The 2024 International Food Safety and Health Conference, co hosted by the Chinese Society for Food Science and Technology and the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST), was successfully held in Beijing from April 24th to 26th. Experts, scholars, and business representatives from the food industry at home and abroad gathered in Beijing to comprehensively explore the new challenges and opportunities faced in the field of food safety and health, with the theme of “promoting high levels of health and safety through new quality productivity”.
In 2023, China’s food industry achieved a revenue of 11.4 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.6%; We have achieved a total profit of 1.2 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.3%, both of which are higher than the level in 2022. The food industry has gradually restored its production and operation vitality, and improved its efficiency level. Among them, the food manufacturing industry has the highest growth rate, with a year-on-year increase of 13.6%; The beverage manufacturing industry grew by 10.2% year-on-year.
In his speech, Sun Baoguo, an academician of the CAE Member, president of the Chinese Food Science and Technology Society, and professor of Beijing Technology and Business University, pointed out that the high-quality development of China’s food industry needs to rely on the theoretical guidance of new quality productivity, and also make necessary contributions to the development of new quality productivity. On the one hand, we need to lead the “new” pace in the forefront of technological fields with new quality productivity. On the other hand, it is also necessary to leverage new quality productivity to promote the improvement of traditional and emerging industries, making them an important source of developing new quality productivity.
Under the co chairmanship of Chen Junshi, an academician of the CAE Member, the general consultant of the International Food Safety Risk Assessment Center, and Professor Meng Suhe, honorary chairman of the Society, representatives of well-known food enterprises at home and abroad from Yili Group, Royal Netherlands Fislan, Yikang Group, IFF, Master Kang, Nestle, PepsiCo, Mengniu Group, Lesaffre Group, Angel Yeast and others shared their experience around the “new quality productivity promotes high level of health and safety”. Kong Tingyun, Global Executive Vice President and Greater China President of Yikang Group, was invited to attend.
Improving Food Safety and Quality Control through Innovative Technologies
The food industry has entered a high-speed and high-quality development, which requires the food and beverage manufacturing industry to continuously innovate product structure and quality to adapt to market changes and enhance market competitiveness while meeting the basic needs of the people.
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Kong Tingyun mentioned in the entrepreneur summit dialogue that next year will be the 50th anniversary of Yikang’s entry into the Chinese market. Different from the mode of relying on technology transfer in the past decades, the maturity of China’s market development has made local innovation possible. The new product “SenaJing” launched by Yikang Greater China is a good example. Microbial control is an important aspect of food safety, and it is the launch of this product that solves the problem of super heat-resistant sprouts being unable to be killed through traditional heating processes.
How to ultimately serve enterprises with innovation and provide genuine solutions, quality is the key. Yikang is committed to applying innovation to the daily operations of enterprises, and working together with customers in the quality management process to promote preventive process control. For example, collaborating with dairy customers to establish a process biofilm examination plan to control product quality and safety risks from the source.
Lean management of production processes through digital means to improve production efficiency
Gong Guoqiang, Deputy Director of the Food Safety Standards and Monitoring and Evaluation Department of the National Health Commission, stated at the conference that while adhering to the bottom line of food safety, the National Health Commission is also focusing on improving the high line of nutrition and health. The changes in consumer trends and the upgrading of safety regulations pose new requirements for food enterprises.
In this environment, digital management has become a key tool to drive innovation in enterprise products and services, enhance consumer experience, and enhance market competitiveness. Yikang, which has served in the global food industry for over a century, is actively utilizing digital means to transform this professional knowledge into practical operations with its rich experience and data resources. For example, Yikang’s membrane intelligent digital platform used in the dairy industry can help enterprises achieve predictive maintenance, reduce operating costs, and improve efficiency. Kong Tingyun shared this point at the conference and further introduced Yikang’s digital measures in pest management. She pointed out that even a cockroach or a mouse can have a devastating impact on a brand. Traditionally, pest management mostly relies on artificial disinfection and sterilization; Yikang has greatly improved the efficiency of monitoring and preventing factory pest risks by introducing digital tools for pest control, including the Internet of Things and digital signage.
Realizing dual harvests of economic benefits and sustainable development through value services
Promoting sustainable development through food technology innovation is one of the hot topics of concern at this conference. With the improvement of food industrialization level and continuous innovation within the industry, achieving a win-win situation of product quality and energy conservation has become the key to the healthy development of the food industry. The sustainable management of water resources is an important aspect of low-carbon and energy-saving development strategies, and water safety is closely related to the safe and sustainable development of the food industry. Yao Bingjia, Senior Marketing Manager of Yikang Nalco Greater China, shared at a special meeting that Yikang is connecting with global sustainable water management standards, focusing on improving water resource utilization efficiency and digital innovation, providing customers with full process water management solutions, and effectively achieving “carbon reduction through water”.
Kong Tingyun stated that although some companies in the food and beverage industry use water tower cooling systems with low circulation, the customized water treatment solutions provided by Yikang can help companies save energy and water, greatly reducing operating costs. At the same time, she pointed out that as an upstream service provider of food enterprises, Yikang is committed to optimizing itself, choosing more environmentally friendly chemicals and packaging materials to reduce environmental pollution. At present, the Yikang Taicang factory has achieved clean energy through photovoltaic projects, and its factories in Europe have fully shifted towards green electricity use.
Yikang promises to help global customers save 1 billion tons of water by 2030, achieve 100% adoption of renewable electricity, achieve net zero carbon emissions and 100% use of renewable energy by 2050; As of 2022, 61% of total electricity consumption comes from renewable resources. Kong Tingyun emphasized that sustainable development is crucial not only for the arts and health industry, but also for the long-term prosperity of the entire industry and its ecosystem. Yikang looks forward to collaborating with more companies in the same industry to jointly promote the food industry towards the direction of “new quality productivity”.