In the era of beauty is justice, hyaluronic acid has become an inseparable beauty artifact for many beauty lovers, known as "the clay that God used to make Adam and Eve", and is widely used in medical treatment, medical beauty fields, and various cosmetic and skin care products.
This is far from enough, aiming at the ultimate pursuit of beauty by female consumers, the connotation and extension of hyaluronic acid are expanding infinitely, penetrating into all aspects of people's lives.
Hyaluronic acid drinking water, hyaluronic acid sparkling water, hyaluronic acid gummies, etc. have sprung up; Some merchants add hyaluronic acid stock solution to T-shirts and bed four-piece sets, saying that they can nourish their skin and become beautiful during dressing and sleeping; Cute cats and dogs should also be "consumption upgraded", under the slogan of helping masters strengthen joints and smooth fur, hyaluronic acid was added to pet food.
An era of "everything can hyaluronic acid" is coming, and a web in the name of beauty is being woven more and more densely.
However, when the hyaluronic acid originally used for injection and filling has become a food that can be eaten, whether it is safe and effective has become a major confusion in the minds of consumers.
1. The development space of the hyaluronic acid food market is huge
Hyaluronic acid, also known as hyaluronic acid, is widely used in the fields of medical beauty, skin care products and functional foods. For people getting older, supplementing hyaluronic acid in various ways can play a role in removing wrinkles and rejuvenating the skin, lubricating joints, repairing gastric mucosal damage and other beauty and health effects, and its mechanism of action has been verified by professional institutions and has been sought after and endorsed by a large number of stars.
Among them, food-grade hyaluronic acid, which can be taken orally or as a dietary supplement, has sufficient convenience and diversified use scenarios, making it widely popular in developed countries such as Japan and the United States, maintaining a high growth rate.
In the era of "everything can hyaluronic acid", serums, masks, shampoos, eye drops, all have hyaluronic acid added. The broad boundary of "hyaluronic acid+" stems from consumers' recognition of its efficacy.
Hyaluronic acid has been ranked first in the list of "most popular beauty and skin care ingredients by consumers" for many consecutive years. More and more brands are looking to attract audiences and increase traffic with hyaluronic acid.
From 2016 to 2019, the global food-grade hyaluronic acid end product market increased from US$280 million to US$350 million, with an annualized compound growth rate of 8%. From 2015 to 2019, the global food-grade hyaluronic acid raw material market increased from 116.8 tons to 280.0 tons, with an annualized compound growth rate of more than 24%.
According to the latest data, the most important use of hyaluronic acid in the terminal is the cosmetics market, accounting for 50% of the total sales, followed by the food market, accounting for 47% of the total sales, and the amount of hyaluronic acid in the medical field, accounting for only 3% of the total sales.
According to statistics, there are more than 2,000 foods containing hyaluronic acid in the world, including 554 ordinary foods, covering beverages, yogurt, chewing gum, jam, jelly, salad dressing, tea powder, instant soup, honey, gummies, noodles, green tea, etc.
On January 7, 2021, the National Health Commission issued an official announcement approving sodium hyaluronate (hyaluronic acid, commonly known as hyaluronic acid, HA) as a new food raw material that can be applied to ordinary food additions.
This marks the further liberalization of the mainland hyaluronic acid terminal food market, and China's hyaluronic acid industry has ushered in a new development milestone.
On March 22, 2021, Bloomage Biotechnology, a leading domestic hyaluronic acid enterprise, launched the first domestic hyaluronic acid drinking water "Water Muscle Spring".
Bloomage Biotech has also previously launched China's first hyaluronic acid food brand "Black Zero", including chewable tablets, gummies, American ginseng drink, water light drink, bird's nest drink, etc.
Prior to this, the net red beverage brand Hankou No. 2 Factory also launched a hyaluronic acid sparkling water "Ha Shui". According to the product introduction, 68mg of hyaluronic acid is added to each bottle of sparkling water, which is "equivalent to the amount of hyaluronic acid added to 4 masks and 3 beauty agents".
According to incomplete statistics, there were about 13 functional food financing events in 2021, behind which there were many leading institutions such as IDG Capital, Sequoia Seed Fund, Northern Light Venture Capital, and China Imaging Capital.
With the continuous layout of consumer education and brands and capital, the new starting point of functional food, which is worth more than 100 billion yuan, has become clearer.
In fact, as early as 2008, hyaluronic acid has been listed as a new resource food by the state. It's just that for a long time, hyaluronic acid was only allowed to be added to health foods. Nowadays, with the introduction and implementation of new regulations, dairy products, beverages, chocolates and other candy products can be added with hyaluronic acid.
Endless imagination space, in addition to beauty, more is profit.
According to Frost & Sullivan's report, China's total sales of hyaluronic acid raw materials in 2018 have accounted for 86% of the world's total sales, and the world's top five suppliers - Bloomage Biotechnology, Focus Biotechnology, Fufeng Biotechnology, Dongchen Biotechnology, and Anhua Biotechnology are all from Shandong.
Hyaluronic acid can be used in medical, cosmetics and functional food fields. Compared with the application of foreign hyaluronic acid in the food field, domestic food-grade hyaluronic acid is still a blue ocean.
At present, the domestic hyaluronic acid market is still dominated by imported brands, with South Korea's LG market share reaching 25%, Allergan 19.4% in the United States, Humedix in South Korea 13.2%, and Sweden Q-Med 12.2%. The share of the four companies is close to 70%.
Now this situation is finally about to change after the country officially opens the hyaluronic acid ordinary food market! Many domestic enterprises have begun to increase the size of hyaluronic acid ordinary food, snacking market, such as Bloomage Biotechnology, Aimeike, Haohaishengke and many other domestic brands, the continuous joining of domestic enterprises, will also change the market proportion of foreign hyaluronic acid snacks in the market.
Compared with other scenarios, the market scale of food-grade hyaluronic acid terminal products is significantly lower, and at this stage, it is mainly used in health food, and the overall maturity still has more room for improvement.
It can be seen that the development space of the hyaluronic acid food market is huge, and major domestic enterprises have officially entered the market with their own snack products.
2. There will be many problems
For consumers, compared with spending thousands of yuan or tens of thousands of yuan to get a dose of skinboosters, drinking a bottle of sparkling water or eating a gummy to supplement hyaluronic acid is cheap and convenient, and the acceptance is naturally higher.
Under the consumption trend of big health, there is a huge gap in the domestic hyaluronic acid food market, and with the increase of "silver hair" and "young health care people" groups, the health food and functional food market will usher in higher demand. In the coming years, hyaluronic acid foods are expected to become one of the fastest growing food and beverage segments.
When hyaluronic acid food becomes the wind, whether the hyaluronic acid added to food can be well absorbed has become a topic of public concern and hot discussion. "Can you eat hyaluronic acid? Ann is not safe? What is the effect? "Is hyaluronic acid food an IQ tax?" and other issues have appeared on the hot lists of major websites several times.
Regarding the efficacy of oral hyaluronic acid, there is currently no conclusive conclusion on the market.
According to the "2021 China Hyaluronic Acid Industry Industry Chain Upstream and Downstream Market Analysis Report", more than 95% of consumers know about hyaluronic acid daily chemical products on the market, but only 41% of consumers know about hyaluronic acid foods on the market, and only 19% have purchased food-grade hyaluronic acid products.
The data shows that edible hyaluronic acid food and beverage as an emerging category, consumers do not know enough about it, and the acceptance is not high.
There are many people who think that oral hyaluronic acid is an "IQ tax", and like denying oral collagen, oral hyaluronic acid cannot reach the skin after passing through the powerful digestive system.
Many people in the industry believe that hyaluronic acid food basically does not have much effect. In terms of functional effects, hyaluronic acid is mainly to improve the taste of food, is a tool for food upgrading, and its whitening, slimming and other effects are not too obvious. Oral hyaluronic acid will be decomposed by digestive enzymes and cannot be directly absorbed, and the beauty effect is only theoretical, but the actual effect is minimal.
Although relevant studies provide supporting the efficacy of hyaluronic acid in oral administration, the absorption of hyaluronic acid is affected by many factors, and there is no exact data on how much it is absorbed.
Therefore, consumers' expectations for hyaluronic acid sparkling water are obviously mainly in its "beauty" function. Just as Red Bull is to "relieve fatigue", herbal tea is to "remove fire", and sports drinks are to "replenish minerals", consumers will only recognize and continue to pay after the product has a clear relationship with the function.
The true efficacy of functional foods has always been questioned by academics, the industry and consumers.
The fundamental reason is that in the current laws and regulations in the mainland, food only exists to divide ordinary food and health food, and there is no authoritative definition of functional food.
It is neither an ordinary food nor an embarrassing positioning of health food, but also gives many companies the opportunity to exploit loopholes. Due to the lack of relevant supervision of health foods, many functional hyaluronic acid foods play word games when promoting efficacy, exaggerating the efficacy of products and guiding consumers to buy.
At present, there are no strong word-of-mouth products on the market, and behind the dazzling advertising, problems such as uneven product quality and lack of openness and transparency in safety control still exist.
International products have a relatively stable market under the long-term accumulation, and how to break this barrier is still a problem that domestic functional food manufacturers need to consider.
It can be seen that edible hyaluronic acid food and beverages in China, as a new track, have popularity and certain development potential, but whether it is the next industry outlet or a flash in the pan, it still takes time and consumers to give answers.
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