Recently, Sun Baoguo, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of Beijing Technology and Business University, said in an interview with the media that most of the public still have misunderstandings about food additives, and companies cannot use "zero additives" as a gimmick to attract consumers.
A reporter from the Beijing News visited the market and found that at present, "zero addition" is not uncommon in packaged foods, and different companies and products have different definitions of "zero addition".
Declaring "zero addition" or "no addition" or suggesting that food additives are harmful, has become a marketing technique for many emerging brands.
According to food companies, "zero-addition" is a market trend and a competition among businesses for market segments.
If companies, especially new brands, do not label, they will often be at a competitive disadvantage.
However, in the opinion of some experts, the “zero addition” label conforms to consumer demand, but the panic marketing behind it and the stigmatization of some food additives are worth noting.
This is also the reason why the "Measures for Supervision and Administration of Food Labeling (Draft for Solicitation of Comments)" puts on the "zero addition" label.
The label "zero addition" became a trend
At the “Two Sessions Food Safety Dialogue” event held by the Wal-Mart Food Safety Collaboration Center on March 17, Sun Baoguo, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and President of Beijing Technology and Business University, stated that the level of scientific understanding of food additives among Chinese residents has been better than that of ten years ago However, some misunderstandings have not been eliminated, such as equating additives with food additives, thinking that natural foods are better than synthetic ones, etc., and suggest that companies should not use "zero additives" as a gimmick to attract consumers.
A reporter from the Beijing News visited the market and found that from dairy products, beverages, ham sausages, to condiments, edible oils, etc., pre-packaged food labeling "zero addition" and "no addition" has become popular, but different companies have different definitions. .
For example, the package of double-protein flavored fermented milk is labeled as "0-added food additives"; the "0-added" of Qianhe zero-added vinegar means that no alcohol, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, etc. are added during the production process; Totole's original fresh first road soy sauce "0 add" means that no preservatives and sweeteners are used; Haitian zero added first road soy sauce is labeled "0% added MSG and preservatives"; Jinluo King Zhongwang premium ham sausage packaging The above is labeled as "no sweetener added" and "no synthetic colorant added".
In addition, declaring "zero addition" or "no addition" or suggesting that food additives are harmful, has become a common marketing technique for many emerging brands.
For example, on the product page, the Internet celebrity yogurt brand Le Chun once declared that it "rejects chemical additives."
Recently, the baby food brand Babies, which has won more than 100 million financing, also puts "additives, I don't love" as a selling point, and said that "products that meet the standards of infant supplements are not necessarily good", because the national standard also allows the use of food additives.
More and more "zero addition" labeling issues have attracted the attention of regulatory authorities.
In July 2020, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the revised "Measures for Supervision and Administration of Food Labeling (Draft for Comment)."
It stipulates that for substances that are not contained or used in food, the food label shall not be emphasized by marking "no addition", "zero addition", "not containing" or similar words.
Although the management measures have not yet been issued, in the view of some food companies, the draft for comments suggests to a certain extent the direction of future supervision.
The "market atmosphere" that is hard to escape
"The general public mentality is that the fewer food additives, the better." According to Sun Baoguo, there are currently more than 10,000 types of food additives in the world, and the number of food additives registered and approved by the US FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) and the Environmental Protection Agency has reached tens of thousands. Kind.
In contrast, there are only more than 2,000 kinds of food additives in my country, and only about ten kinds of new additives are approved for use every year. The approval speed is slow. The main reason is that the public's psychological tolerance and acceptance of food additives are taken into consideration. ability.
A person in charge of a large dairy company told the Beijing News that the current "zero-added" yogurt is a trend, which is easier to be accepted by consumers, and it is also a competition for market segments by merchants. "Especially for some new brands, Without this kind of marketing, the market may not be able to occupy, so unconventional methods are used."
"Everyone does this, and if we don't do it, we will be at a competitive disadvantage. Even if we don't want to bid on the product, distributors and channels will remind us to mark the selling point. This is the market atmosphere at present." "No added sucrose" on the label, Mr. Li, the person in charge of a dairy company in North China, explained to the Beijing News reporter.
In recent years, the low-temperature yogurt industry has emerged with Internet celebrity brands such as Kas, Lechun, Jane Eyre, and Yuanqi Forest, and "no additives" and high protein have become the two major categories of these brands.
In this industry background, as a newly established dairy company in 2020, the selling points of the above-mentioned North China dairy companies naturally fall on “no additives”.
Not long ago, the company wanted to add edible gelatin to a new yogurt product. However, considering the current competitive environment and consumers' "excessive tension on food additives", it finally gave up this idea.
"In fact, edible gelatin is extracted from animal bones and is a natural thickening agent. However, some businesses are indeed exaggerating to educate consumers about food additives, and we have no way of doing it."
In fact, it is far more than downstream food companies that make strategic adjustments to meet market demand.
As an A-share listed company that mainly engages in the research and development and sales of flavors and food ingredients, Huabao Flavors Co., Ltd. once stated in its 2019 financial report that as the downstream food manufacturing industry enters a structural transformation period, the update and iteration of downstream products accelerates, and the upstream The R&D capabilities of food flavor companies have brought new challenges.
At present, Huabao shares focus on expanding the business of natural food flavors and health food ingredients.
Experts condemn panic marketing
There are also differences of opinion in the industry on whether it is necessary to prohibit companies from marking "zero additions".
Xie Huamin, a former senior engineer of the Standards and Quality Center of the National Grain Administration who promoted the prohibition of nitrite in the catering industry, believes that the "Food Labeling Supervision and Administration Measures" have not yet been issued, and it is not illegal for companies to mark "zero additives" on their products.
The total ban on the labeling of "zero additions" is equivalent to depriving consumers of the right to directly understand food ingredients.
In the United States, Canada, Germany, Britain, France, Japan, Australia and other countries, companies are not prohibited from claiming that they do not contain food additives.
In the view of Zhong Kai, member of the Standing Committee of the Health Communication Branch of the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association and director of the Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center, the driving force for merchants to label products with "zero addition" is to meet consumer needs.
"It is understandable to comply with consumer demand, but the use of consumer psychology to deliberately create panic needs to be condemned."
Zhong Kai believes that the "Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Food Labeling (Draft for Comment)" prohibits the labeling of "zero addition" for two reasons. One is that "zero addition" implies that no addition is better than addition. This is actually a panic. Type marketing; second, there are a large number of “zero-added” claims on the market that are “nonsense”. For example, some plant-based products claim zero cholesterol, but the plant itself does not contain cholesterol; claiming “0 sucrose” may actually add glucose Other sugars such as syrup or honey.
The company's claim that it stigmatizes cholesterol and sucrose is misleading to consumers.
The Beijing News reporter noticed that some products have now converted the "zero addition" way of expression.
Ruguangming truthful yogurt packaging changed "no additives · fermented milk" to "pure · fermented milk", another product was marked with "clean formula"; Mengniu Guanyi milk packaging was marked with "simple formula" ; The label of Jane Eyre's father's formula yogurt is "raw milk, whey protein powder, lactic acid bacteria, and nothing else".
Regarding the safety of food additives, Professor Wang Zhixu of the School of Public Health of Nanjing Medical University said in an interview with a reporter from the Beijing News: There is no problem in using it within the scope of application.” Sun Baoguo also believes that some businesses or consumers seek to simplify the ingredient list, but the quality of the food is not necessarily related to the number of ingredients listed in the ingredient list.
According to Zhong Kai's understanding, the list of food additives approved for use in my country is constantly being updated, and the GB2760 "National Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Additives" has also undergone several revisions.
There are generally two reasons for reassessment of a food additive. One is that there is new evidence for safety that needs to be reassessed; the other is that the structure of food consumption changes. When the consumption of a food changes from less to more, it needs to be reassessed. Consider whether one of the food additives will exceed the safety limit after accumulation.
Beijing News reporter Guo Tie photography Guo Tie