are used to taking capsules, but in China, people tend to take more varied formats.”

At the trade show, IFF showcased one of its latest solutions for cognitive health in the form of a jelly stick, creating a fun, tasty format for consumers to take the company’s green oat extract, Neuravena. 

Jin continues that Chinese medicine has a rich heritage that IFF’s global R&D research team can learn from, but science will be key, and consumers need to understand it.

Coca-Cola and Sprite with 30% dietary fiber are currently on the market in China. So far, IFF has not released any products purely based on TCM, says Jin, but they have isolated a strain from a Chinese food that is undergoing research right now. 

Representatives at Novonesis and Gelita iterated China’s growing interest in science-backed ingredients as a recent development in the Chinese market. 

Future of fiber
Coca-Cola has also jumped onto the functional food bandwagon and released Diet Coca-Cola and Sprite with 30% fiber from resistant dextrin into the Chinese market, following other countries in Asia. 

According to a spokesperson at Dongxiao Biotechnology, the market for dietary fiber today in China has slowed down since a boom two years ago. 

“A few years ago, we saw an opportunity and growth in the market for dietary fibers, so we thought, ‘this is our chance’ to enter into the industry,” they tell us.

The company invested in a facility to manufacture resistant dextrin and polydextrose, which were presented as new ingredients this year in the company’s portfolio. 

“But today, everyone in the dietary fiber market is experiencing lower prices and some can only cover their costs. In the future, it will go up again — both in China and the world, since the demand for healthy ingredients is growing, but it may take a little time,” they add.

By Missy Green