Third (2025) National Academic Conference on Maternal and Infant Nutrition and Evidence-based Feeding Held in Nanjing

On 21–22 November 2025, the Third (2025) National Academic Conference on Maternal and Infant Nutrition and Evidence-based Feeding was held at the Nanjing Dongjiao State Guesthouse in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. Under the guidance of the CNHFA and the Jiangsu Association for Science and Technology, the conference was hosted by the CNHFA Maternal and Infant Nutrition Specialised Committee and organised by the Jiangsu Nutrition Society. The theme, “Professional–Consumer Communication on Maternal and Infant Dietary Nutrition and Safety in the New Health Landscape”, focused on strengthening communication and improving coordination among clinical professionals, manufacturers, regulators and consumers, while promoting cross-professional, interdisciplinary and cross-functional collaboration to advance maternal and infant dietary nutrition and safety.

More than 120 experts attended the conference in person, including scholars from universities, hospitals, maternal and child health institutions, public health organisations, the disease prevention and control system, nutrition and health food enterprises, and the media and communications sector, as well as members of the CNHFA Maternal and Infant Nutrition Specialised Committee. The conference was livestreamed via the event website and platforms including Yiquanshi (医全视), Sohu Health, and Baidu Health, attracting nearly 500,000 online views from industry professionals and consumers. The opening ceremony was chaired by Huang Yan, Director of the CNHFA Communication Department.

The conference featured opening remarks from Wang Zhixu, Chair of the CNHFA Maternal and Infant Nutrition Specialised Committee; Wang Xiaofeng, Level II Inspector of the Jiangsu Association for Science and Technology; and Li Liangqiu, Executive Vice President of the CNHFA. The speakers emphasised that maternal and infant nutrition constitutes a foundational pillar of the Healthy China strategy and called for multi-stakeholder collaboration to promote the standardised and high-quality development of the sector.

Wang Zhixu, Chair of the CNHFA Maternal and Infant Nutrition Specialised Committee and Professor at the School of Public Health, Nanjing Medical University, noted that, amid the comprehensive advancement of the Healthy China Initiative, dietary nutrition and food safety for maternal and infant populations represent a critical cornerstone of the maternal and child health system. He stressed that promoting effective communication between professionals and consumers is essential to enhancing maternal and infant nutrition literacy and translating evidence-based feeding practices into action.

Wang Xiaofeng, Level II Inspector of the Jiangsu Association for Science and Technology, noted in his remarks that maternal and infant nutrition forms the foundation of health across the life course and represents a key component of the Healthy China agenda. The Jiangsu Nutrition Society, as a major social force in advancing nutrition in Jiangsu Province, has achieved notable progress in recent years in academic exchange and science communication. He expressed the hope that the Society would take this conference as an opportunity to bring together a broad community of scientific and technical professionals, build high-calibre academic platforms, and make a greater contribution to the development of maternal and infant nutrition science and to the Healthy Jiangsu initiative. He added that the Jiangsu Association for Science and Technology would continue to support the Society’s innovative development.

In her remarks, Li Liangqiu, Executive Vice President of the CNHFA, highly commended the CNHFA Maternal and Infant Nutrition Specialised Committee for its ongoing work and expressed gratitude to the committee’s experts for their dedicated contributions. She noted that the conference theme is closely aligned with current needs and that strengthened science communication would significantly promote the dissemination of nutrition knowledge among maternal and infant populations and enhance the nutrition service capacity of maternal and child health institutions.

During the conference, a launch ceremony was held for the Chinese-language edition of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ book Child Nutrition Guidelines. The book was compiled and translated by experts convened by the CNHFA Maternal and Infant Nutrition Specialised Committee and provides systematic recommendations on children’s dietary nutrition, eating behaviours, nutrition risk screening and evidence-based feeding strategies. It will offer authoritative scientific guidance for professional institutions, childcare providers, families and product developers, and support innovation in the ways child nutrition and health knowledge is communicated.

Over the two days, the conference featured 22 keynote thematic presentations covering a range of priority topics, including breastfeeding, nutritional interventions for pregnancy complications, milk fat globule science, probiotic applications, children’s eating behaviours, allergy prevention, nutrition and food education, dietary practices during pregnancy and postpartum, nutritional support for assisted reproduction, debates around height promotion, and pre-prepared foods in relation to maternal and infant nutrition.

During the conference, the CNHFA Maternal and Infant Nutrition Specialised Committee reviewed its 2025 science communication work and further clarified key future priorities, including evidence-based feeding education, nutrition literacy improvement, professional training, industry–academia–research collaboration, and the development of standards for content review.

The successful convening of the Third (2025) National Academic Conference on Maternal and Infant Nutrition and Evidence-based Feeding established an efficient platform for communication among maternal and child health institutions, universities and research institutions, public health systems, and the maternal and infant nutrition industry. By focusing on key issues such as maternal and infant dietary nutrition safety, the adoption of evidence-based feeding practices, the dissemination of evidence-based nutrition knowledge, and the translation of innovative nutrition research into practice, the conference provided important support for the high-quality development of maternal and infant nutrition in China.

Looking ahead, under the guidance of relevant authorities, the CNHFA Maternal and Infant Nutrition Specialised Committee will continue to advance the development of professional standards, promote the sharing of science communication resources, strengthen industry–academia–research collaboration, and enhance public nutrition literacy, thereby contributing professional expertise to the health of women and children in China and to the goals of the Healthy China initiative.

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