The approach has been regarded as highly innovative in the field of health food in China
Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology (CIFST) brought together experts in Beijing to evaluate the results of a collaborative R&D effort between Infinitus (China) Company Ltd. and Hangzhou Hunter Biotechnology Co., Ltd., named the Application of Zebrafish Efficacy and Safety Rapid Evaluation System in Health Food.
As part of the effort, the zebrafish were fed with fluorescent dye and photographed under a fluorescence microscope to establish a quantitative analysis method for examining and measuring the ability of health products to nourish the intestine and relieve constipation.
Attendees to the meeting agreed that this zebrafish-based efficacy and safety rapid evaluation system is an effective supplement to the existing efficacy and safety evaluation methods of mammal models, effectively improving the quality control of the ingredients that are used to produce health food and promoting the development of health products industry.
Zebrafish are highly similar to mammals in physiology, development and metabolism, and share an 87% homology with human genes. About 2,000 human diseases, including cancer, can occur in zebrafish. As the technology can reliably simulate and predict human physiological and pathological processes, it has been widely used in the field of drug safety evaluation. The approach has been regarded as highly innovative in the field of health food in China.
In 2018, Infinitus established a cooperation biosafety evaluation platform based on fish embryo with Vitargent (International) Biotechnology Limited, a biotechnology firm located in Hong Kong, and applied the fish embryo-based biotoxicity test technology to the screening of the ingredients that go into health food and cosmetics as well as to product toxicity examination, process control and safety solution research.
Infinitus is now collaborating with Hunter Biotechnology, a leading zebrafish biotechnology solution provider, to launch the project of the Application of Zebrafish Efficacy and Safety Rapid Evaluation System in Health Food, which marks a further exploration by Infinitus into product safety through biological testing.
In recent years, Infinitus has continued to expand and improve food safety research technologies. At the end of 2018, Infinitus filed an application for a research project entitled Basic Research on Risk Assessment and Functional Evaluation of Health Food (2018YFC1602100) jointly with several like-minded organizations. As part of the project, Infinitus undertook the key research and development tasks for the research into internal and external harmful substances in health food including identification, early warning, reduction and elimination of risk substances in the production process. It was approved by the project of Research and Development of Key Technology of Food Safety in 2018, which is one of the National Key Research and Development Program of China.
