Following the two incidents of solid drinks pretending to be special milk powder in Chenzhou, Hunan, Guangzhou has recently been exposed to more than 10 hospital doctors recommending solid drinks "Bell" and "Miner Shu" to parents of allergic children in the name of milk powder, Guangzhou Children's Hospital Pearl River Xincheng Branch, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, and Guangzhou Children's Hospital were involved. Currently, the Guangzhou Municipal Health Commission has been involved in the investigation.
In fact, this is just the tip of the iceberg of the solid beverage mess in the maternal and infant fields. According to industry sources, 70% of the "nutritional products" currently sold in maternal and infant stores are solid beverages, of which probiotics and whey protein powder are common. Such products often involve false propaganda and concept hype. The industry has low barriers to entry, and the quality of employees from manufacturers to channels needs to be improved.
A Beijing News reporter surveyed more than 10 probiotic products on the market claiming to be edible for infants and young children, and found that only one has obtained health food qualifications, but they often claim to have gastrointestinal regulation and immune improvement functions in external publicity. Some "lactoferrin powders" highly sought after by parents are actually only whey protein solid beverages bearing the trademark "lactoferrin", which are generally priced above 300 yuan, but the OEM cost is only a few tens of yuan.
Qicheng Maternal and Child Store "Nutrition" is a solid beverage
After several incidents of solid beverages posing as special medical milk powder in Hunan and Guangdong came to light, the mother and infant store advocated Kaihua (pseudonym) and were not surprised when they were angry because they have been in the township mother and infant stores for five years. It is commonplace-stores that pretend to be special medical milk powder with solid beverages do exist, but the routine adopted by most businesses is to sell and bundle other "nutritional products" when customers buy infant milk powder. "Customers rarely go out empty-handed. Store ".
Zhang Kaihua told the Beijing News reporter that the "nutrients" that appeared in the maternal and child stores in towns and villages included probiotics, whey protein powder, and Qinghuobao (milk powder partner). Except that some products belong to health food or prepared milk powder, most of the products are solid beverages. "At present, there are very few Qinghuobao products, and whey protein powder has cooled down. The most popular is probiotics."
Li Deming (a pseudonym), the founder of a chain of maternal and infant brands for 20 years, also confirmed to reporters from the Beijing News that 70% of the "nutritional products" sold in the maternal and infant channels are solid beverages, and the remaining 30% are more than milk powder. From the perspective of the entire industry, about 50% of the revenue of chain mother and infant stores comes from infant milk powder, complementary foods and snacks account for about 5% -10%, and "nutritional products" will not exceed 5%, of which solid beverages The proportion will not exceed 3%, and the rest of the income will mainly come from clothing, lathes, toys and other baby products.
Li Deming believes that the rise of "nutritional products" in the maternal and infant channels is related to the regulatory environment for infant milk powder in my country. In 2013, “Detailed Rules for the Review of Production Licenses for Infant and Infant Formula Milk Powder” was issued. For enterprises with only packaging capabilities, no production process conditions, and enterprises that only produce base powder, no infant milk powder production license is granted. According to Li Deming's recall, there were many OEM milk powders in Hunan in the early days, and a number of milk powder specialty stores were developed from this. "After the introduction of this policy, milk powder stores began to transform into a full range of products, such as increased nutrition, diapers, etc. After the channel demand, manufacturers began to follow up."
From 2013 to 2016, these specialty stores mainly sold milk powder and diapers. After the implementation of the formula registration system in 2016, since one factory only allowed registration of 3 series and 9 formulas, the number of infant milk powder brands on the market has decreased significantly. Many milk powder manufacturers, sales companies, distributors, and mother and infant channels urgently need to find other products. Supporting performance, products such as lactoferrin, DHA, and probiotics began to emerge.
The cost is dozens of yuan
In Zhang Kaihua's view, the huge profit space is the biggest motivation for manufacturers and maternal and child stores to join the "big army" of solid beverages and even take risks.
It is understood that the product involved in the incident of solid beverages posing as special medical milk powder in Yongxing County, Chenzhou, was priced at 298 yuan / can (400g). The doctor of Chenzhou Children's Hospital falsely advertised the solid beverage as the product of the special doctor's milk powder incident "Shuer", the retail price was up to 338 yuan / can (400g). If converted into unit price, it is equivalent to the price of two cans of ultra-high-end infant formula.
The Beijing News reporter previously investigated and learned that Ningbo Teyi Food Co., Ltd., which was investigated and punished by the market supervision department in 2019, produced a 400-gram can of "Jia Rui Bao Amino Acid Formula Powder" (solid beverage) with a market price of 338 yuan. Take the medical channel, the price can be as low as 55% off; take the maternal and child channel to take the price of about 30%. The market personnel of Qingdao Jindaiyang Dairy Co., Ltd., who was investigated and dealt with at the time, gave the maternal and infant channels a price of about 35% off, and a 360-gram can of Jindayang "Teneng jaundice small peptide formula powder" (solid Beverage) retail price can reach 568 yuan.
As far as the hottest probiotic products sold in maternal and infant stores, the profit is also staggering. The Beijing News reporter visited the market in July 2019 and learned that the price of a box of Angel Newt Zhimin Probiotics is 298 yuan per box (60g), and the retail price of Bihuilong Enzyme Tribiotic is up to 358 yuan. Box (45g).
A manager of a probiotic product foundry in Shandong once revealed to a reporter from the Beijing News that if a box of 60g (2g × 30 bags) is ordered, Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN0001, Bifidobacterium lactis Bi-07, and Bifidobacterium lactis HN019 are added For each bag of probiotic products with a live bacteria addition amount of over 10 billion CFU, the "one-stop" foundry price from packaging, raw materials to production is only about 9.5 yuan, and the 45g specification foundry cost will not exceed 8.3 yuan. "Even if you add another 10 billion live bacteria, the cost will not be much higher."
A similar situation also occurs with whey protein solid beverage products. According to the relevant person in charge of a large-scale bio-engineering company in Shenzhen, whey protein raw materials are divided into two specifications of 20mg / 100g and 100mg / 100g based on the amount of lactoferrin contained in them. The latter is more common. If calculated according to the 100mg / 100g specification, plus some other raw materials and packaging costs, the contract price of 1 bag (1g) whey protein solid beverage is about 1 yuan. This also means that a can of whey protein solid beverage (1g × 30 bags) priced at more than 300 yuan will cost only about 30 yuan.
Aiming at the hype concept of maternal and child groups
In addition to the unrealistically high profits, another problem with these solid beverages is that they aim at the mother and baby groups to play the concept of scouring, and even lack of false propaganda.
The Beijing News reporter previously surveyed more than 10 probiotic products on the market claiming to be edible for infants and young children, and found that only one domestic product has obtained health food qualifications, and most of the products are solid beverages, but merchants often claim to have Regulates the stomach and intestines, improves immunity and other functions. As the official customer service of Gaopei composite probiotic said, the product can improve immunity by adjusting the intestine, and babies under 6 months can be consumed for a long time. Newmans probiotic powder customer service also said that children 0-6 years old can be consumed, mainly to adjust the balance of gastrointestinal flora, improve immunity, and reduce the incidence of eczema.
Some "lactoferrin powders" that claim to enhance the baby's immunity are essentially whey protein solid drinks bearing the "lactoferrin" trademark, which is suspected of "selling sheep's meat by hanging sheep's heads". For example, an "IBC Abbe lactoferrin powder" sold by Taobao merchants "Olympic / Folic Acid Nutrient Store" in 2018 has no lactoferrin in the ingredients list and no lactoferrin content in the nutrient composition table. If you look closely at the product name, you can find that "Ai Beisi milk iron" is actually a "TM" trademark that has not yet been registered.
Li Deming told the Beijing News reporter that such "nutritional products" are sold more in Shandong, Henan and other populous provinces, accounting for about 15% of the turnover of local maternal and infant stores. "A large population area is easy to create a sales atmosphere for parents. An illusion that children will fall behind without eating. "
"From the brand to the channel, the quality of practitioners needs to be improved." Li Deming believes that due to the low barriers to entry for such products in the industry, the competition is fierce, and manufacturers generally conduct conceptual hype. Measured by the standard of solid beverages, the biggest problem of such products at present is not the quality itself, but the false propaganda.
In 2019, Shandong Fanhe Biological Technology Co., Ltd. was punished by the market supervision department for a false promotion of product packaging because its solid beverages such as Yaledi and Shuerpa constituted false medical milk powder, and its production qualification was revoked. In January 2020, the Zhejiang Provincial Market Supervision Bureau announced the top ten typical cases of illegal advertising of general foods and health foods in 2019. Ningbo Teyi announced that it contained "rapid relief of milk allergy symptoms, eczema and diarrhea" during the sale of solid beverages The confusing terminology of drugs and medical devices violates the relevant provisions of the Advertising Law and is fined 200,000 yuan.
Solid drinks are not suitable for infants
The question before parents is, if they buy these expensive and expensive solid drinks, do they pay "intelligence tax"?
The Beijing News reporter visited the market and found that lactoferrin products with health food certification generally indicate that infants and young children are not suitable for people on the packaging. And Zhu Yi, associate professor of the School of Food Science and Nutrition Engineering at China Agricultural University, pointed out that the extraction process of whey protein and lactoferrin is different. After the separation and purification of whey protein, the activity of lactoferrin contained in it will be greatly lost. Therefore, it is claimed that the effect of lactoferrin in whey protein powder is "pure flicker".
Zhang Yu, deputy researcher of the Institute of Nutrition and Health of the Chinese Center for Disease Control, suggested that if the child has a sufficient diet, especially after adding complementary foods, there is no need to add additional protein. If your child has symptoms such as partial eclipse and iron deficiency, you can go to the hospital for related examinations and listen to the doctor's advice. If the blind supplement causes excessive nutrients, it will increase the child's kidney and liver burden.
As far as probiotic products are concerned, according to the list published by the official website of the National Health and Health Commission in 2016, probiotics that can be used in food for infants and young children have only 9 strains of 7 strains, and compared with adult edible strains, the requirements are clear To strain types. However, among the 10 probiotics products declared by the Beijing News that claim to be edible for infants and young children, only Life Space, Childhood, Angel Newt, etc. are marked with the words "children" and "infants", and other products are not marked For people. In addition, many probiotic products have added silica, papain, bovine colostrum, high content carbohydrates and other ingredients that are not suitable for infants and young children.
Yun Wuxin, a senior member of the American Food Technology Association and a member of the Scientific Squirrel Association, believes that in order for probiotics to function, they must have bacteria with specific functions, and a sufficient amount of live bacteria to reach the gastrointestinal tract and produce clear health benefits for the human body. . At present, there are no domestic and foreign regulatory standards for the effectiveness and safety of probiotics. Whether probiotic products contain the declared bacteria and the activity of the bacteria cannot be guaranteed in the production and distribution chain.
"Solid beverages themselves do not meet the relevant standards of infant and young children's food and should not be recommended for infants and young children. For infants under 6 months of age, the addition of sugars and other ingredients will destroy the basic principle of breast milk or formula powder as the only source of nutrition, so It ’s unreasonable for businesses to advocate giving infants and young children long-term consumption of this probiotic product. ”Yun Wuxin said.
Beijing News reporter Guo Tie