Source: China Consumer Daily
China Consumer Daily reporter Meng Gang
After a one-year buffer period, on June 1 this year, the "Liquor Industry Terminology" and the "Beverage Liquor Terminology and Classification" national standards (hereinafter referred to as the new national standard) revised and issued by the State Administration of Market Regulation and the State Standards Administration committee were officially implemented. The new national standard makes it clear that liquor shall not use non-grain edible alcohol and food additives, and at the same time, flavored liquor has been excluded from the ranks of liquor and redefined as formulated liquor.
In the face of the implementation of the new national standard, some liquor companies have moved with the trend and upgraded their products while launching new products. Industry insiders believe that the new national standard accelerates the quality upgrade of the liquor industry, increases the transparency of the industry, and allows consumers to clearly consume.
Old products are still on sale
The new national standard makes it clear that liquor is distilled liquor made of grain and grain as the main raw material, with big koji, small koji, bran koji, enzyme preparations and yeast as saccharification fermentation agents, and is distilled, saccharified, fermented, distilled, aged and blended. Regardless of the process by which liquor is produced, whether it is liquid liquor or solid liquor, or solid liquor, any liquor that is added to the additives used for flavoring food or uses non-grain edible alcohol can no longer be called liquor, but should be called prepared liquor or flavored liquor. According to the definition of "Liquor Industry Terminology", "flavored liquor" is a liquor-style liquor formulated with a liquor style based on solid liquor, liquid liquor, solid liquor or edible alcohol.
Although the new national standard gives liquor companies a one-year buffer period, the reporter recently visited some supermarkets in Beijing and found that there are still many perfumed liquors with old labels on the market. These products include Niulan Mountain aging, Red Star Fragrant Style 5-year aging, Jian Nanchun's Mianzhu Daqu, Luzhou Laojiao's various products, and the old village Changxiang Mantang.
However, the reporter learned that the production date of these products is relatively early, before June 1 this year, and some are even produced in 2020.
In beijing Chaoyang Joy City underground supermarket, the reporter found that the ingredient list of "Niulanshan Aging", "Treasure Aging" and "New Generation Aging" of Beijing Shunxin Agricultural Niulanshan Distillery (hereinafter referred to as Niulanshan) is clearly marked with "edible spices", and the ingredient list of the two pots label of Niulanshan also shows edible alcohol and edible spice ingredients. Also in the supermarket, a 2019 version of Luzhou Laojiao Erqu, which is nominally produced by Luzhou Laojiao Co., Ltd. and priced at 22.8 yuan, is clearly marked with edible spice ingredients on its product label. In a supermarket near Dingfuzhuang in Beijing, the reporter also found a Mianzhu Daqu produced by Sichuan Mianzhu Jian Nanchun Distillery Co., Ltd. and brewed by the solid-liquid method, as well as a Red Star 42 degree 5-year aging price of 21.5 yuan, and the label ingredient list was marked with edible spice ingredients.
Online channels, in the flagship store of Luzhou Laojiao on an e-commerce platform, there are a variety of perfumed liquors for sale, such as 52 degrees of old cellar mellow aroma, old cellar family series of fine products, diamonds, old cellar cellar incense collection, old cellar collection series of products of the blessing, the way of hiding, the common appreciation and other products. Known as "national liquor, pure grain brewing" of the old village chief also has added cooking spices products, on the e-commerce platform, many third-party sellers sell the old village Chang Xiang Man Tang brand liquor is brewed using the solid liquid method, its ingredient list shows water, liquid liquor, solid liquor and edible spices. In addition, some third-party sellers sell the two products of Zhijiang Special Qu Boutique Wine and Zhijiang Daqu produced by Hubei Zhijiang Liquor Co., Ltd., which are also added to food additives, such as the food additive ingredient added by Zhijiang Daqu is three-filter sucrose.
Guo Xinguang, deputy chief engineer of China Food Fermentation Industry Research Institute Co., Ltd., told China Consumer Daily that cereals include rice, wheat, corn, sorghum, barley, barley, etc., but do not include potatoes. The reporter found that it is difficult to see sweet potato wine in offline supermarkets in Beijing, but there are still merchants selling sweet potato soju on the e-commerce platform.
Why are the products with the old label still on sale after the implementation of the new national standard? In this regard, Meng Zhen, a senior engineer at the China Food Fermentation Industry Research Institute, told the China Consumer Daily reporter that the perfumed liquor produced before June 1 was not affected by the new national standard. After this, non-pure grain brewing can no longer use the word "liquor", but it can still continue to be produced and sold.
Some product upgrades
Although the new national standard has been implemented for nearly a month, it is still difficult to find liquor produced after June 1 in the offline market. The reporter learned that according to the new national standard, some of the single products on the market that meet the definition of perfumed liquor have been upgraded to become pure grain solid wine.
As early as last year, Luzhou Laojiao stopped the production of the old product Erqu, and launched a pure grain solid black lid Erqu wine, the ingredients are water, sorghum, wheat. Niulanshan Distillery recently launched the core product of the tower base developed based on the new national standard - gold standard aging, and the Red Star Second Pot Head has also upgraded a number of products, and the product label has added the "pure grain solid fermentation" logo.
After the introduction of the new national standard, is the "blended wine" produced according to the previous production process still produced and sold? In this regard, Shunxin Agriculture head An Yuanzhi replied to reporters on the investor platform that whether it is liquor produced by solid state method, liquid method or solid liquid method, there is no advantage or disadvantage in essence, only depending on the process, in order to meet the needs of different consumers for products, the company will give full play to the traditional brewing advantages of "cow wine" and realize the "two-wheel drive" of "Pure Grain Solid State" and "New Process Technology" of "Niulan Mountain" in the field of light bottle wine.
The customer service of the Zhijiang flagship store also said in response to reporters that old products such as Zhijiang Daqu or offline products have been updated and no longer produced.
It is understood that the current flavored liquor products on the market are mainly low-end light bottle wine. From the perspective of the market, the price of light bottle wine can be divided into three categories: low, medium and high, with unit prices below 15 yuan, 15-30 yuan and 30 yuan and above, respectively, while the main price bands are widely distributed in 10-50 yuan.
Liquor consumption is more transparent
The reporter found in the interview that consumers have different degrees of understanding of the new national standard. Some consumers said that they had heard of the new national standard and clearly stated that "buying wine will pay more attention to the label and prefer to choose pure grain brewing"; More is "not too much attention to the label, only according to their own preferences and tastes."
In this regard, Cai Xuefei, an expert in the Chinese liquor industry think tank, told the "China Consumer Daily" reporter that liquor is a flavored drink, consumers are accustomed to drinking a kind of wine, which will produce taste, quality dependence and preference, and will not give up a certain brand because of the adjustment of the standard, and the new national standard is more of an adjustment to the production end.
In the view of Song Shuyu, chairman of the China Liquor Industry Association, the main core definition of the new national standard is to highly match the classification definition with consumer cognition. For example, consumers generally believe that liquor using pure grain solid fermentation process is "grain wine", so the new national standard definition of "liquor" must be based on grain and grain as raw materials, which refer to sorghum, wheat, barley, peas, rice, barley, etc. Another core definition is "non-additive", that is, "liquor" does not allow the addition of aromatic, flavored and colored substances that are not produced by self-fermentation.
Meng Zhen said that "liquor" that uses non-grain edible alcohol and food additives will be classified as "prepared liquor" and removed from the original liquor classification. This move is to protect the rights and interests of consumers and meet the consumers' pursuit of high quality.
Cai Xuefei also said that the new national standard has a strong guiding effect on alcohol consumption, providing more basis for consumers to identify grain wine, and the implementation of the new national standard will standardize business operations, further push up the threshold of liquor brewing, and improve the overall development quality of the industry.