Yuanqi Forest responds to packaging to delete "0 cane sugar"
Said "to prevent consumers from misunderstanding that milk tea is completely sugar-free"
Yuanqi Forest, which has just completed a new round of approximately US$500 million in strategic financing, has recently pushed itself to the forefront of public opinion with a statement.
On April 10, Yuanqi Forest issued a statement called "A Late Upgrade", stating that Yuanqi Forest did not clearly state the difference between "0 sucrose" and "0 sugar" in the labeling and promotion of milk tea products. It caused misunderstandings, so the outer packaging of milk tea products was modified and the product formula was upgraded.
However, this statement immediately caused an uproar: "Does the modification of the packaging and the change of the formula indicate that the original publicity is problematic?" Some consumers even questioned the misleading of the previous "0 sucrose" publicity.
In response, Yuanqi Forest responded on April 11, saying that there was no problem with the label on the previous product packaging, but to prevent some misunderstandings from consumers who are not familiar with the concept of "sugar", the packaging label was optimized.
Replacing the outer packaging no longer emphasizes "0 sucrose"
A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily saw from the statement issued by Yuanqi Forest on its official Weibo on April 10 that all the raw materials of Yuanqi Forest Milk Tea produced on March 20 no longer contain crystalline fructose.
The original "0 sucrose low fat" has been changed to "low carbohydrate body fat" for all vitality forest milk tea packaging produced from March 18, and "0 sucrose" is no longer emphasized.
It was this statement that caused market suspicion. In response to this issue, Yuanqi Forestry responded to a reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily on April 11, saying that many consumers’ misunderstandings are actually due to the inconsistency of the “sugar” concept in beverages It is clear that the concepts of "sucrose" and "sugar" are confused. This is the reason why Yuanqi Forest revised the packaging label this time. In the future, Yuanqi Forest will continue to strengthen the popularization of this knowledge.
A reporter from the Beiqing Daily saw from the packaging labels of the Yuanqi Forest Milk Tea products sold on the market that its products actually contain "three sugars"-lactose, crystalline fructose and natural sugar substitutes.
It is precisely because of these three kinds of sugar that the vitality forest milk tea, which has always been sold with "0 sucrose" as its selling point, has been questioned.
In this regard, Yuanqi Forest said that they have always emphasized "0 sucrose" on the label. The difference between Yuanqi Forest Milk Tea and most milk teas on the market is that no additional sucrose is added to enhance the taste.
However, many consumers misunderstand "0 sucrose" as "0 sugar", thinking that "0 sucrose" should mean that there is no sugar in milk tea.
And this understanding is obviously wrong.
"In order to avoid such misunderstandings, Yuanqi Forest Milk Tea changed the '0 sucrose' on the package to'low sugar', which emphasizes that the milk tea is not completely free of sugar."
The update of the new label has now been completed
"In fact, it is impossible for milk tea to be completely free of sugar unless it contains no milk raw materials at all." According to Yuanqi Forest, lactose is indispensable in milk tea beverages because it comes from the milk itself. The product really contains milk, so it will definitely contain lactose.
The reason why Yuanqi Forest Milk Tea achieves "0 sucrose" is that it uses two natural sugar substitutes, steviol glycosides and erythritol. These two sugar substitutes are zero calories, so it can reduce calories while ensuring milk The taste of tea.
"In fact, in response to this misunderstanding of consumers, Yuanqi Forest has started to modify the packaging labels since October last year, but due to packaging, inventory and other reasons, it takes a certain period of time to complete all iterations." Yuanqi Forest said on January 14 this year. The company once issued a statement saying that it will upgrade the product label within three months to clearly indicate the sugar content of the product.
The latest statement released on April 10 was actually an explanation to consumers at the "three-month expiration", telling everyone that Vitality Forest had completed all label updates on schedule.
It is also understood that during the three-month label update period, Yuanqi Forest not only modified the packaging, but also optimized the formula of milk tea products.
That is, from March 20th, all the raw materials of Yuanqi Forest Milk Tea no longer contain crystalline fructose, only the lactose contained in milk, and the zero-calorie natural sugar substitute that does not participate in human metabolism.
Text/Reporter Zhang Qin