Over the past 20–30 years, the consumption of milk and dairy products in Russia has been steadily declining. An online survey was carried out to find out the reasons for this. The questionnaire was created on the Yandex forms platform with automatic counting of answers. The questionnaire contained 34 questions about the inclusion of dairy products in the diet, the reasons for refusing dairy products, the nutritional value of dairy products, etc. Statistical data processing was performed by the analysis of variance (ANOVA). The significance level was taken equal to 0.05.

The methodological aspects of substantiating the expediency of the commodity classification of sports nutrition products included monitoring the actual nutrition of athletes, researching the market for specialized food products for athletes and consumer preferences of people with increased physical activity. It has been established that all athletes use specialized products in their practice with varying degrees of regularity. Most athletes want to use specialized foods in the form of traditional foods. The most in demand among the target audience are high-protein foods, biologically active food additives and carbohydrate-protein products, which are used by 59%, 55% and 32% of respondents, respectively. When asked about the manufacturer of specialized food products that the respondents accept, 87% named foreign companies. Evaluation of the actual diets of athletes showed that there is an imbalance in the main macronutrients in the diets compared to the recommended ratio of caloric content of proteins, lipids and carbohydrates. Based on the analysis of consumer preferences and metabolic characteristics of athletes in different sports, a fundamental classification of sports nutrition products has been developed, taking into account their macronutrient composition and energy value.

Like in many other developed countries, Russian population is facing a gap between the actual diet and the nutritional needs. As a result, nutrition-related diseases are growing more wide-spread. Specialized foods reduce the consequences of poor nutrition and prevent nutritionrelated diseases. However, Russia lags behind other countries in this sphere and has to import specialized foods, which threatens its food security. Dairy products are an excellent source of animal protein, calcium, phosphorus, vitamins, and other biologically active substances. For the past three decades, Russian diet has remained below the values for dairy products recommended by the Ministry of Health. The present research objective was to assess the state of innovative dairy market in the Russian Federation using the method of expert assessment in terms of classification, composition, and producer in the Eurasian Economic Region. In March 2024, the total number of certified specialized dairy foods was 7,422 units. Dry foods predominated, e.g., powders, jellies, smoothies, cocoa, tea drinks, cocktails, puree soups, cereals, candies, bars, etc. The share of specialized dairy products in the total volume of functional foods was 0.97%, which is too low to raise the public interest to dairy products and stimulate the dairy industry as a whole. Cooperation with scientific and expert organizations will make it possible to scale up the production of specialized dairy products using the equipment available to most dairy processing enterprises.

The relevance of the development, production and sales of specialized food products for athletes is due to the growing interest of ordinary people in sports activities and the need to adjust the diet of professional athletes. Biomedical research has established widespread violations of the optimal food structure, food and energy value of athletes’ diets and substantiated the need to develop specialized food products for athletes of various qualifications. Furthermore, the search for reliable methods and diagnostic tests that most accurately reflect the picture of metabolic changes during high-intensity physical activity is of great importance. Legal aspects of athlete nutrition, including the development of technical regulations, standards, etc., contribute to the development of this industry. The technology for the production of food products for athletes is dominated by fractionation of macronutrients of food raw materials into individual components, extraction of trace elements and minor ingredients from food raw materials, and use of modified ingredients. To develop the sports nutrition industry and optimize the nutrition of athletes, it is necessary to consolidate specialists in the field of medicine, legal regulation and production technology.

Phycocyanins are biologically active substances of spirulina platensis biomass and have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties. Research is being carried out at the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Federal Research Center for Nutrition and Biotechnology” to create a food module - a carrier of these biologically active substances. In this work, the interaction of phycocyanin with casein micelles was studied by fluorescence spectroscopy. As a result of the studies carried out, it was shown that at an excitation wavelength of 280 nm and an emission range of 300-450 nm, which is characteristic of tryptophan, a fluorescent marker of casein, the fluorescence of an aqueous solution of casein is completely suppressed by phycocyanins.