Shanxi Functional Food Research Institute, affiliated with Shanxi Agricultural University, was jointly founded in 2019 by the former Agricultural Products Processing Research Institute (1979), the former Edible Fungi Research Institute (1988) of Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the former Functional Food Research Institute of Shanxi Agricultural University (2017). It is located in the provincial capital of Taiyuan.

Shanxi Functional Food Research Institute is the only professional research institution engaged in the development and transformation of value-added processing technology for functional agriculture and sideline products. With the mission to "strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers, and raise rural living standards,” our research themes mainly consist of environmental quality and safety, monitoring for origin of characteristic agricultural products, functional food development and efficacy evaluation. We are committed to providing scientific support and technical guidance at the different stages of the food chain.

Our institute sets up four administrative departments: Party and Administration Office, Academic Affairs and Research Office, Social Service Department, and Financial Assets Division. Within the realm of functional food, we also distinguish eight core research groups—the Raw Material Functional Factor Mining and Utilization Laboratory, the Fermentation Engineering Technology Laboratory, the Grain Processing Laboratory, the Fruit and Vegetable Processing Laboratory, the Edible Fungus Development and Utilization Laboratory, the Characteristic Agricultural Product Processing Laboratory, the Functional Food Evaluation Center and the Functional Food Industrialization Laboratory—each with its own expertise and area of research, yet organized and integrated into one academic unit. At present, our institute consists of 80 staff members. We have first-class expertise in the field of functional food development, including 9 research fellows, 31 associate research fellows, 10 PhDs, 39 MScs and 7 postgraduate supervisors, among whom we have 1 post expert of national oat and buckwheat industrial technology systems, 1 chief expert of Shanxi modern agricultural industrial technology systems, 2 deputy chief experts and 11 post experts.

The institute covers 6400 m2of laboratories, 2000 m2of pilot workshops facilitated with more than 80 sets of large-scale instruments and equipment, with total assets amounting to more than 50 million yuan. Since the 13thfive-year plan, we have successively undertaken 76 research projects at all levels, received 4 Provincial Patent Awards and an S&T Progress Award with more than 90 papers published and 30 invention patents authorized, 18 national, industrial and local standards formulated and 5 achievements appraised. There are 10 national, provincial and ministerial platforms, such as "the State Key Laboratory of regional functional agriculture on Loess Plateau (functional food unit)", “Medicinal tea center of national tea quality and safety engineering technology research center”, "National coarse cereal processing technology research local center", “the Agriculture Ministry coarse cereal production area processing technology integration base”, "the Agriculture Ministry fruit fermentation processing technology integration scientific test site", “National science popularization workstation for agricultural product quality, safety and nutrition,” “National agricultural science and technology experimental station in the field of agricultural microorganisms”, "Shanxi science popularization education base", “Shanxi Key Laboratory of characteristic agricultural products processing”, “Shanxi coarse cereal engineering center”, as well as director unit of “National drug homologous food industry science and technology innovation alliance", vice-director unit of “National coarse cereal technology innovation strategic alliance”, and executive director unit of “National agricultural product processing industry science and technology innovation alliance”.

Our faculties have accomplished a series of scientific research advancements in the domain of functional food, notably in edible and medicinal fungi, characteristic fruits, vegetables and cereals. This union of expertise leads to scientific breakthroughs that can quickly be put into practice and be incorporated into education. A number of scientific and technological achievements have been industrialized resulting in remarkable social and economic benefits and made huge steps in sustainability, whilst ensuring excellent taste and better nutrition for functional food.