How to break the food safety "curse" of new tea drinks?

　　Chinanews.com, March 15th (Zuo Yuqing, Zhongxin Finance and Economics) From the "first cup of milk tea in autumn" swiping the screen, to the young people teasing "relying on milk tea to continue life" in their busy schedules, the rapid rise of new tea drinks has become a reality. Become the overlord of the beverage industry.

　　With the popularity of young consumers, new tea drinks have gained more attention on social platforms; at the same time, food safety issues have also caused many milk tea brands to frequently appear on Weibo hot searches, and "drink out foreign objects" have become brands. Our "headache" problem.

　　Why do new tea drinks and food safety problems occur frequently?

How can milk teas achieve "safety on the tip of the tongue"?

Standardization of "current system" has become a problem

　　The "2022 New Tea Drinks Research Report" released by the China Chain Store and Franchise Association New Tea Drinks Committee shows that the scale of new tea drinks in 2022 is expected to reach 104 billion yuan, and the total number of new tea drinks stores is about 486,000.

In 2023, the market size is expected to reach 145 billion yuan.

Meituan data shows that the chain rate of new tea drinks will increase from 41.2% to 55.2% from 2020 to 2022.

　　As an emerging industry, new tea brands can achieve rapid replication by virtue of low threshold for opening stores, low cost of expanding stores, and standardized production.

However, the imperfect standardization management also makes brands encounter food safety management problems.

　　China New Finance and Economics found that since 2022, many milk tea brands such as Michelle Ice City, Yihetang, and Guming have exposed food safety issues such as the use of expired ingredients.

　　For example, in May 2022, there were media reports that investigators found on-the-spot investigations that there were problems such as continued use of expired and moldy ingredients in a department store of Zhengzhou Yihetang, bugs in various ingredients, and staff cutting lemons and peeling grape skins with bare hands. ; In June 2022, a Mixue Bingcheng store in Beijing was fined 5,000 yuan because the lychee juice that had been opened exceeded the shelf life; Food processed with raw materials was fined 2,000 yuan by the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Gongcheng County.

Data map: A store in Michelle Ice City.

Photo by Zuo Yuqing

　　On February 27 this year, two new tea drinking companies were involved in food safety disputes on the same day: a consumer drank three labels from Yihetang milk tea; another investigation video released by a blogger showed that honey The staff at the Snow Ice City store used expired lactic acid bacteria and changed the expiration date.

　　In this regard, Yihetang admitted that the employees involved in the store did not strictly follow the product production process and did not check carefully, causing the label paper to be left in the cup. They apologized and suspended training for the employees involved and the store and closed down for rectification; He told the media that an internal investigation and verification is already underway.

　　Michelle Bingcheng, which hit the IPO, once pointed out in the prospectus: "The company has a long production and operation chain and many management links, and product quality problems may occur due to management negligence or unforeseen factors."

　　As an emerging industry that sells on-the-go, the new tea drinks have a long supply chain, a variety of raw materials, and many manual operations, which make the tea drinks have uncontrollable factors in the production process.

Once there is no effective standardized management, potential unstable factors will be stimulated.

　　"The quality of instant beverage granules is relatively guaranteed due to the formation of a complete automation system. However, new tea drinks rely on raw materials that are difficult to store, such as fruits, in pursuit of fresh taste, and use a lot of manual operations. These hidden dangers cannot be completely eliminated." Jiang Zezhong, a professor at Capital University of Economics and Business and a researcher at the Private Enterprise Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said.

Food safety concerns under the rapid development of franchising and expansion

　　In addition, although low-cost and fast-expanding franchising has become a sharp weapon for brands to expand stores at a high speed and tap sinking markets, it also makes it difficult for brands to take care of themselves in self-regulation.

　　Among the 30 new tea drink brands counted in the "2022 New Tea Drink Research Report", only 2 brands only adopt the direct sales model, and the remaining 28 brands are open to franchising or cooperative franchising.

Data map: A cup of freshly made milk tea.

Photo by Gong Hongyu

　　Jiang Zezhong believes that compared with the high degree of consistency in the operation of directly-operated stores, franchise stores are more of a copy of the brand image, and there may be differences in the product production process.

"Some brands have not formed strong supervision on franchisees, and put forward strong restrictive conditions."

　　An employee who used to work in a tea franchise store told Zhongxin Finance and Economics that his store had been made with fresh milk in accordance with the requirements of the brand licensor.

"After the benefits were not good, stores began to use substitutes such as creamer, and no customers could tell the difference." He said.

Can digitization and intelligence break the curse?

　　How to ensure the "safety on the tip of the tongue" for new tea drinks that have become the "sustainment" of young consumers?

　　Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in China's food industry, said that snack food companies should consolidate their foundations with systems and strengthen their foundations with technology, and improve the "technical defense line" to promote quality control to a higher level and deeper level.

　　Zhongxin Finance learned that there are currently new tea brands exploring digital food safety management.

For example, use the digital system to evaluate store orders based on online sales, reducing the loss and storage pressure caused by artificial predictions; put into use digital equipment such as automatic milk tea machines to reduce food safety problems caused by manual operations, and so on.

Data map: Chengdu Market Supervision Bureau inspects new tea stores in the business district.

The screenshot is from the WeChat public account of the Chengdu Market Supervision Bureau.

　　Jiang Zezhong pointed out that in terms of self-regulation, brands need to strengthen the supervision and management of franchisees, and strict regulations and supervision are required in terms of raw materials and production process requirements.

In terms of corporate supervision, relevant departments should increase punishment to deter businesses that violate food safety regulations, and add regular inspections of "customer experience" on the basis of spot checks.

　　"Food safety is not only the responsibility of enterprises and relevant departments, but also requires the whole society to strengthen feedback and supervision." He said.

(over)