Microcolando children's cheese sticks are mired in trans fatty acid controversy, and the market value has shrunk, attracting market attention.
Recently, a number of entries related to Microcoland dominated the hot search on Weibo, which aroused widespread attention from consumers. As of May 10, 2024, Microcolando (600882. SH) closed at 14.39 yuan, with a total market capitalization of 7.389 billion yuan.
The reporter learned that the key words that sparked heated discussions included "Microcolando Wang Yibo spokesperson", "Microcolando contains trans fatty acids", "Microcolando's market value has shrunk by 30 billion yuan" and so on.
In this regard, on May 10, the reporter contacted the person in charge of public relations of Microcolando to try to solve the above questions, saying that Microcolando is preparing the content to be released externally. As of press time, the other party has not provided further explanation.
At the same time, consumer reports visited offline supermarkets in Guangzhou and found that several Microcolando children's cheese sticks were sold normally, and there was no suspected trans fatty acid ingredient "edible oil products" mentioned in the product ingredient list.
The ingredient list of Microcolando children's cheese sticks does not contain controversial ingredients
Recently, Miaokeland officially announced Wang Yibo as the spokesperson, bringing a lot of traffic to the company. But at the same time, the related entries of "Microcolan contains trans fatty acids" also appeared on the hot search on Weibo, causing heated discussions.
This originated from the fact that some netizens found an ingredient called "edible oil products" in the ingredient list of Microcolando cheese products. The netizen believes that the ingredient is actually "trans fatty acids".
The pictures and annotations are from the Internet
According to the data, the main business of Microcolando is mainly divided into three major sectors, including cheese, dairy raw materials trade, liquid milk, etc. Among them, the cheese sector is divided into ready-to-eat nutrition series, family table series, catering industry series, etc.
Which product is the one that is causing the debate?
In this regard, consumer reports compared the packaging and ingredient lists of various products in the official flagship store of Microcolando on the e-commerce platform, and the ingredient list of most products did not see "edible oil products", only one product called "refined mozzarella cheese grumble" contained the ingredients of "edible oil products".
The official flagship store of Microcolando
At the same time, the reporter visited the Guangzhou BLT supermarket and found that 3 types of Microcolando children's cheese sticks were sold normally, namely Microcolando cheese sticks (original), Microcolando cheese sticks (mixed fruit flavor), and Microcolando gold cheese sticks, and the reporter did not see "edible oil products" in the product ingredient list. The product "Refined Mozzarella Cheese Crumble" was not sold, only one product called "Mozzarella Cheese" was sold normally, and there was no "edible oil product" in the product ingredient list.
Microcolando cheese sticks sold in China Resources BLT supermarket (original)
Microcolando cheese sticks sold at China Resources BLT supermarket (mixed fruit flavor)
Microcolando gold cheese sticks sold at China Resources BLT supermarket
Microcolan multi-mozzarella cheese sold at China Resources BLT supermarket
Misinterpretations about trans fatty acids are often debunked
Are "edible oil and fat products" trans fatty acids? Is the ingredient harmful to humans?
It is understood that edible oil products refer to various food oils and fats made from vegetable oil or animal fat as raw materials through processing. These products are widely used in the food industry to enhance the taste, flavor, texture and shelf life of food.
Edible fats and oils may contain trans fatty acids if they are partially hydrogenated, but not all edible fats and oils are treated in this way.
In short, edible fats and oils are not necessarily trans fatty acids.
In addition, the China Non-staple Food Circulation Association and other units have also repeatedly publicized rumors, do not misread trans fatty acids, because it is almost impossible to completely eliminate trans fatty acids from the diet, and it is not necessary, the World Health Organization (WHO) only controls and regulates trans fatty acids from processed sources, and the health effects of natural trans fatty acids in dairy products, meat products, etc. are not clear, and some are beneficial to the human body.
According to the "National Food Safety Standard General Principles for Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Foods" (hereinafter referred to as the "General Principles"), if the food ingredients contain or partially hydrogenated oils and fats are used in the production process, the content of trans fats (acids) must be indicated in the nutrition facts list.
This means that, according to the General Principles, if a manufacturer uses hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils and fats in the production process, the content of trans fatty acids will be mandatory on the product packaging.
However, earlier, a survey by the Food and Drug Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law showed that among the 600 samples surveyed, some food ingredient lists showed the use of hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, but the nutrition facts did not label trans fatty acids, with a labeling rate of about 64.1%.
In addition, the above survey results also show that the relevant terms of trans fatty acids in the ingredient list are mixed and "aliases" are diverse, making it impossible for consumers to judge whether trans fatty acids are present in a certain food or whether the trans fatty acids ingested meet the daily reference value.
It is worth mentioning that according to the General Principles, when the trans fatty acid content ≤ 0.3 grams, its content is marked as "0". That is, 0 trans fatty acids does not mean that there are no trans fatty acids.
It should also be pointed out that only excessive intake of trans fatty acids, i.e. trans fatty acid intake of more than 2.2 grams, may bring health risks, and a reasonable diet can avoid excessive intake of trans fatty acids.
On April 4, 2023, the Food Safety Sampling Inspection and Monitoring Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation issued an article entitled "Scientific Understanding of Trans Fatty Acids", which pointed out that at present, partially hydrogenated oils and fats are basically no longer used as raw materials in margarine, shortening, and cocoa butter substitutes sold in the mainland market, and the trans fatty acid content of most refined vegetable oils is very low (that is, the energy supply ratio of trans fatty acids is less than 1% of the total dietary energy). Therefore, consumers do not need to be overly concerned about the risk of consuming trans fatty acids.
Microcolando has entered the adult casual snack track
Coincidentally, this round of hot searches about trans fatty acids, which began on May 9, was aimed at the two brands of Microcolando and Dove. On the same day, Miaokeland officially announced that the spokesperson was Wang Yibo, and Dove was the brand endorsed by Xiao Zhan.
In addition to the fact that the product was questioned about the addition of trans fatty acids, the company's market value has shrunk by more than 30 billion yuan, which has also caused widespread discussion.
According to the data, on May 25, 2021, the share price of Microcolando reached a peak of 84.5 yuan per share, corresponding to a total market value of about 34.961 billion yuan. Subsequently, the company's share price fluctuated and fell, hitting the bottom on February 6 this year, with a minimum value of 11 yuan per share, corresponding to a total market value of about 6.386 billion yuan, and the total market value shrank by about 28.575 billion yuan from the peak of the stock price.
In this regard, at the 2024 Annual Meeting of Chinese Entrepreneurs and Business Mulan, Chai Xiu, founder and general manager of Microcoland, publicly stated that the company's financial statements are not good and the stock price has fallen, and she has been reflecting that the decline in performance in 2023 is mainly caused by the increase in supply chain costs of more than 100 million yuan.
Chai Xiu also revealed that Microcolando has found a way not to rely entirely on imports in the milk supply chain to create a corporate brand moat of Microcolando, hoping that with the expansion of the scale of the enterprise, the cost advantage can be reflected and become another corporate moat of Microcolando.
The annual report and quarterly report show that in the first quarter of 2023 and 2024, the operating income of Microcolando will be 4.049 billion yuan and 950 million yuan respectively, a year-on-year decrease of 16.16% and 7.14% respectively; The net profit was 80 million yuan and 41 million yuan respectively, a year-on-year decrease of 53.95% and an increase of 20.37% respectively.
It can be seen that in the first quarter of this year, the decline in operating income of Microcolando has narrowed, and the year-on-year change in net profit has turned from negative to positive.
In its 2023 annual report, the company said that it will continue to enrich the matrix of cheese products, from children's snacks to adult leisure, and make cheese a new choice for people of all ages to consume healthy functions.
However, the cheese track is slightly crowded at the moment, and almost all dairy giants are stepping up. On the cheese shelves of major supermarkets, in addition to Microcolando, there are also brands such as Yili, Guangming, Sanyuan, Dr. Cheese, and Bajifu.
In addition, the consumer groups for ready-to-eat cheese are no longer limited to children, such as Bajifu positioning adult cheese desserts and launching "a small cheese" and "a cup of cheese"; Baylor China's brand Kairui is positioned as a young woman and launched "Kiri Sweet Cheese"; The cheese god family founded by Guo Benheng, the father of Moslian, also positioned women to launch "five-dimensional no-makeup cheese", etc., and the competition in the cheese snack track has entered a white heat.