SIAL Shanghai observes that with the people's dietary structure adjustment, China has long become a large dairy production and consumption. In recent years, the annual production of dairy products stands at more than 30 million tons. The wide range of dairy products has played an important role in supporting the construction of a healthy China.

Lactobacilli and probiotic preparations are the key raw materials for the production of yogurt, milk powder, cheese, beverages and other dairy products. At present, the lactic acid bacteria and probiotic preparations required for the production of domestic dairy enterprises mainly rely on imports, which has become a bottleneck restricting the competitiveness and efficiency of China's dairy industry in the market.

The bacterial agents needed in the production of dairy products are made of different strains of bacteria mixed in proportion according to scientific research. Foreign brands started research and development early and have abundant technology and intellectual property rights accumulation. The advantage of Danisco and other leading foreign enterprises in the field is obvious. It is difficult for China to make breakthrough in the short term. The proportion of imports of the current fermentation agent is as high as 90% -95%.

In addition, the current market lacks industry standards. In order to respond to people's health concerns, many companies in the market exaggerate their products or make false propaganda. Taking probiotics as an example, according to the data of Skyeye Check, there are more than 3,000 production and processing enterprises in China, 45% of which were established within 5 years. Due to the lack of national and industry standards for probiotics in China, many strains of bacteria without the support of clinical data are put into the market by some enterprises, resulting in product quality disparity within the industry. In this case, the efficacy of bacteria products is difficult to prove.

To solve the challenges facing China's lactic acid bacteria, probiotics and related bacterial application of R&D, experts and business people suggested that dairy products with lactic acid bacteria, probiotic strains and preparations be targeted in the upgrading of China's dairy industry and as a fundamental and key breakthroughs in the direction of the establishment of a special focus as China enhances its R&D level.

At present, the R&D and application of lactic acid bacteria and probiotics involves multiple disciplines such as food, medicine and genetic engineering. In recent years, the international community is increasingly concerned about the medicinal value of probiotics. Due to the lack of interdisciplinary research platforms, teams and talents, China is lagging behind. It is recommended to focus on the building of a number of R&D bases on probiotics, lactobacilli, cultivate and establish teams of talented people and industry-university-research and innovation alliances.

SIAL Shanghai believes that in addition to all these, national standards should be formulated as soon as possible to standardize the market. At present, there is neither a national standard nor an industry standard for probiotics, which leads to the phenomenon of bad brands driving out good ones in the market. It is recommended to formulate national standards and industry standards as soon as possible, strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, and improve the threshold of relevant products in terms of the safety and quality of strains.