许多学者预言:21世纪将是保健食品全面发展的黄金时代.如何在激烈的国际市场竞争中立于不败之地,中国保健食品面临严峻的考验.为了迎接新的挑战,在这世纪之交的重要时刻,我们需要具有一些战略眼光,需要做很多工作,其中一个重要方面是保健食品的国际化与知识产权保护.

中医学饮食疗法具有丰富的药材资源、宝贵的临床经验、完善的食疗理论,中国现代保健食品是在中医学饮食疗法的基础上发展起来的.我们对中国保健食品进行了历时3年比较全面和系统的研究,并将研究中所获得的结果和资料转录成电子形式并运用最先进的多媒体互动信息技术来组织和管理.信息系统可以将这些研究内容以一种快捷、方便的形式供用户查索和参考.

ABSTRACT The application, approval, production management, labeling, specification, advertising, and supervision of functional food have been put on the right track in China since the enforcement of “Measures of Functional Food Administration” on June 1, 1996. The recent article describes the current status and prospect of functional food with respect to the following six aspects: (1) the concept and definition of functional food; (2) the requirement for examination of functional food; (3) the evaluation and testing of functional food; (4) the extension of functional food to Chinese medicine prescriptions; (5) the steady development of functional food products; and (6) the trend and prospect of functional food development.