E.2 Food fortification, reformulation of food, and functional foods

Food fortification, reformulation of food, and functional foods

Food fortification in East Asia. Today, Indonesia, nepal, the philippines, and vietnam all require wheat flour to be fortified with micronutrients including iron, folic acid, and vitamin B12. Legislation in China promotes voluntary fortification. Some Asian countries also require salt to be fortified with iodine, or vitamin A to be added to cooking oil. rice is trickier to enrich in nations that operate small, decentralized mills, but both papua new guinea and the philippines have made rice fortification mandatory. Food companies in Asia are also focusing on fortification to address concerns about health and nutrition, and to respond to local tastes, product competition, and government regulation

Reformulation involves the adaptation of consumer products to remove harmful substances, or to find natural replacements for ingredients such as sugar and fat. nutrient profiling covers a range of related interventions, including promoting healthier consumption through marketing and labeling, and reformulating products to remove harmful ingredients or optimize nutritional balance. research has shown reductions in trans fats in the united States thanks to reformulation since 2000, and in the united Kingdom, a public-private collaboration reduced the salt content of supermarket products by about 20–30 percent, resulting in an estimated 10 percent reduction in salt intake at the population level. nutrient profiling activities in Indonesia, the republic of Korea, Singapore, and Thailand have begun although specific targets for nutrient levels were not yet present (green 2018)

In the long term, food manufacturers are likely to focus on reformulation to meet demand for healthier alternatives. Asian countries and companies are moving toward best practices and collaborate regionally. product reformulation collaboration between health bodies and food manufacturers is particularly strong in Singapore, driven by the country’s Health promotion Board. It focuses on reducing high salt levels in processed food such as noodles and bread, as well as more natural foods such as fish cakes (green 2018).

Gluten-free and casein-free foods. The global gluten-free products market was estimated to be $5 billion in 2015. “Free-from” foods are receiving considerable attention, especially gluten-free and casein-free food products. There are a few reasons for this development; for instance, it has been estimated that about 1 percent of the population suffers from celiac disease (an immune reaction to eating gluten) in Indonesia. There is also a perceived image of “freefrom” foods as healthier and premium, and the mass media has raised awareness of this subsegment in many countries in Asia (Ecosperity 2018a).

Specific opportunities include developing food products for individuals with various allergies and investing in research to expand the range of food that everyone can safely consume. For instance, restaurants such as Bliss restaurant and the Swensen’s chain in Singapore are willing to make accommodations to their menus (for example, replacing eggs or peanuts) to help customers manage their allergies.

Many companies have conducted research to replace ingredients causing allergies with safer ones such as pulses, seeds, and grains. For example, goodMills Innovation collaborated with scientists, grain breeders, and nutritionists to introduce a wheat flour that is consumable by people sensitive to gluten and still produces baked goods with the same texture and taste as those made with traditional wheat.

Functional foods are processed foods containing ingredients that aid specific bodily functions and support nutrient intakes in addition to meeting basic nutritional needs. They are essentially foods that have been heavily fortified and enhanced to provide substantial health benefits. This includes food products containing probiotics, prebiotics, plant stanols, and folic acid.

The demand for functional foods will rise as the aging population increases across the world. Furthermore, as more people are educated on the nutritional benefits of specific food ingredients such as

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Box E.2, continued

turmeric, there will be new demand and markets for companies to enter. The interest in these products is partly being driven by married couples and households with children. Market research estimates that the market value for functional food was $44 billion in 2015 (Ecosperity 2018b).

Functional foods have also been gaining traction in China, with high consumption of products containing probiotics in Beijing, as well as rapid growth in consumption of traditional Chinese cooling herbs in guangzhou and tonic herbs in Chengdu. In Japan, brands include Suntory-owned Brand’s Essence of Chicken (which is the market leader in broths with more than $600 million in sales and presence in 19 countries), Yakult Honsha, and Meiji group (nutraceuticals World 2016).

This section provides complementary details to the section titled ‘’readiness of developing East Asian countries to embrace transformative innovations’’ in chapter 5. Some of the details are from chapters 4, 5, and 6.

Capacity in biotechnology largely correlates with economic development and country views about the use of biotechnology—essentially genetic modification and genetic engineering (gE). Overall, genetically modified (gM) crops have been approved in several countries for commercial production (table D.1 in appendix D), and a wide range of crops and traits are either at the experimental stage or in field trials. China, Malaysia, and Thailand have the highest overall capacity to generate and adopt biotechnology innovations. They have, however, different views on the use of biotechnology; for example, Thailand has not approved gM crops for commercial production, whereas Malaysia imports gM crops but does not carry out research on gM crops or gE. Although China imports several transgenic crops and has invested heavily in the development of its own varieties (box 5.5), it has approved the commercial planting of very few gM crops (Wong and Chan 2016). China has also significantly invested in gE as part of a wider, technology-based push to improve agricultural output, and is about to become the global leader (box 5.6). Indonesia (box 6.5), the philippines, and vietnam continue to improve their capacity in biotechnology; for example, both Indonesia and the philippines have endorsed or begun using gE for crop improvement. They have commercialized several gM crops, and adoption by farmers is widespread. Biotechnology capacity in Cambodia, the Lao people’s Democratic republic, and Myanmar is currently low,1 but adoption of, for example, crops with enhanced production traits is feasible.

East Asian countries are at different stages in the development and adoption of precision agriculture, but all can adopt the least complex applications. While Japan, the republic of Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore tend to be the frontrunners in developing and adopting precision agriculture, China (from national to county levels) has also invested heavily in precision agriculture and overall mechanization of agriculture.2 Both Thailand and vietnam are highly interested in emerging technologies, the Internet of Things, ICT, and vertical farming