"0 Sugar" "0 Sucrose" Children's Food, a "Word Game" of the brand?

Zhongxin Jingwei, March 24 (Lin Wansi) 8-year-old Xiaoying is in the first grade of primary school, and a recent physical examination found that her weight exceeded the reference range and her urine sugar was positive, and the doctor suggested that Xiaoying's endocrinology department be treated and control blood sugar, which made xiao Yun, a "post-90s" mother, puzzled.

Xiao Yun told Zhongxin Jingwei that he usually pays great attention to his child's diet, "Children love to eat snacks, but I will pick children's food labeled '0 sucrose' and '0 sugar' every time to buy, why is the child's physical examination results still problematic? Do snacks still contain sugar? ”

Many parents will be attracted by the words "0 sugar" and "0 sucrose" on the outer packaging of the product when purchasing children's food. But are children's foods with such labels really sugar-free?

The "0 Sugar" wind blew into the children's food track

With the increasing health awareness of consumers, "sugar-free, low-sugar" foods have appeared on the market, and this trend has gradually affected infant and children's food.

Since 2020, Liangpin Shop, Baicao Flavor, Three Squirrels, etc. have launched children's food sub-brands. In May 2020, Liangpin Shop launched the children's snack sub-brand "Little Food Fairy"; in the same month, Baicaowei also launched the "Tong An An Xiao Friend" series of products focusing on the field of children's snacks; in June 2020, Three Squirrels opened a sub-brand "Deer Blue Blue" flagship store on Tmall.

Zhongxin Jingwei found on the e-commerce platform that many children's food brands have launched "0 sugar" foods. For example, a sugar-free lollipop package for Fawn Blue blue has a clear "sugar-free" logo printed on it, but the ingredient list shows that the product contains ingredients such as isomaltonetitol and steviol glycosides, and the carbohydrate content per 100g of product is 99g.

Zhongxin Jingwei asked customer service about whether the lollipop is sugar-free, whether it will cause the child to gain weight, caries and other issues, the other party said that it does not contain white sugar, blood sugar will not rise, and there is no risk of gaining weight and tooth decay in moderation.

Screenshot of the e-commerce platform

In addition to the above snack brands, children's food of Photosynthetic Planet, Miaofei, Beoganti and other brands is also marked as "sugar-free", "no added white sugar" and "no added sucrose", at the same time, crystalline fructose, isomaltoneitol, maltitol, xylitol, maltitol solution appear in the ingredient list, and the carbohydrate content of some products per 100g reaches 98g.

After comparing the ingredient list labeled "0 sucrose" with ordinary children's products, Zhongxin Jingwei found that the fat content of foods marked with "0 sucrose" was almost the same as that of ordinary products, but the price was higher. Comparing Miaofei's "0 sucrose" cheese sticks with the same brand of growth series cheese sticks, it was found that the fat content of the two was 18.1g/100g and 18.2g/100g, respectively.

In terms of price, the customer service of The Miaofei online flagship store said that the current production date of the "0 sucrose" cheese stick in the store is earlier, and promotional activities are being carried out, so the price of the "0 sucrose" cheese stick of Miaofei is low. "If the production date is relatively recent, the price of the Miaofei "0 Sucrose" cheese stick is higher than that of the growth series cheese stick. ”

In the flagship store of Akita Manman and Fawn Blue Blue, Zhongxin Jingwei also found that under the same specification, the price of "0 sucrose" lollipops is higher than that of hawthorn lollipops under the same brand.

The popularity of "0 sugar" children's food has given snack giants new opportunities. Taking three squirrels as an example, its financial report shows that as of the first half of 2021, Xiaolu Blue has nearly 3 million users, and the user semi-annual repurchase rate is more than 35%. In the first three quarters of 2021, the revenue of the three squirrels was 7.070 billion yuan, of which the deer blue blue omni-channel revenue was 332 million yuan.

Many brands focusing on infant and toddler snacks have also gained the favor of capital. According to media reports, "Akita Manchu" has completed tens of millions of dollars in series B financing at the end of 2021, led by Yuce Capital, with the continued support of old shareholders Shunwei Capital and Qingliu Capital, and Yuanqi Capital as the exclusive financial advisor. During the same period, another brand, Wo Xiaoya, announced the completion of a 100 million yuan B round of financing led by Yuanjing Capital and followed by Triangle Capital and Fuji Capital.

Experts: Whether sugar substitutes are harmful to health is still controversial

Is there really no sugar in the food labeled "0 sugar" and "0 sucrose"? According to the General Principles of Food Safety National Standard for Prepackaged Food Nutrition Labeling, if the food label claims "no or no sugar", the sugar content per 100 grams of solid or 100 ml liquid cannot exceed 0.5 grams. This is not completely sugar-free as some parents understand.

"For enterprises, labeling words such as 'low sugar', 'sugar-free' and 'sugar-free' is nothing more than trying to highlight their advantages in similar products and attract consumers to buy." Fan Zhihong, associate professor of the College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering of China Agricultural University, said in an interview with Zhongxin Jingwei.

Behind the "0 sugar" pandemic is the "victory" of sweeteners and sugar substitutes. Fan Zhihong introduced that some products on the market label "0 sucrose" means not to add white sugar, cotton sugar, rock sugar, brown sugar, etc., but may add other types of sugar, such as sugar, fucose, isomaltose, etc., may also be added to the fructose syrup, glucose syrup, maltose syrup and other sugary ingredients that do not belong to sucrose; labeling "0 sugar" means that there is no addition of any chemical structure belongs to the sugar ingredients, even glucose, fructose, fucose, etc., to rely on sweeteners to produce sweetness.

Fan Zhihong said that the taste of low-sugar drinks or sugar-free beverages is still pan-sweet, because of the addition of other sweetening food additives, mainly including sugar alcohols, glycosides and synthetic sweeteners.

"The sweetness of sugar alcohols and white sugar is only a few tens of percent differences, while glycoside sweeteners and synthetic sweeteners are 'high-efficiency' sweeteners, and their sweetness is tens to hundreds of times that of sucrose, also known as 'sugar substitutes'." She introduced that in addition, oligosaccharides also have a certain sweetness, such as fructooligosaccharides, xylose oligosaccharides, isomaltose oligosaccharides, etc., but oligosaccharides are more used to promote the proliferation of beneficial intestinal bacteria, so they are not called "sweeteners".

Fan Zhihong said that the sweetness of sugar alcohol sweeteners is relatively natural, the absorption and utilization rate is low, the calorie is low, the blood sugar effect is small, and it will not cause the problem of tooth decay. However, the digestion and absorption rate of sugar alcohols in the small intestine is low, and when the concentration is slightly higher, it will stimulate the intestine, promote excretion, and may cause diarrhea in severe cases.

So is low-sugar or sugar-free children's food conducive to preventing childhood obesity and diabetes? Fan Zhihong believes that compared with children's foods containing a lot of sugar, the health risks of low-sugar and sugar-free foods may be slightly smaller, but whether "sugar substitutes" are harmful to health is still controversial.

She said some studies have suggested that "sugar substitute" foods are not like foods with lots of sugar to promote obesity and diabetes. But there are also some studies that show that in the case of free diet (not eating a fixed recipe), replacing sugar with sweeteners does not have the effect of "effectively preventing obesity" or "effectively preventing diabetes". Some short-term studies have found that some sweeteners have a reducing effect on insulin sensitivity. "The relevant research is not conclusive enough, and more evidence will need to be waited for in the future."

"It should be noted that the sweetness of fructose is refreshing and pleasant, and its application has become more and more common in recent years, especially sought after by the market. However, fructose consumption promotes liver fat synthesis, increases the risk of insulin resistance, and promotes obesity, diabetes and gout. Although children are still far from chronic diseases, there are too many fat children today, and sweet foods and sweet drinks containing fructose are also to be restricted. Fan Zhihong reminded.

"Enterprises are discouraged from attracting consumers with the '0 sugar' logo"

For many ordinary consumers, the word "0 sugar" on the packaging is enough to allow them to add the goods to the shopping cart.

Qian Zhou, a partner and lawyer at Tianda Gonghe Law Firm, said in an interview with Zhongxin Jingwei reporter that while the ingredients list of "0 sucrose" and "sugar-free" are written in food packaging, it is marked with sugary substances such as isomaltitol, xylitol, maltose syrup and so on, which is obviously a word game based on the asymmetry of consumer information.

According to the provisions of the Advertising Law, where there is an indication in the advertisement about the performance, function, place of origin, use, quality, composition, price, producer, expiration date, promise, etc. of the goods, they shall be accurate, clear and clear. Advertisements must not contain false or misleading content, and must not deceive or mislead consumers.

"As ordinary consumers, they have fulfilled their basic duty of care when purchasing goods, and the promotion of sugar-free by merchants will cause consumers to be misleading, resulting in consumers making wrong choices." Qian Zhou said.

During the two sessions of the National People's Congress in 2022, Liu Xin, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a professor at the School of Life Sciences of Sun Yat-sen University, also said that food companies are not encouraged to attract consumers with the "0 sugar" and "sugar-free" logos, and should really reduce sugar, and truthfully inform consumers of what measures have been taken to reduce how much sugar or what sweeteners have been used.

He suggested that the food claim management system should be improved, learning from the practice of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), standardizing the terms used for nutritional ingredient function claims, smoothing the channels for supplementing and updating nutritional ingredient function claims, and ensuring that ordinary foods can standardize functional claims supported by scientific evidence.

Zhongxin Jingwei noted that local regulatory departments have taken a shot at the "0 sucrose publicity". In June 2021, the Shijiazhuang Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau announced the launch of the "0 sucrose" type of special rectification activities for consumer rights and interests, and interviewed some food enterprises and retailers, requiring major supermarkets and production enterprises involved in the "0 sucrose" labeled food in the city to carry out self-examination and self-correction, and set up reminder slogans to make the operation and consumption of "0 sucrose" food clear.

(At the request of the interviewees, Xiao Ying and Xiao Yun are pseudonyms) (Zhongxin Jingwei APP)

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Editor-in-Charge: Luo Kun