In 2017, the new "General Principles of Candied Fruit" was publicly solicited for comments. In March this year, the State Administration of Supervision approved this standard, which will be implemented from April 1 next year, officially replacing GB/T 10782-2006.
In the entire leisure snack market, preserves are a relatively large proportion of consumption, and research reports show that there is still room for development. However, the more prominent problems in the current candied fruit market are high sugar content, excessive use of food additives, etc., and in the future, it is necessary to match consumer demand and cater to the health trend when developing.
The 01 New Compote General Rule will be implemented in April next year
Recently, the State Administration for Market Regulation (STANDARDIZATION) approved 362 recommended national standards, including the General Principles of Candied Fruit (GB/T 10782-2021), and the new standard will be implemented from April 1, 2022.
In 2017, with the approval of the National Standards Commission, the China Chamber of Commerce issued the "General Principles of Candied Fruit" for comment, which also shows that the new standard will replace GB/T 10782-2006, mainly making changes to the classification of candied products, raw and auxiliary materials requirements, physical and chemical indicators, etc.
Candied fruit refers to products made by process such as salting (or not pickling) with fruits and vegetables as the main raw materials, adding (or not adding) food additives and other excipients, and being pickled (or not pickled) by sugar or honey or salt. The sugar stains and frosting classes were modified to preserves, in addition to preserved fruits, cold fruits, speech classes, and fruit cakes.
In the raw materials, it is required that fruits and vegetables and other raw materials and auxiliary materials should meet relevant national standards or industry standards, edible salt should meet GB 2721, and sugar should meet GB 13104.
The physical and chemical indicators require candied water ≤ 90g/100g, total sugar (in glucose) ≤85g/100g, chloride (in terms of Nacl) ≤35g/100g, total sugar of cold fruits (in terms of glucose) ≤ 80g/100g, total sugar of speech (sweetened) ≤70g/100g, and total sugar of fruit cakes (tablets) (in glucose) ≤ 90g/100g, and the physical and chemical indicators of the remaining classifications have not changed.
In addition, compared with the current standards, the requirements of inspection rules, judgment rules, labels, signs, packaging, storage, transportation and so on have been modified and improved in language and editing, and the emergence of new standards will further play a positive role in promoting the healthy development of the industry.
02 Candied snack consumption accounts for a relatively large proportion
As a traditional snack, candied fruit is still loved by consumers even today. And candied fruit has a salty and sweet taste, no matter what age of people, there may be no shortage of people who will buy candied products.
According to the classification of preserves in the current standard, sugar stains such as sugar plums, fried red fruits, sugar frosting such as sugar winter melon strips, red and green silk, preserved fruits such as apricots, preserved peaches, cold fruits such as prunes, yellow plums, words such as nine tangerine peels, words plums, fruit cakes such as danpi, hawthorn strips and so on.
With the development of the leisure snack market, the zero food category continues to be enriched, and the market share of candied fruit has gradually been eroded, such as nuts, brine and other foods that have emerged in recent years, and the market growth rate is very fast. In the "Analysis Report on the Operation Status and Development Prospects of China's Leisure Food Industry from 2020 to 2026" released by Zhiyan Consulting, the top three with the fastest compound growth rate in 2015-2020 are leisure halogen products, puffed foods and bread/cakes and pastries.
However, the "2020 Leisure Food Industry Research Report" shows that the size of China's leisure food market is estimated to reach 1.30 trillion yuan in 2020, and the traditional molasses (candy, chocolate, preserves) category accounts for the largest market share in leisure food, accounting for 31.95%.
Although under the continuous improvement of health awareness, many consumers may stay away from high-sugar and high-salt foods, resulting in a certain impact on the candied fruit market, but relatively speaking, candied fruit still has a large consumer market, consumers will not completely give up such snacks.
According to the "2020 Tmall Candied Snack Consumption Trend Report" released by CBNData and Tmall, the scale of candied snack consumption on the Tmall platform has continued to expand in the past three years, and the growth rate of consumption has also increased significantly. In the entire candied fruit market, more and more consumers are willing to buy candied products, especially for higher price and better quality candied food, of which female consumers account for a large proportion.
03 There are some problems in the candied fruit market
When searching for candied fruit on the Jingdong e-commerce platform, there are more than a dozen brands of large and small sizes such as Huawei Heng, Liangpin Shop, Tenwow, Three Squirrels, Hundred Grass Flavor, Slippery Plum, California Wilderness, etc., and the three squirrels have 2 million + reviews, and the candied dates of the Hundred Grass Flavor and the Dried Mango of the Good Shop have 500,000 + comments.
It is observed that the implementation standard of Huawei Hengyumei is GB/T 10782, the carbohydrate content is 65g/100g, and the sodium content is 1404mg/100g. The implementation standard of dried mango of three squirrels is GB/T 10782, the carbohydrate content is 80.3g/100g, and the sodium content is 96mg/100g. The implementation standard of yo-yo messie is GB/T 10782, the carbohydrate content is 65.4g/100g, and the sodium content is 198mg/100g. The implementation standard of the seedless dates is GB/T 10782, the carbohydrate content is 66.5g/100g, and the sodium content is 51mg/100g. The implementation standard of the candied jujube is GB/T 10782, the carbohydrate content is 77.6g/100g, and the sodium content is 57mg/100g.
In addition, there are many cases in which candied products are unqualified in sampling inspection. In 2020, the State Administration for Market Supervision and Administration issued 27 unqualified food sampling announcements, the number of unqualified candied products is the largest, mainly because the food additive test is unqualified.
The use of synthetic colorants such as carmine, sunset yellow, etc., can change the color of candied products, but in the "National Standards for Food Safety" Food Additives Use Standards, the amount of these food additives added in candied fruit can not be overused.
Basically, these candied brands do not have much problem in the implementation standards of product production, but the carbohydrate content is indeed more prominent, which also reflects the high sugar content of the product to a certain extent, and the excessive use of food additives is also another prominent problem in the candied fruit market.
04Compromising with current consumer demand is the key
According to data, the size of the snack food market is expected to reach 2.04 trillion yuan in 2025, with a compound growth rate of 11%. Domestic per capita snack food consumption accounts for 1.7% of income, higher than that of countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and South Korea, which means that Chinese consumers are willing to spend money on leisure snacks, but there is still a lot of room for growth compared with Japan and South Korea.
As a relatively high proportion of leisure snacks, candied fruit has the opportunity to further expand the market under the general trend of the development of leisure snacks, but some changes need to be made. According to the "2020 Tmall Candied Fruit Consumption Trend Report", nourishing snacks, healthy additive-free, and innovative freeze-drying are the new hotspots of candied fruit consumption.
Nowadays, young consumers have long played the idea of "health", in addition to choosing health foods and functional foods, snacks with certain tonic effects may be more in line with their preferences. The use of medicinal food homology and candied fruit combination, such as red dates + ejiao, tangerine peel + hawthorn and so on.
Under the healthy consumption, no additives or less additives of products are more popular, consumers want to enjoy the delicious at the same time more healthy, candied food from the reduction of sugar, salt, 0 pigment, 0 flavor, 0 preservatives to better retain the original taste of ingredients. With the popularity of freeze-dried technology, freeze-dried yogurt, freeze-dried strawberries, freeze-dried durian, etc. have appeared on the market, using technology to ensure the freshness, nutrition and flavor of food.
However, the current candied fruit market needs to focus on solving the problem of excessive food additives and gradually develop towards healthy development. Only by coinciding with the current consumption trend can we better capture consumers.