From August 21 to 23, the Second Precision Nutrition Industry Conference was held in Harbin. The conference was hosted by the Precision Nutrition Industry Branch of the Chinese Nutrition Society, with Feihe serving as the sole corporate organizer. During the event, Feihe launched its new raw material brand "Zhichun," introducing six protein raw materials, five premix products, and a series of full-age nutrition products. Additionally, it finalized multiple strategic collaborations with leading nutrition and sports brands, marking its official entry into the protein raw material sector.
During the conference, a financial reporter conducted an exclusive interview with Cai Qi, the Greater China Marketing Director for Government and Industry at Waters Corporation. Against the backdrop of domestic dairy protein raw materials accelerating the achievement of high-activity retention, the industry faces a practical challenge: protein active structures are invisible and intangible. How can a reliable detection system be established to truly evaluate the quality of protein raw materials? Cai Qi's discussion revolved around a core industry theme - detection methods serve as the fundamental foundation for domestic protein raw materials to benchmark quality.
In his view, dairy protein detection generally encounters four major technical difficulties: difficulty in identifying protein higher-order structures, interference from complex food matrices, insufficient quantitative reproducibility, and inconsistent testing standards across different laboratories. China's research-level detection capabilities are not lagging behind, but there is an urgent need to transform research technologies into routine industry quality control methods, while addressing gaps in standard reference materials and quantitative evaluation systems for protein subtypes.
Focusing on innovative detection technologies such as ion mobility mass spectrometry and size exclusion chromatography, real-time online monitoring solutions for emerging nutrition raw materials from synthetic biology, and calls for industry-university-research collaboration to establish industry standards, Cai Qi shared with the reporter how detection technology can build a solid quality foundation for the precision nutrition industry. The following is a summary of the interview content:
What core technologies currently exist in the industry for activity evaluation and quality detection of functional proteins such as whey protein and casein?
From a global perspective, precise protein detection is inherently a very challenging technology. First, there is the identification of protein higher-order structures. Aggregation, degradation, and variability have minimal impact on total protein content but significantly affect protein activity. Second, there is the issue of separation. Food matrices are extremely complex. For instance, in dairy products - the focus of this conference - proteins are present alongside fats and numerous small molecules, all of which can interfere with precise protein quantification. Third, there is the challenge of precisely measuring protein content with reproducibility and accuracy. The question is how to use advanced technological methods to accurately and reproducibly measure protein content, which constitutes the third difficulty. Fourth, there is the matter of standardization in detection. Different laboratories employ different methods for protein detection, and the question becomes how to correlate and cross-compare these data sets.
How can Waters' analytical solutions provide key support for the quality upgrading of protein raw materials?
Waters was founded on liquid chromatography. We now utilize technologies such as size exclusion chromatography, ion exchange chromatography, and reversed-phase chromatography, which not only separate small molecules in food matrices from proteins but also enable separation of protein aggregates through size exclusion chromatography. Regarding protein higher-order structures, Waters was the first in the market to introduce innovative ion mobility mass spectrometry, which is highly beneficial for studying protein higher-order structures.
China's protein raw material industry is accelerating domestic substitution, and detection methods are the core foundation of quality standards. What gaps still need to be addressed in detection methods and quality standard system development for domestic dairy protein raw materials to benchmark or even surpass international levels?
Protein detection is a global challenge. In the research field, I believe the protein detection capabilities in our universities are not behind those of other countries or laboratories globally - we hold a leading position worldwide. The opportunity for us to progress lies in transforming these technologies into universal laboratory detection methods. During industry development, we need to strengthen industry-university-research interaction, converting these methods into quality control procedures. This is something we can pursue in the future. Second, protein detection heavily relies on standard reference materials. The establishment of these reference materials and their traceability systems still has room for development, which could be a future direction for technological advancement. Third, regarding current methods for identifying and quantifying protein subtypes, transforming them into a more standardized system with a complete evaluation framework is another area we can develop in the future.
This conference covers numerous emerging functional nutrition sectors such as biosynthetic raw materials and probiotics. These ingredients have complex compositions and diverse functional activities, placing higher demands on detection technology. What innovative technical solutions does Waters offer for emerging functional raw materials in the precision nutrition field?
The food sector is currently booming. Technologies such as synthetic biology and precision fermentation, as you mentioned, are developing vigorously, spawning many new sub-sectors including novel food raw materials and food additives. On one hand, in research settings, Waters offers a series of high-resolution mass spectrometers, from our most advanced cyclic ion mobility mass spectrometers to high-resolution instruments used routinely in laboratories. These enable better detection of metabolites from strains or cells. Waters also introduced online detection solutions quite early on. Traditional detection was laboratory-based - sampling from the workshop and bringing it to the lab for testing, which is offline detection. In the new synthetic biology field, we're not only performing detection but also aiming to monitor metabolite production levels of strains in real-time during strain and cell culture processes on the production floor. Waters has similar solutions, and some clients and enterprises at this conference have already implemented them for continuous real-time monitoring. Third, as mentioned earlier, since we hope to bring these advanced precise detection methods into laboratories as routine quality control tools, Waters also offers a range of triple quadrupole mass spectrometers. In dairy products, for instance, standardized quantitative detection methods have been established for proteins from different animal sources.
The development of the precision nutrition industry demands detection technology upgrade from conventional indicators to functional activity indicators. What are your expectations for this conference in promoting industry-university-research collaboration?
First, I hope to use this conference to call for accelerated joint interaction between research institutions and enterprises, developing more routine quality control detection methods suitable for corporate use and converting them into daily monitoring tools. Second, I also hope to use this platform to urge all industry stakeholders - multiple departments, universities, and enterprises - to form linkages and establish a standardized detection system that better promotes the development of China's precision nutrition industry. Finally, I want to advocate through this conference that academic exchange events like this Second Precision Nutrition Conference become regular, routine communication platforms, giving enterprises, research institutions, and standard-setting bodies more opportunities for mutual learning, exchange, and sharing. Let China's precision nutrition industry continue to thrive and improve.
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