The national infant powder market is increasing year by year

China is the world's second largest consumer market for infants and children. The infant milk powder industry has natural advantages in its development, and the market scale is increasing year by year.

Since the liberalization of the "two-child policy" in 2016, the market demand for infant formula milk powder in my country has increased. Data show that in 2019, the market size of infant formula milk powder reached 175.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.8%. In recent years, the size of my country's infant milk powder market has increased year by year. In 2020, its market size has reached 176.4 billion yuan. However, affected by the decline in the infant birth rate, the growth rate of the market continues to decline.

Figure 1: 2014-2020 China's infant milk powder market size analysis (unit: 100 million yuan, %)

Source: Euromoitor Foresight Industry Research Institute

Domestic milk powder brands occupy the main market

In recent years, the market share of domestic milk powder has shown a trend of first decline and then rise. After the outbreak of the tainted milk powder incident in 2008, domestic milk powder encountered a crisis of trust, and its market share gradually declined. It was only in recent years that it eased. After the implementation of the milk powder registration system in 2016, the market share of domestic milk powder began to increase steadily. In 2019, the market share of domestic milk powder has reached 49%.

From the perspective of the proportion of milk powder brands, domestic brands have also developed rapidly in recent years and have achieved good results. In 2020, the domestic milk powder brand Feihe has the highest market share, reaching 14.8%.

Figure 2: The proportion of domestic and foreign milk powder brands in China from 2007 to 2019 (unit: %)

Source: Euromoitor Foresight Industry Research Institute

Breastfeeding OR milk powder feeding?

Breast milk is the most ideal natural food for babies. It not only provides sufficient nutrition to meet the needs of the baby's physical growth and development, but is also rich in a variety of biologically active ingredients to promote the development and maturity of the baby's intestinal, nervous, and immune systems. But for infants who cannot fully accept breastfeeding, they have to choose infant formula.

Infant milk powder, also known as infant formula milk powder, refers to the nutritional indicators of breast milk. It uses cow milk or goat milk and its products as the main base material, adjusts the ratio of whey protein and casein, and adds essential fatty acids linoleic acid and linolenic acid. Fortified vitamins and minerals can meet the needs of infants and young children for rapid growth and development.

However, the content of oligosaccharides in cow's milk is very low, and oligosaccharides are added to infant formula powder to simulate the function of breast milk oligosaccharides as much as possible. People have identified through research that there are several factors in breast milk that can affect intestinal microbes, and among these factors, oligosaccharides are the most relevant component.

Figure 3: The content of macronutrients and breast milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) in mature human milk and cow milk (approximate value)

Source: Chinese Dairy Cow, "Application of Prebiotics Combination in Infant Formula Powder"

According to the provisions of the national food safety standard GB14880-2012 for food nutrition fortifiers, prebiotics such as galactooligosaccharide, fructooligosaccharide, polyfructose, raffinose, polydextrose, etc. can be added to infant formula food. At present, the major domestic milk powder brands Yili, Mengniu, Feihe, Wandashan and other infant formulas all add prebiotics, and most of them are added in the form of combined prebiotics, such as fructooligosaccharide (FOS) and galactooligosaccharide (GOS). Known as the golden partner added to infant formula powder.

Prebiotics, care for your baby's intestinal health!

Most infant milk powder contains FOS, GOS, polyfructose, and some milk powder contains the above three prebiotics at the same time, which can stimulate the value-added of a variety of probiotics and benefit the baby's intestinal health.

Studies have shown that a mixture of galactooligosaccharide and polyfructose at a concentration of 10g/L is added to preterm infant formula powder. The results show that the prebiotic combination stimulates the growth of bifidobacteria in the intestinal tract. Feed the formula added with the composition The powder has similar fecal characteristics to premature infants fed breast milk. The prebiotic mixture may help improve the tolerance of premature infants to enteral feeding.

Veereman-Wauters and other studies gave 110 healthy newborns the following formula milk powder: a. Adding (polyfructose: FOS=50:50) 0.4g/dL or 0.8g/dL formula; b. Adding oligomeric half Formula milk powder with lactose sugar and oligofructose (GOS:FOS=9:1, 0.8g/dL); c. Standard formula food; and with breast milk as a control, the two combination formula milk powder ab was evaluated in infant formula Physiological and probiotic effects. This study shows that formula powders added with oligofructose and polyfructose have good tolerance and prebiotic effects for infants. The feed intake of the prebiotic-added formula powder was equivalent to that of the control group infants, and their growth was normal. And the intake of group a (0.4 and 0.8g/dL) kept the baby's feces in a softer state, which was significantly softer than the control group. In addition, in the feces of infants fed group a (0.8g/dL) and group b GOS:FOS (0.8g/dL), the number of bifidobacteria was observed to increase significantly after 2 and 4 weeks. The level of bifidobacteria in infants after taking the formula powder with prebiotics was equivalent to that in breastfed infants, indicating that prebiotics such as fructooligosaccharides have prebiotic effects in newborns.

Giuseppe Puccio and other studies used the following infant formula powders: a. The blank group did not contain any probiotics or prebiotics; b. Test group 1: Bifidobacterium longum BL999 (BL999) + Rhamnose lactobacillus LPR (LPR); c .Test group 2: BL999+LPR+4g/L GOS/SCFOS (90% GOS+10% short-chain FOS); d. Test group 3: BL999+ Lactobacillus paracasei ST11+ 4g/L GOS/SCFOS; the above test groups are probiotics The bacterial concentration is about 108 CFU/mL. The test results showed that the average weight gain of the test group and the control group was the same, and there was no statistically significant difference in body length, head circumference, and frequency of adverse reactions. The test group had a low incidence of constipation, and the characteristics of feces showed that the test group was well tolerated. In addition, it also showed that the incidence of respiratory tract infections in infants in the experimental group was low. It can be concluded that the formula milk powder is safe and well tolerated.

Prebiotics have the functions of regulating intestinal microecology, improving lipid metabolism, promoting mineral absorption, and improving immunity. These functions of prebiotics are mainly achieved by promoting the proliferation of beneficial intestinal bacteria and adjusting the balance of intestinal microecological .

About us

Shandong Starlight So True Biological Technology Co., Ltd. is committed to the industrialization of functional food ingredients and the promotion and application of micro-ecological health production technology. Relying on the bulk sugar such as sucrose and starch sugar of Xingguang Group as raw materials, it cooperates with major domestic and foreign universities and The top technical experts in the field of food science and engineering extend the research and development of downstream high value-added prebiotics and the production and sales of functional food ingredients.

Starlight So True's business products include fructo-oligosaccharides, resistant dextrin, isomalt oligosaccharides, galacto-oligosaccharides, polydextrose, allulose and functional compound special sugars, adhering to the "first-of-its-kind quality, innovative struggle and service" In terms of product technology, quality management and application development, we are pioneering and innovative, striving for perfection, and customer-oriented, providing customers with one-stop services such as raw materials, technical solutions, and product solutions.

References

[1] Gunther Boehm, Bernd Stahl. Oligosaccharides from Milk[J]. Journal of Nutrition, 2007, 137:847S-849S.

[2] G Boehm, M Lidestri, et al. Supplementation of a bovine milk formula with an oligosaccharide mixture increases counts of faecal bifidobacteria in preterm infants. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed 2002; 86:F178-F181.

[3] Veereman-Wauters G, Staelens S, et al. Physiological and Bifidogenic Effects of Prebiotic Supplements in Infant Formulae[J]. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr, 2011, 52(6):763-71.

[4] Jean Pierre Chouraqui, Dominik Grathwohl, et al. Assessment of the safety, tolerance, and protective effect against diarrhea of infant formulas containing mixtures of probiotics or probiotics and prebiotics in a randomized controlled trial[J]. Am J Clin Nutr, 2008, 87:1365-73

[5] 杨凯等，益生元组合在婴幼儿配方奶粉中的应用[J].中国奶牛，2017,12:46-49.

[6] 上海博程膳食纤维发展有限公司，益生元在婴幼儿中的应用现状和前沿研究[J].中国食品添加剂，74-76.