Health food started gaining popularity in the country in the 1980s, when people's living standards improved, making them more conscious of what they ate.

But ever since the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, health food sales have skyrocketed in China. Today, more than 10,000 different kinds of approved health food are available in the Chinese market, of which 559 are foreign brands.

Health food sales generated revenues of more than 100 billion yuan ($14.65 billion) in 2007. With the rapidly expanding market came abundant reports of harmful ingredients and additives in health food, false advertisements exaggerating the benefits of the product, and production of foodstuff by unlicensed firms.