Guided by the concept of high-quality development establishing an independent management system for nutrient fortifier — Exploring paths for modernizing food safety legislation

This article focuses on the global and Chinese issue of hidden malnutrition， analyzing its causes including nutrient loss in crops， nutritional depletion during food processing and storage， and imbalanced dietary structure. It highlights that nutrient fortifiers are a key means to address micronutrient deficiencies. By comparing the integrated regulatory models of China， the US， and Japan with the independent management systems of international organizations， the EU， Australia and New Zealand， the paper reveals challenges in China’s current approach of regulating nutrient fortifiers under food additives， such as ambiguous functional positioning and public cognitive biases. It proposes amending the Food Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China to establish an independent regulatory system， clarifying the legal definition， approval procedures， and safety assessment criteria for nutrient fortifiers. This aims to shift food safety governance from “risk prevention” to “nutrition promotion”， supporting the realization of the “Healthy China 2030” initiative.