Text | ai Finance and Economics Agency Shao Lanjie Ma Weibing Zhou Xiangyue
Edit | Zhang Shuo
On April 10, Yuanqi Forest, valued at $6 billion, apologized. Because the signature product milk tea contains sugar, but it is called 0 sugar in the publicity, for this reason, Yuanqi Forest also compensates 20 yuan per consumer, and can probably buy two bottles of milk tea.
Yuanqi Forest stressed at the end of the apology letter: "Remind me again, milk tea has milk, so it is sugary." "It is not to mention that its milk tea also has steviol glycosides and erythritol added to it.
This is also the idea of all companies that do 0 sugar, sugar substitute is not sugar, as long as it does not use sucrose and white sugar can be called "0 sugar". Post-90s and post-00s, the heart says to be healthy, but the mouth is very honest, want sweet, want to drink, but reject sugar, reject calories. So there are countless products on the market that advertise 0 sugar, 0 sugar and no additives into a basket, and everything can be packed into it.
However, from the perspective of scientific health, sugar substitutes that are not involved in metabolism are not flawless substances, and whether they can be drunk for a long time needs to vary from person to person.
In the FMCG space, there has never been a product that changes so frequently.
In October last year, some consumers noticed that the label of Yuanqi Forest Milk Tea had been changed, and the large characters on the back of the bottle indicated that the sweetness in the milk tea came from lactose, crystalline fructose and sugar substitute. In March this year, the label of the milk tea bottle body changed again, the crystalline fructose disappeared, and the slogan of "0 sucrose and low fat" disappeared, replaced by "low sugar and low fat".
Although in January this year, Yuanqi Forest issued a "reminder" in Guanwei that the sugar and calories of milk tea are very low, but milk tea is zero sucrose, not sugar-free. Obviously, this reminder does not solve the 0 sugar credit crisis of Yuanqi Forest. On April 10, Yuanqi Forest issued a "belated upgrade" announcement, and the first sentence was, "I'm sorry."
This may be the first time in the past four decades that the Chinese people have received apologies and compensation from enterprises, because the drink is no longer the "little sweet water" of the past.
It can be said that in the 1980s and 1990s, for most ordinary people at that time, "drinks" were the soda of commissaries, and consumers in this period only had good drinks, cheap and other requirements for drinks, but there were no requirements for the health and nutrition of drinks and other functions.
Until 2000, carbonic beverages represented by Coca-Cola, Pepsi Cola, Beijing Arctic Ocean, Shanghai Zhengguanghe, Qingdao Laoshan, etc. occupied the dominant position in the Chinese beverage market. However, after 2000, with the gradual upgrading of consumer consumption concepts and the awakening of health awareness, protein drinks, tea drinks, functional drinks, juices and so on began to rise.
In 2003, a sudden "SARS" made Danone's "pulse", Wahaha's "activation", Nongfu Spring's "scream" and other functional drinks quickly explode, and in the same year, the advertising slogan of "afraid of fire and drink Wang Laoji" also came out, becoming one of the most familiar advertising slogans in later people's impressions.
Yuanqi Forest, which "made a fortune" from 0 sugar, is not the first creator of 0 sugar drink. As early as 2005, Coca-Cola launched a sugar-free and calorie-free Coke Zero. In 2011, Nongfu Spring also launched sugar-free tea - Oriental Leaves, the main 0 sugar, 0 calories, at that time did not stir up too much splash in the market, once by netizens as "the world's top ten most difficult drinks." But within a few years, the style of painting changed, and 0 Sugar became the most sought after drink, and was regarded as the rising star of the beverage industry.
Photo/Visual China
Domestic 0 sugar drinks completely exploded in 2019, adding dozens of new brands a year. In May 2019, the "Tea King" under the unified subsidiary, after 8 years of leaving the mainland market, returned to the mainland market with a new image and launched a new sugar-free tea drink with two flavors of Japanese green tea and Taiwanese oolong tea; soon after, Yili's Yiran Milk Mineral Sparkling Water, Unified Tea Ba, Yinlushan Cloud Tea Painting Sugar-free Tea, Jianlibao Microbubbled Water, Master Kong Cold Brewed Green Tea and other sugar-free beverages were also listed in 2020. How big is the wind for 0 sugar? Even luzhou Laojiao Group, which sells wine, has also launched a new sour corner sparkling drink, which also focuses on 0 sugar and 0 fat.
But is a food labeled with 0 sugar really equal to the absence of any sugar? According to the national standard, if a food label claims "sugar-free", the sugar content per 100 grams or 100 milliliters cannot exceed 0.5 grams, which is not completely free of sugar as understood by the public.
Despite this, sugar-free drinks have won the favor of many consumers. Yuanqi Forest's internal publication "Yuanqi Jiebao" shows that in 2018, Yuanqi Forest's sales were less than 260 million yuan, but it grew rapidly, from January to May 2020, the performance of Yuanqi Forest was 74 million yuan, 39 million yuan, 120 million yuan, 170 million yuan and 260 million yuan, respectively, with a total of 660 million yuan sold in the first five months, with an average daily sales of 4.4 million yuan.
Other brands of sugar-free beverages also saw a surge in sales. The main sugar-free zero calorie zero fat plus fiber Xi cha Xi small bottle sparkling water, in 2020 sold a total of 1.4 million bottles in the Tmall flagship store, Jingdong self-operated flagship store since it was on the shelves last October, less than three months sold 500,000 bottles.
James Quincey, global CEO of Coca-Cola, said in an interview earlier this year: "In fact, in 2021 and beyond, The best growth driver of Coca-Cola may be Coke Zero." ”
Fan Zhihong, associate professor of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at the College of Food Science of China Agricultural University, said pointedly, "Why do you have to drink those drinks like 0 sugar?" Why don't you drink 0 sugar tea? Why not drink 0 sugar chrysanthemum tea? Why not drink boiled water with 0 sugar? Don't you want to drink sweet? Don't you still yearn for those flavors? In fact, in the final analysis, to put it bluntly, you still don't want to drink white water, you still hate the natural taste of chrysanthemum tea barley tea, you order something artificial, you have to spend some money, you have to order the flavor of flavor. ”
In fact, the above psychology of consumers is in the hands of FMCG companies. The new generation of FMCG companies is a typical user thinking, and they know the nature of this group of consumers too well, especially the FMCG companies that come from games. Concept first, 0 becomes their favorite number, all the concepts that don't sound very healthy, fat, calories, additives, sugar, everything can be zeroed, so that consumers can drink without guilt. It is best to have a higher appearance, which is convenient for sending a circle of friends to post pictures, and has a wave of social traffic.
As for whether the purpose of health has really been achieved, it seems that not many consumers will really study it.
As of now, 0 additions or no additions are just a marketing statement, and there is no clear definition in the law or in various industries. But as long as they don't use white sugar or sucrose, FMCG companies will automatically upgrade their products to 0 sugar.
The sea salt grapefruit/grape flavor soda launched by XiXiaocha also advertises itself as 0 sugar 0 fat 0 card, but on the detailed introduction page, it is marked in small print, "no sucrose is added". According to the introduction, the sweetness of Xixiao tea mainly comes from erythritol, and the energy coefficient of this substance is 0kj/g, which is not involved in metabolism.
Photo/Visual China (Xi tea produced by Xi Tea, sugar-free soda)
The sparkling water of Soda produced by Neisher's tea also uses the same logic, because the sugar substitute "erythritol" does not raise blood pressure, does not participate in metabolism, does not cause caries, and also claims to be "0 sugar".
What's even more funny is that these products are still sparing no effort to promote "0 fat". You know, the sparkling water itself does not contain fat, and to introduce a thing that you do not have itself is probably too underestimating the IQ of this consumer.
"It's ridiculous to claim zero fat in a sparkling water, though entirely true, like declaring that soybean oil doesn't contain cholesterol." Popular science writer, food engineering doctor, food industry senior R & D personnel Yun Wuxin explained to AI Finance and Economics Agency, "Cola, fruit tea, herbal tea, water and the like do not have fat, milk tea, three-in-one coffee, milk drinks, lactic acid drinks, all contain fat." ”
In terms of additives, many consumers have the stereotype that all additives must be killed with a stick. But in fact, there are now more than 2400 kinds of additives in China, which are safely assessed and legally approved for use, as long as they are used within the scope of safety standards, they will play a role in the flavor and taste of food.
In online channels, more and more yogurt adds a "no additive" label for itself, but the meaning of no additive or 0 additive is different. Junlebao Pure Yogurt claims to be "using natural ingredients, no additive formula", from the ingredient list, this yogurt contains raw milk, white sugar, whey protein powder, lactic acid bacteria, inulin. Junlebao has explained that "no additives" here refers to no additive thickeners and artificial flavors.
However, in the view of Guangming Yanjian additive-free yogurt, additive-free refers to the absence of sucrose, color and flavor. To reinforce the concept, the company upgraded its packaging to print a large 0 on the outer packaging, and the ingredient list showed raw milk, crystalline fructose, starch, egg yolk powder, whey protein powder, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus. From the point of view of composition, in addition to raw milk and beneficial strains, there are also many added ingredients.
Kashi's 0 additive concept is another matter, "only raw milk, lactic acid bacteria, sugar, and other 0 additives."
Jane Eyre yogurt's description of the additives is more flattering, "everything else is gone", this sentence frequently appears in jane eyre's yogurt descriptions, and is even registered as a trademark. But in fact, this sentence does not specifically indicate that there is no addition, and there are different interpretations in different products.
In addition to the basic raw milk and lactic acid bacteria, it can be seen from the ingredient list of "Jane Love Original High Protein Yogurt", sugar and milk protein are added, and in the "Father's Love Formula" product, whey protein powder and fruit and vegetable paste are added. Coconut yogurt recipes are made with coconut milk.
Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng told AI Finance and Economics that it is expected that around October this year, there will be a very clear and detailed provision for the so-called "zero added", "0 sugar", "0 card" and "0 fat", and the chaos of the entire industry will also change.
Although the jury is still out, it is clear that consumers are eating this set. According to kantar's consumer index, 69% of Chinese consumers surveyed claim to be experimenting with sugar-reducing products, and sales of sugar-free, low-sugar beverages grew by 13% in 2019, higher than the overall 0.6% growth rate of beverages.
"Because calories are associated with weight loss, 0 calories are particularly attractive." Yun Wuxin believes that there is no need to be too entangled in the calorie value itself when choosing food, but should pay attention to what food ingredients the calories come from. If there are a lot of calories that come from sugar and fat, it's "inferior calories," and if there's a lot of protein and dietary fiber, it doesn't matter.
"The most important meaning of food is to provide the nutrients that people need, if it can't be provided, no matter what 0 sugar, 0 calories, 0 fat, how many layers are filtered, it is meaningless." Fan Zhihong also expressed the same view to AI Finance and Economics.
Although drinks can provide some vitamins and nutrients, Professor Fan Zhihong explained, the biggest significance of drinks to the human body is to provide moisture. "Drinking is nothing more than making drinking water, an extremely simple, extremely cheap thing, making it a variety of things, adding some concepts, making it look as fashionable and more acceptable." There is no sugar, no fat, and no calories in the water, so it is a pseudo-concept to say anything about health. ”
While staying up late to lose hair, while maintaining health care, punk health is a true portrayal of young people. Since the rough living habits can not be changed, the publicized foreign objects have become their new spiritual sustenance, 0 sugar drinks, skim milk, low-calorie snacks, which have become the standard of the product, to meet the desire of some consumers to both taste and health.
A beverage research and development personnel told ai Finance and Economics that he had made low-sugar drinks in strict accordance with the 5% ratio stipulated by the state, but consumers did not buy it, thinking that the taste was not good, or liked sweet drinks.
Professor Fan Zhihong explained that dairy products with mostly 0 sugar products are used as an example, and all mammals have lactose in their milk, and the lactose content is different, some about 4%, some about 6%. But often manufacturers do not count this, strictly speaking, these sugar-free products can not meet the standard of 0 sugar.
With the increase of user awareness, merchants have gradually replaced the slogan with 0 added sucrose. However, some merchants claim not to add sucrose, but may add honey, glucose, fructose, maltose and other sweet ingredients, and the taste of consumers is still sweet.
In the era when all kinds of sugar substitutes are flying everywhere, diabetics also seem to open the door to a new world, but a diabetic patient told AI Finance and Economics that some doctors said that they could eat some, but their own doctors said that he must not drink the so-called 0 sugar drink.
In addition to sugar-free drinks, there are also a variety of so-called sugar-free, low-fat meal replacement foods on the market, such as meal replacement shakes and meal replacement bars, and many consumers hope to "eat thin". In fact, if you choose anything without sugar, you will definitely lose weight and become thinner, and there is no scientific basis.
Although sugar substitutes do not affect the rise of insulin, it will bind to some sweet receptors and, in the long run, reduce insulin sensitivity. When you actually eat sugar or starchy foods, insulin sensitivity will be low, and you are more likely to be obese or diabetic. For the recent popular meal replacement shake, Professor Fan Zhihong also said that the meal replacement shake can not drink for a lifetime, nor can it serve as three meals, occasionally a meal can be, long-term consumption of the intestine, digestive system will have problems.
"There is no desire that does not need to pay a price, if you drink it every day, drink a lot, there is a risk of metabolic disorders." Professor Fan Zhihong preached.
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