Intractable Rare Dis Res. 2026;15(1):26-44. (DOI: 10.5582/irdr.2025.01075)

Foods for special medical purposes for the dietary therapy of rare diseases: Current status and future prospects

Zhang T, Wang Y, Shi CP, Zi Y, Cai W, Zhong J


SUMMARY

Foods for special medical purposes (FSMPs) is a type of products that provides targeted nutritional support for specific diseases or physiological conditions. Compared with conventional dietary therapy, FSMPs are more targeted, safer, and applicable in clinic. When FSMPs are used to treat rare diseases, their core principle is to bypass or alleviate metabolic disorders. With the increasing recognition of clinical treatment effectiveness and the growing demand from patients, the types and market scale of commercial rare disease FSMPs continue to expand. However, there are currently no article summarized and analyzed the characteristics of diverse commercial products. Based on this, this review collected and collated the vast majority of commercial rare disease FSMPs in the global market, and summarized the characteristics of these products by categorizing them into protein substitutes, nutritional modules, ketogenic diets (KDs), and special low protein foods (SLPFs). Following the comprehensive analysis of the global commercial rare disease FSMPs landscape, this review shifted focus to China and provided suggestions from product diversity, technological innovation, and policy optimization. It aims to offer available suggestions and references for the healthy development of rare disease FSMPs in China.


KEYWORDS: rare disease, foods for special medical purposes (FSMPs), protein substitutes, nutritional modules, ketogenic diets (KDs), special low protein foods (SLPFs)

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