China News Service, Changsha, January 3rd, title: Counterattack of a spicy strip: seeking change and innovation to become a contemporary "net celebrity"
China News Agency reporter Tang Xiaoqing
During the New Year's Day holiday, China's first spicy strips museum, which displayed the raw materials, production and testing of spicy strips in a scientific way, welcomed many fans to observe.
Not only that, but La Tiao professional classes, La Tiao exams and other La Tiao-related news have also rushed into the hot search on Weibo recently.
Why can a small spicy strip become a contemporary "net celebrity"?
The reporter found that its counterattack is inseparable from seeking change and innovation.
Spicy noodles are made by passing a mixture of wheat flour and water through high temperature and pressure, then adding chili, monosodium glutamate, and salt to penetrate into the flavor.
It originated in Pingjiang County, Hunan Province and was originally spicy.
At present, more than 90% of China's spicy noodle companies are founded by Pingjiang people. The output value of Pingjiang noodles is about 20 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), and nearly 70,000 people have been arranged for employment. They have been awarded "Chinese Gluten (spicy noodles) by China Food Industry Association The land of food".
However, in the initial stage of the industry, due to problems such as low production thresholds and irregular operations, spicy strips were labeled as "junk food" and "unhealthy".
The lingering embarrassment prompted practitioners such as Zhang Yudong, the founder of "Spicy Prince", to call for and promote the formulation of the industry's first local standard.
Pingjiang County also staged a "dignity defense war."
"When La Tiao encountered a national crisis, more than 100 La Tiao enterprises in the county took the initiative to suspend business for rectification. The Association set up a 24-hour reporting hotline to give high rewards to those who report irregular production enterprises." Chen, Secretary-General of Pingjiang County Food Association Peng said that after several rounds of rectification, the number of spicy strip companies in China has almost halved, but the output value of the spicy strip industry has increased from the initial several hundred million yuan to 30 or 40 billion yuan.
Although most spicy strip companies have passed the QS production license certification and achieved standardized production at this time, the industry still cannot completely get rid of the old label. Occasionally, problematic companies have problematic products, and the entire industry has to "pay."
To get rid of the embarrassment completely, Laotiao practitioners began to seek change.
Zhang Yudong set up a healthy spicy strips research and development center in Changsha, and invested 30 million yuan to build the industry's first 100,000-level GMP clean workshop, taking the lead in upgrading raw materials, eliminating pigments and chemically synthesized preservatives.
"For consumers to recognize spicy strips, we must pay attention to product quality." Zhang Yudong gave up the "one yuan spicy strips" product with a sales of 300 million yuan.
Many spicy bar companies have transformed and upgraded.
Weilong adopts a fully automated aseptic production workshop; Yanjin shop spent tens of millions of yuan to build a dust-free workshop; Hunan Jinmofang Food Co., Ltd. has an intelligent control of the whole process of the spicy strip production line...
The supervisors of the Pingjiang County Market Supervision Administration have transformed themselves from "cats catching mice" to "nanny" and hot-tiao experts.
“Since last year, 12 spicy tiao factories have invested 13 million yuan in the renovation of clean workshops, and 52 have invested nearly 30 million yuan in upgrading plant equipment.” said Wu Lianzhong, deputy director of the bureau.
In the wave of consumption upgrades, Latiao companies not only innovate and integrate Internet product thinking to capture the stomach of young people, but also carry out cross-border marketing.
At present, the annual output value of China's spicy noodles is nearly 60 billion yuan. Branded spicy noodles are sold to more than 160 countries and regions around the world, and they have contributed to China's fight against poverty.
"Pingjiang Spicy Tiao Enterprise has helped more than 5,000 poor households get rid of poverty stably." said Ye Jianzhi, director of the Poverty Alleviation Office of Pingjiang County.
"Healthy, industrialization, high-end, regularization, brand breaking, and Internet marketing are important factors for the counterattack of spicy sticks." said Liu Songbao, honorary president of the Hunan Food Industry Federation, who witnessed the rise of spicy sticks. The promulgation of the “National Standards” has also prompted companies to improve the environmental and sanitary standards of production workshops and strictly control the quality of raw materials.
However, there are still bottlenecks in the spicy strip industry, such as brand failure and lagging standards.
“Spicy strips are local specialties with unique flavors and large room for development. However, it is necessary to continue to raise the threshold of enterprises, do a good job in production management, and strictly implement national standards.” said Li Qinglong, a professor at Wuhan University of Light Industry who has studied spicy strips for many years.
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