Written by / Liu Dongxue Niu Geng Xue Yongwei
Edited / Sun Jing
Sugar-free has become a way of life
Consumption is also "passive" upgraded
Dong Xue, 25, almost forgot what Coke tasted like.
I remember when I was in school, she liked to go to the commissary after class to buy a cold bottle of Coke. With a "bang", bubbles floated up in the brown liquid, breaking through the surface of the liquid, and an inexplicable smell rushed into the nasal cavity with sweetness. One bite down, carbon dioxide quickly overflows in the mouth, instantly smooth, stimulating and sweet, that is the most suitable taste with summer.
But since knowing that the sugar content of a bottle of Coke far exceeds the WHO-recommended upper limit of 25 grams of sugar per day for adults, Dong Xue has never drunk Coke again.
"One is for health, and of course the most important thing is to stay in shape." After that, she simply quit all sugary drinks, and whenever she picked up a bottle of drink in the supermarket, she would subconsciously look at the ingredient list first, "When the words 'white sugar', 'cane sugar', 'maltose' and other words appeared in it, there was no appetite in an instant." ”
However, this kind of day ended with the advent of sugar-free drinks, or more precisely, the emergence of the Yuanqi Forest. "Last summer, I drank almost every day. When there are new sugar-free drinks from other flavors and other brands, I am willing to try them, and I buy them not by bottle, but by piece. However, at that time, there were too few choices, only carbonated drinks, and it was boring to drink too much. Now many non-carbonated drinks, yogurt, and even snacks are starting to use sugar substitutes, doubling their happiness. ”
"Zero sugar" has become the source of Dong Xue's desire to consume. Even the usual cooking, baking, she also began to look for alternatives to white sugar, when she entered "erythritol" in the search box of an e-commerce platform, originally thought that only wholesale products would appear, unexpectedly, the page showed that it was "famous and surnamed", packaging is suitable for household erythritol, Dong Xue did not hesitate to order.
As an avid "sugar-free", Gao Gong opened a food company after majoring in food engineering. He usually drinks carbonated drinks, will deliberately choose sugar-free; drink coffee, only drink black coffee; make his own milk tea, and even use a compound sweetener developed by his own company to replace a single erythritol to obtain a better taste. "High sugar like poison" is simply his motto.
"Don't you think it tastes strange when you drink sugar-free Coke?" After all, it is not a gene. Someone asked him. He replied to the other party, then you can treat sugar-free as a special drink, don't compare it with sugar. If you can't put an end to the love of sweetness, then eating sugar-free foods to deceive the sense of taste is no problem.
"The health effects of sugar go far beyond the 0 calories that the market hypes." High arch reminds that insulin resistance caused by high blood sugar can trigger diabetes, trigger caries, increase uric acid and cause gout, and also accelerate human aging. "The nutrition community, both at home and abroad, advocates sugar reduction. 0 calories is just a very vulgar point. ”
But he admits that this did blow up the sugar-free market, rough but effective. According to the White Paper on Sugar Reduction Action for Healthy Chinese Beverages and Foods (2021), sugar-free beverages have grown by more than 40% in the past three years, and have already occupied 4.07% of the market by 2021.
Also having a demand for sugar control is Song Han. "In March of this year, I also bought sugary yogurt, which is the kind of townhouse I used to buy, eight boxes, and the picture is cheap. But after April and May, I never bought it again, no matter how cheap it was. ”
According to his recollection, the idea of controlling sugar began to arise from March and April this year. He believes that this is not unrelated to the current overwhelming propaganda of the concept of sugar-free.
Now, Song Han only chooses sugar-free yogurt when he buys yogurt, and only chooses sugar-free when he buys toast. He found that sugar-free foods tend to be much more expensive than sugary foods, and he often bought sugar-free yogurt from the North Sea Ranch in Hema for 14 yuan8 in three cups. Sugar-free toast is 4 slices a pack, but sells for 14 pieces 8, "ordinary toast can be eaten for a few days, and our family will eat it without sugar." He needs to make up for the promotion so as not to look too "extravagant."
Sugar-free food is more expensive, Dong Xue also has the same feeling, he often drinks a Mengniu yogurt without added cane sugar, 100g × 8 cups, the downstairs supermarket price is 13.9 yuan, and the same brand with the same net content of sugary original cup yogurt, the price is only 6.9 yuan, and sugar-free yogurt is twice the difference.
Image source/Visual China
Ai Finance and Economics also found that in the flagship store of an e-commerce platform Dev, 0 sugar alcohol dark chocolate box is 6 * 35g pack, priced at 79.9 yuan; mellow dark chocolate bowl 3 * 252g, priced at 119.9 yuan, the price of 0 sugar version per gram of chocolate is 2.4 times that of the ordinary version.
At the end, why are sugar-free foods more expensive?
Where is sugar-free expensive?
One theory is that the raw materials for sugar substitutes are more expensive.
The Yuanqi Forest has ignited the concept of zero sugar, and the "hero" behind it is a sugar substitute called erythritol, that is, a sweetener. Compared with aspartame, which previously had a risk of carcinogen, erythritol is said to be of better quality – its sweetness is only 60% of that of sucrose, and the molecular particles are small, almost passing through the intestines, and no heat is generated.
A brand of erythritol sold on the e-commerce platform is priced at 19.6 yuan for 320g, and one is bought during the event, equivalent to 20.4 yuan per kilogram; while a brand of ordinary household decoration 400g of white sugar is priced at 6.6 yuan, equivalent to only 8.3 yuan per kilogram.
Photo: Taobao, JD.com
Since the beginning of this year, with the nongfu spring, unification, Master Kang, Wang Laoji, Heytea and other beverage brands have begun to be sugar-free, the market demand for sweeteners has increased.
Erythritol has become the fastest growing sweetener in China, with a compound growth rate of 30% in the last three years. This year, erythritol has also become the tightest link in the supply chain. "Only when you get erythritol, can you legally mark the packaging with '0 sugar 0 fat 0 card'", a food practitioner told ai Finance and Economics, according to the "General Rules for Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Food" (gb 28050-2011) standard, in addition to erythritol, other sugar alcohols should be marked with 10 kj/g.
In April and May this year, erythritol was once snatched out of stock. According to media reports, the quotation of individual major manufacturers has reached 36,000 yuan / ton, and small beverage factories that cannot grab goods can only stop production. Even the Yuanqi Forest suffers from "sugar-free suffering". According to media reports, because erythritol was out of stock, by June this year, Yuanqi Forest had suffered a sales loss of 1 billion yuan. Later, Yuanqi Forest simply invested in some manufacturers with relatively small production capacity.
"Yuanqi Forest bought out the goods at that time", a dealer who did the sugar substitute business told ai Finance and Economics, taking erythritol's first major factory Ternary Biology as an example, when the price rose to 38 yuan / kg, and there was no market. Customers who have not booked cannot place an order if they have money.
This situation has brought erythritol, which was already high in price, up another level. "Now all the customers who come to the door, no matter how big the brand, we can generally only agree to 1/2 of the amount they request." Nie Zaijian, chairman of Sanyuan Biology, a sugar listed company, said. Just a few years ago, it was a company that lost money every year and had to rely on the textile business to subsidize its family. In the first half of 2021, Ternary Bio's revenue increased by 111% year-on-year, and the net profit margin reached 42%.
According to ai Finance and Economics, seeing that the business is hot, many other sugar manufacturers in Shandong have also switched to erythritol, and they have filled the production capacity with stitches. At present, the "sugar grab" war has eased, and some dealers have revealed that the cheapest small manufacturer, erythritol has been able to do about 17 yuan / kg.
However, how much the impact of supply-side changes on the price of final products is still worth exploring. Taking Yuanqi Forest as an example, the nutrient composition table of "sugar-free" sparkling water shows that the carbohydrate content per 100ml of sparkling water is 3.8g. Wang Ming, a senior product developer at a well-known beverage company, told ai Finance and Economics that this basically means that the content of erythritol per 100ml of sparkling water is 3.8 grams.
In this regard, ai Finance and Economics made a rough calculation: at the highest point of 36,000 yuan / ton price, 1 gram of erythritol corresponds to 0.036 yuan. Take a bottle of 480ml yuanqi forest sparkling water as an example, the raw material cost of adding erythritol is about 0.66 yuan.
"Manufacturers often have to minimize the cost at the same time, so that the beverage still maintains a pleasant taste", Wang Ming explained, erythritol sweetness is only about 70% of white sugar, a bottle of 500ml sugary drink if the sugar content of 8%, that is, white sugar to about 40g. Relying only on less than 20g of added erythritol per bottle cannot achieve the normal sweetness requirements of the product.
In order to enhance the taste of the drink, the high-power sweetener sucralose came on. This sweetener, commonly known as sucralose, is energy-free, but the sweetness can reach 600 times that of sucrose, so only a very small amount needs to be added to a bottle of sugar-free drinks to increase the sweetness of sugar-free drinks. Although the wholesale price of sucralose is about 10 times higher than erythritol, the cost of such a very small amount is spread evenly across each bottle, and the cost is almost negligible.
"Generally a bottle of 500ml sugary drinks, the cost of white sugar is about 0.2 yuan." Wang Ming said. This also means that if a beverage company wants to issue a sugar-free version of the original product basic research and replace white sugar with sugar substitutes such as erythritol, according to the current market price, the cost of materials will only be about 0.5 yuan higher than before.
A beverage industry practitioner said that the cost of sugar substitutes in a bottle of beverage may not be as high as the packaging cost of a bottle. The average purchase price of the packaging materials of pe bottles was 0.68 yuan / one; the cost of a bottle of "six walnuts", the can accounted for 0.57 yuan, and the walnut kernel and white sugar were 0.25 yuan and 0.05 yuan respectively.
Pay more premiums for the concept
The 5 cent cost change, reflected in the final pricing, does not seem to be the case.
Ai Finance and Economics found that most of the sugar-free drinks on the market are not only 0.5 yuan higher than ordinary drinks, but several times. Freshly made beverages such as Xicha, the zero sugar zero card option supported by steviol glycosides requires an additional 1 yuan to add to the original drink; the 100 ml Yakult low-sugar version is 1 yuan more expensive than the original taste. As for yogurt categories such as Beihai Ranch, the price difference between sugar-free and sugar-free products is even greater.
This may mean that consumers pay more premiums for so-called health concepts. Yao Xuan, a first-year research student at the University of Science and Technology Beijing, is a person who loves drinks, drinks three or four bottles a week, although she often feels that sugar-free drinks are more expensive than ordinary, but she will still pay for it, "This may be the price of choosing health." ”
"Brands must have their own selling points if they want to impress consumers." Wang Ming, a beverage developer, said. Nowadays, sugar-free food and drink has become a trend, and "sugar-free" is a major selling point.
In order to create this selling point, sugar-free products are marketed as ordinary products. In a Yonghui supermarket in Beijing's East Fifth Ring Road, Yao Xuan saw that the most conspicuous display on the shelves was "sugar-free" iced black tea, bending down to look for it, in order to see the ordinary iced black tea placed on the lower floor. And Illian Muxi 0 sucrose yogurt, which is placed in the c position of the dairy area, is engaged in great promotion.
Tang Binsen, founder of Yuanqi Forest, once said: "When we dare to create 2 billion revenue, we will spend 1.8 billion yuan to advertise." And its 5 yuan a bottle of sparkling water pricing, but also became the "anchor" of the sugar-free beverage industry, after the emergence of the Yuanqi Forest, other drinks with erythritol as the main sugar substitute, in the price seems to have reached a tacit understanding, the price of a single bottle is about 5 yuan. So in March this year, when Master Kong, the first giant of tea drinks, launched a zero-sugar drink, the "pro-people" pricing of 3.5 yuan became another new selling point.
The sugar-free version of iced tea on the unmanned shelf sold for 3.5 yuan | Xue Yongwei
According to data from the China Business Industry Research Institute, under the trend of health, 80% of consumers will pay attention to the ingredients of food and beverages, especially the sugar content in beverages. Sugar-free products that reduce the "guilt of eating sugar" can increase consumers' chances of buying.
Since the rise of sugar-free drinks, Yu Xiao, who works at a large drinking water company in Guangzhou, has significantly increased the number of drinks, and her sugar-free drink journey began in 2018, when the "Sprite Fiber +" with zero sugar was vigorously listed, and a bottle sold for 6 yuan, while a bottle of ordinary Sprite at that time was only 3.8 yuan. Nowadays, there are more choices, and every time she wants to drink sugar, she chooses a drink that looks "healthier".
When ordering milk tea, Yu Xiao even doubted whether the "less sugar" option was really less sugar healthy, or whether it was just to make customers feel "healthy" psychologically and place an order. "It seems that brands can reap a part of the sales dividend as long as they catch up with the sugar-free trend," Yu said.
For this "sober and obedient" consumption phenomenon, Fan Zhihong, associate professor of China Agricultural University, once explained that now young people's health awareness has increased, and they are in a contradictory state of rational and instinctive resistance, so sugar substitute products are very hot.
However, the myth of sugar-free is being shattered. Zhu Yi, associate professor of the College of Food science of China Agricultural University, suggested that taking too much sugar will disturb the intestinal flora, not only affect metabolism, but also make the brain think that eating real sugar, resulting in wrong instructions, and then insulin secretes blood sugar, in the long run, insulin will be unbalanced, and people will become fat.
Some time ago, the Zhihu mooncake incident also woke up people who were overly superstitious about the concept of "sugar-free". Because of the substitution of maltitol for sucrose, the mooncake has caused multiple mel diarrheas that are intolerant to maltitol multiple times.
Ruan Guang, director of the Science and Technology Department of the Food and Nutrition Information Exchange Center of Kexin, once analyzed this and said that maltitol is a kind of sugar substitute, and the xylitol and erythritol that are now very popular are a family, which are sugar alcohols. Sugar alcohols can bring sweetness and produce relatively low energy, "but all sugar alcohols have a characteristic, that is, eating too much will lead to diarrhea." ”
As an industry insider, Wang Ming himself usually buys Coke and only chooses sugar, "Sugar can't eat too much, but it is not necessary to demonize sugar." ”
Should we embrace sugar-free foods? Gao Gong believes that for beverages, replacing sugar with sugar substitutes does reduce calories. But pastry mooncakes are different from water, and without adding sugar, they need other ingredients to fill, such as adding more starch and egg yolks. Sugar substitutes reduce calories insigniably, possibly only 10%, but people think that "sugar-free is healthy", and if you take more bites, the calories may be more.
Yu Xiao has now begun to abandon sugar-free products, many sugar generations left on the tip of the tongue is the sweetness of the industrial sense, and lingering for a long time, "sugar substitutes are not necessarily healthy, and ordinary drinks are at least delicious."
This week, she drank three cans of ordinary Coke, and in the hot guangzhou, a mouthful of sweet ice Coke made her extremely satisfied. Yu Xiao seems to feel that buying sugar-free drinks is just a little "self-deceptive" comfort, "people who really pursue health, the first choice should always be warm and white."
(Dong Xue, Song Han, Wang Ming, Yao Xuan, and Yu Xiao are pseudonyms)
This article is originally produced by ai Finance and Economics Agency, an account of "Finance world", without permission, please do not reprint it on any channel or platform. Violators will be prosecuted.