Who will regulate the 100 billion meal replacement market?

　　Our reporter Chen Xuening

　　If you want to control your weight, drink a bottle of meal replacement powder for dinner; after a busy work, you can eat a nut protein bar to save trouble and be full... The main low-calorie, healthy, and full-bodied meal replacement foods are now among young people. The popularity in China has become a new trend in the catering industry, and it has also attracted many food companies to join them and gain the favor of capital.

　　Is the popular meal replacement of the entire network an advanced diet concept or a corporate marketing gimmick?

Meal replacement food holds up the market for hundreds of billions of yuan, and it also exposes a mixed mess.

Gu Zhongyi, director of the Beijing Dietitians Association and nutritionist, said that many products on the market have a single formula and do not meet the standard of meal replacement.

As of press time, there are no mandatory standards in this emerging market.

　　Turn out tricks, new and old brands join the game

　　Keeping a box of meal replacement powder at the work station has become a daily habit of office worker Miao Yu.

After get off work, he doesn't go to the cafeteria to eat, and makes a cup of meal replacement milkshake for dinner.

“Eating stir-fried vegetables with heavy oil and heavy salt at night makes it easy to gain weight. You can drink this with warm water and you can lose weight.” Because of the different tastes, Miao Yu tried many different brands of meal replacement powders, but “Which one is better? I don’t know."

　　Faced with various types of meal replacement foods, consumers often feel confused when choosing.

　　Reporters searched on mainstream e-commerce platforms and found that the most common meal replacement food is brewed solid beverages, which are dominated by emerging Internet brands.

Some products focus on high protein, claiming that the protein provided by a bottle is equivalent to 7 egg whites; some focus on plant extracts, adding red pomegranate extract, DHA algae oil and other nutrients to the meal replacement powder; more brands Products with different ingredients are provided for different groups of people, such as long-term computer watching, early work, and jet lag on business trips.

　　Konjac cakes, vegetable protein bars, instant chicken breasts, nut energy bars... In addition to some new brands, traditional food companies have entered the market one after another, renovating meal replacement foods.

In September last year, Want Want launched a new low-sugar and low-calorie product series "Fix Body", including meal replacement foods such as vegetarian multi-grain powder and oatmeal.

The Jiangzhong brand also launched a meal replacement drink Koshihikari rice cracker, claiming to nourish the stomach with zero sugar and fat.

In April of this year, Nestlé launched the healthy and light food product Nuocuyiq. This is Nestlé's first attempt in this field.

　　100 billion market financing endorsement frequency blessing

　　Compared with ordinary food, meal replacement food is expensive.

Take the Internet celebrity brand WonderLab meal replacement milkshake as an example. The price of 6 bottles is about 129 yuan after the promotion, which is more than 20 yuan per bottle.

The price of Gubentang Meal Replacement Milkshake is slightly lower, but the price of 6 bottles has reached 98 yuan.

A certain brand of 720 grams of konjac cake, the price reached 150 yuan.

　　"It is called a meal replacement, and it actually costs at least the price of a fast food." Consumers commented that the price of meal replacements has far exceeded the average people's expectations for snack prices.

This also makes meal replacement foods more popular among consumers in first- and second-tier cities.

　　According to the Tmall Food Industry Trend Analysis Report for 2019 released by Tmall Foods, meal replacement foods have become a popular trend, and new first- and second-tier cities account for nearly 50% of consumption.

From the perspective of sales volume and the number of consumers, there is a steady growth, and the growth rate is greater than 50%.

Among them, 85% of consumers buy meal replacements for fitness.

　　According to Tmall data, the functional snack market, represented by meal replacement foods, will reach 150 billion yuan in the next few years, and the space is vast.

Inflated demand, the meal replacement industry ushered in wave after wave of funding.

Public information shows that in July this year alone, there were many financing cases.

Smeal received equity financing from Zhonglu Kainiu; FIT8 received tens of millions of yuan in the first round; WonderLab received equity financing from IDG and Cathay Capital.

Various Internet celebrity meal replacements continue to appear in live broadcast rooms, short videos, and recommended advertisements in Moments.

On the Xiaohongshu APP, there are more than 200,000 notes about meal replacements, including various brand reviews and celebrity endorsements.

　　There is no standard expert advice not to "believe"

　　The industry drama is hot, but consumers are most concerned about whether the meal replacement food, which is known as healthy and full, is nutritionally safe.

Can meal replacement foods really "replace" meals?

　　"The key to a good meal replacement food is that the formula requires a comprehensive nutritional system. However, many products on the market do not meet this standard." Gu Zhongyi introduced, taking grain meal replacement powder as an example, which mainly contains carbohydrates. Although there are enough calories, vitamins and minerals are not enough.

"Rather than eating this kind of meal replacement, it is better to soak milk and oatmeal to eat. It may be more nutritious and more economical."

　　In August of this year, the Shenzhen Consumer Council conducted an evaluation of 10 Internet celebrity meal replacement foods.

The results showed that the energy, protein, and total dietary fiber of 4 samples from Besunyen, By-Health, Herbalife, and Netease strictly selected were low, and Fatlaster extremely plastic meal replacement shakes had low energy and protein.

Only 3 samples performed better in nutrition ratio.

　　Meal replacement foods are developing rapidly, but at the same time, it should be noted that there are chaos in the industry, such as mixed products and uneven quality.

At present, there is no compulsory standard for meal replacement food in China. The latest group standard of "Meal Replacement Food" issued by the Chinese Nutrition Society is only a reference standard for the industry.

Meal replacement foods are still managed in accordance with ordinary foods and need to be regulated urgently.

　　"Don't blindly believe in the propaganda of the business, you must read the nutrition label carefully." Li Yanyan, deputy chief physician of the Shenzhen Chronic Disease Prevention and Control Center of Guangdong Province and PhD in Nutrition and Food Hygiene, suggested that meal replacement powder should not be consumed for a long time.

Gu Zhongyi also said that meal replacements can be used as a solution to no time to eat, but they cannot replace a balanced daily diet. Try not to exceed one meal a day.