National Strategic Alliance for Technological Innovation in the Food and Nutrition Health Industry Established in Beijing

Report from our website  On May 28, the “National Strategic Alliance for Technological Innovation in the Food and Nutrition Health Industry”, jointly initiated by three organizations - the China Rural Technology Development Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Institute of Agro-Products Processing Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the Chinese Nutrition Society - was officially established in Beijing. Dai Xiaofeng, Director of the Institute of Agro-Products Processing Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Yang Yuexin, President of the Chinese Nutrition Society, jointly served as the first co-chairmen of the alliance. Jia Jingdun, Director of the China Rural Technology Development Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Sun Baoguo, Academician and President of Beijing Technology and Business University, Zhu Beiwei, Academician of Dalian Polytechnic University, and Jin Zhengyu, Vice President of Jiangnan University, attended the founding conference.

Jia Jingdun expressed heartfelt congratulations on the establishment of the alliance. He pointed out that as China's economic and social development enters the “new normal” and the public becomes increasingly concerned about nutrition and health, vigorously developing the nutrition and health industry is of great strategic significance for promoting the sustained, stable and healthy development of our country's economy. The alliance should inherit and carry forward China's traditional culture of dietary therapy and health preservation, combine it with modern scientific and technological innovation-driven development, and undertake four important tasks: “safeguarding national nutrition and health, enhancing the physical fitness of the people, preventing chronic diseases, and developing special dietary products”, making new and greater contributions to the rapid and healthy development of our country's food and nutrition health industry.

Dai Xiaofeng read out the nominated list of the first session of the alliance's board of directors, including chairmen, vice chairmen, executive directors and secretary-general, and announced the official establishment of the alliance. He pointed out that with the rapid development of our country's economy and society, urban and rural residents' demands for dietary nutrition and health will become increasingly urgent, and the next 20-30 years will be a golden period of opportunity for our country's nutrition and health industry. At present, some impoverished populations and low-income rural groups in our country lack nutritious food, while at the same time, a high incidence of chronic diseases caused by overnutrition and irrational dietary structures affects the vast number of urban and rural residents. In addition, the differentiated nutritional and dietary requirements of the elderly, infants and young children, patients and special populations will continue to show rigid growth. All of these have presented many brand-new topics for the development of the food and nutrition health industry and scientific and technological research, and will also give rise to enormous consumer and service market demand measured in trillions. The Institute of Agro-Products Processing Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences will take innovation-driven development, optimizing dietary structure, and safeguarding food safety, national nutrition and health as its mission, and vigorously promote the development of an emerging strategic industry with Chinese cultural characteristics and culinary advantages - the food and nutrition health industry - making it a new growth pole for our country's economy and even the world economy in the future, and a pillar industry, advantageous industry and strategic industry for China's rapid economic development in the next economic cycle.

Experts and representatives including Sun Baoguo and Zhu Beiwei delivered speeches respectively, congratulating the establishment of the alliance and expressing their full support for all the work of the alliance. This conference also held concentrated discussions on the alliance's work plan and key work for the second half of the year. More than 150 representatives from government, research institutes, institutions of higher education, industry associations and enterprises in the fields of food, agriculture, medicine, and nutrition and health attended the founding conference.