Nutritional foods for the elderly become new engines of the silver-haired economy

The demand for old-age services is risingSilver-haired economyIt's going to be 30 trillion

The results of the seventh national census show that 18. 7 per cent of the population is older than 60 years of age. The ageing of our population is currently accelerating, with an estimated 479 million people over 60 years of age by 2035. Rapid growth in the number of older persons and the surge in demand for old-age services pose challenges to socio-economic development, but also provide opportunities for the development of related industries. In recent years, there has been a rapid rise in the silver economy and the availability of healthy foods for old age nutrition has opened up vast market prospects。

Improved consumption structure, care for geriatric nutritional foods

In recent days, the china society for social welfare and old age services, the institute of contemporary social services and the social science documents publishing house have published the blue book on the silver economy: china's silver-advance economic development report (2024) (hereinafter referred to as the blue book). According to the blue book, the current level of ageing in the country is at a moderate global level, and the trend towards sterility and longevity has contributed to the deepening of ageing. In international comparison, our country is ageing more than in high- and middle-income economies, where we follow closely. We are expected to enter a super-aging society around 2030。

The blue book predicts that, at present, our silver economy is about $7 trillion, or about 6 per cent of GDP, and that by 2035 it is expected to be 30 trillion yuan, or 10 per cent of GDP. The share of the silver economy in GDP will further increase as the “long-lived age” enters the future。

The growth of the silver economy has inspired the imagination of industry and investment. Among them, there has also been an upsurge in silver-related industries such as old-age services, consumption of old-age goods and health care. The silver economy is becoming an important engine for building a new development landscape in the country and for promoting high-quality development。

In the current year, the state has reprogrammed and calibrated industrial development at the macro level, and local governments have responded positively and followed suit. Nutrition, as the foundation of health, is of key value to the health status of older persons, the maintenance of physical functioning, and the prevention and control of disease and the slowing down of ageing processes. In the larger context of the boom of the current silver-haired economy, nutrition-related foods are increasingly becoming the focus of public attention as consumption structures continue to optimize, and the health-care foods for the elderly are most likely to be the core driving force driving the booming silver-haired economy。

The type of product is scarce and the quality of food needs improvement

In the wave of population ageing, countries will focus on research in the area of older foods in an effort to meet the nutritional needs of older groups. Compared to the developed countries, our market for healthy foods for old age nutrition is still at a stage of development. There are two main types of products: health-care foods, which act as daily dietary nutrient supplements and are capable of meeting the specific nutritional needs of older persons; the other is the flushing of powdered foods, whose primary role is to assist older persons who have difficulty swallowing to acquire the kinds of nutrients that are essential daily to the human body in order to guarantee their basic nutritional and health levels。

The current market for geriatric nutrition food is mainly focused on high calcium, low-fat milk powder, sugar reduction, non-fried trophic snacks, puffing of pasta foods, etc. This state of affairs shows that, at the moment, the market for older food is characterized by a lack of product types, that innovation is mostly concentrated in the area of nutritional supplementation, and that few innovations emerge in the key directions of qualitative optimization, sensory formation and functional strengthening. Some of the special food items for the elderly are only at the laboratory level of research and development, making it difficult to achieve the goal of scale production。

Innovative development of healthy foods for the elderly requires, first and foremost, the identification of the health needs of the population with silver hair. At present, “three” levels, improving cognitive functions and promoting bone health are the focus of attention and market potential for older groups. The second is the qualitative improvement of products using advanced technologies. Older persons are generally faced with the loss of teeth, reduced bites, reduced saliva, inadequate oral muscle strength and reduced coordination and synergy, and therefore need improved food quality. Technologies common to the design of special-purpose qualitative improved foods can be classified into three categories: the first is the traditional process of softening traditional diets (e. G. Meat, vegetables and fruit) to facilitate chewing and oral processing; second, technologies for the production of biopolymers particles and microgels that change food fluidity; third is the production of electric particles using electrical fields, magnetic fields, etc., to produce new structural techniques such as nano- or micro-particles in solvent volatilization. Common technologies for improved food quality, such as high pressure treatment, enzyme decomposition, freezing and irradiation, have been widely used in many countries abroad. New structural technologies, such as 3d printing, microfluent technology, electrostatic silk technology, electrostatic aerosolization technology, have matured and are being applied in the food industry, and can well be promoted for the production of healthy foods for old age nutrition。

In addition to focusing on functionality and easy to eat, enterprises should attempt to develop pre-nutriented health-care foods that are less difficult to cook, reduce food chains and have great scope for development。

PerfectStandard system, directing and supporting industrial development

The 2012 international committee for the standardization of food for the swallow impairment (iddsi) was established and issued internationally applicable dietary standards, which divides the swallowed diet into eight levels (0-7), the liquid food from 0-4 and the solid food from 3-7. The framework provides advice on dietary construction for the elderly and for people with osmosis disorders。

With regard to the improvement and development of the system of food standards for geriatric nutrition care, a number of policies and standards have been developed that provide clear direction and strong normative guarantees for the development of quality industries。

In january this year, the office of the state council issued its opinion on developing a silver economy for the well-being of older persons, which clearly states that “encouraging the development of health-care foods, special medical formulations suitable for the consumption and nutritional requirements of older persons” provides important guidance for food enterprises to strengthen their research and development and to introduce foods that are more responsive to the taste and nutritional needs of older persons。

As early as 2017, the state council issued the national nutrition plan (2017-2030), which provides for ongoing actions to improve the nutritional status of the elderly population, including the development of foods adapted to the nutritional and health needs of the elderly population, and the introduction of nutritional feeding norms for the elderly population, with a view to gradually improving the overall health of the elderly population。

In 2018, the national board of health and health issued the national standards for food safety and the general guidelines for older foods (advisory draft), which seek feedback from society as a whole, provide a preliminary definition of healthy foods for geriatric nutrition and clarify the scope of the subcategories. Nutritional health-care foods for the elderly are a special type of diet that improves the physical form of food and/or adjusts the composition of the diet (nutrition) to adapt to the reduced function of chewing and/or swallowing, the physiological characteristics of malnourished older persons, their dietary needs or nutritional needs, consisting mainly of foods that are easy to eat, nutritional formulations for the elderly and nutritional supplements for the elderly。

Although the official version of the national standards for food safety and the general principles for elderly food have not yet been published, thanks to the flexibility and adaptability of the group standards, a number of standards for the elderly nutrition food group, such as the food easily, the general principles for elderly nutrition foods, and the code for the management of nutritional cares of in swallowing impairments, have been successively introduced, providing useful reference for industrial development. In the future, our system of elderly food standards will be improved to provide clearer and stronger guidance and support for the healthy development of industry。