Recently, the 2025 China Nutrition & Health Autumn Market Summit, initiated by the Market Working Committee of the China Health Care Association and others, was held in Nanjing. As a key concurrent event of the China International Health & Nutrition Expo (NHNE), the summit centered on the theme “Unlocking the ‘Comprehensive Liver Protection’ Ingredient Matrix to Combat Silent Health Threats.” It brought together representatives from institutions and brands including Tmall Global, Italy's Indena, and Germany's VIKPRO to explore topics such as liver health trends and ingredient innovation, driving the development of a new scientific ecosystem for liver protection. 
Liver Health Crisis Escalates: Scientific Intervention Urgently Needed to Break the Deadlock
The 2025 Scientific Nutrition White Paper on Liver Fat Reduction released by Tmall Global at the summit reveals that China's fatty liver patient population is approaching 300 million, with a significant trend toward younger age groups. Poor habits like chronic alcohol consumption, sleep deprivation, and high-fat diets are primary culprits, yet the market suffers from severe product homogenization and a lack of scientific guidance. Flooded with traditional claims like “hangover relief” and “liver detox,” consumers struggle to identify effective solutions, urgently requiring evidence-based precision nutrition interventions.
Ingredient innovation breaks through traditional liver protection limitations
The summit focuses on analyzing scientific advancements in core liver-protective ingredients such as silymarin, fucoxanthin, and glutathione. Among these, silymarin stands as the most representative and widely recognized liver guardian, demonstrating significant effects in fat metabolism, antioxidant activity, and hepatocyte repair. It stabilizes liver cell membranes while maintaining their integrity, providing precise protection for liver health.
However, despite its potential for liver protection, silibinin's poor water solubility and low bioavailability limit its application. To address this industry challenge, Germany's VIKPRO and Italy's Indena jointly developed Siliphos® Silibinin Phospholipid Complex. By hydrogen-bonding silibinin with phosphatidylcholine and leveraging phospholipids' cell membrane carrier properties, this innovation boosts active ingredient absorption efficiency tenfold. It overcomes traditional delivery bottlenecks, enabling targeted nutrient delivery directly to liver cells.
German Technology Builds Cellular-Level Nutrition System
VIKPRO Product Director Bela emphasized in her presentation: “The core competitiveness of liver health products lies in the efficient utilization of ingredients.” Leveraging scientific support from Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany, VIKPRO has achieved breakthroughs in cellular phospholipid delivery technology. By optimizing molecular structures, the core ingredients precisely penetrate cellular barriers to target liver tissue, achieving absorption rates 10-25 times higher than conventional levels. Its liver protection products employ a 100x small-molecule high-concentration process, extracting 160mg of essence from 16,000mg of milk thistle concentrate. This ensures high purity while avoiding impurity burdens.
Beyond its core ingredients, VIKPRO products integrate eight key herbal nutrients—including licorice, schisandra, and curcumin—to establish a four-dimensional protective system: purify (detoxify), eliminate (metabolize), repair (restore), and protect (nourish). This scientifically balanced formulation not only addresses the limitations of single-ingredient solutions but also delivers a comprehensive approach covering the entire liver metabolic pathway, enabling systematic health management.
Industry-Academia-Research Collaboration Drives Industry Upgrading
The summit reached a consensus through cross-sector dialogue: Against the backdrop of heightened health awareness, the liver health industry must strengthen scientific research backing to drive a shift from “concept marketing” to “evidence-based value.” Experts emphasized that only by leveraging technological innovation to precisely meet consumer needs can the industry achieve sustainable development.
As Asia's flagship platform in health and nutrition, NHNE will continue to integrate global resources, promote deep integration between scientific research and the market, and provide professional support for the Healthy China strategy. The scientific achievements and industrial practices showcased at this summit signify that China's liver health industry is transitioning from traditional models to the era of precision nutrition, offering innovative solutions to address increasingly severe liver health challenges.
