Original title: Where are the mooncakes that cannot be sold after the Mid-Autumn Festival?

　　Carrefour freshly baked moon cakes

Wal-Mart Mooncake Sale

　　"4 for 10 yuan, 9 for 20 yuan, pick and choose..." On October 4, two white tents were erected at the intersection of Datiankan Street in Chengdu. Several local mooncake manufacturers are selling bulk mooncakes here.

The Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News reporter noted that the sales point is located near the vegetable market. The middle-aged and elderly people who come here to buy mooncakes are mainly passing by. The mooncake production date is mid to late September.

Some customers said that they are going to buy some moon cakes as snacks for a while.

　　In fact, this scene is staged throughout the country every year.

As a seasonal food, the value of mooncakes plummeted after the Mid-Autumn Festival, and supermarkets cancelled the mooncake counters and returned the remaining mooncakes to distributors or manufacturers.

In order to maintain their own brand, large food companies usually deal with inventory mooncakes in three ways: sell them at low prices; distribute them as benefits to employees; smash the mooncake skins and fillings together and sell them to feed factories.

　　Where did the mooncakes that were taken off the supermarket go?

　　Mooncakes are usually sold for only 20 days before the Mid-Autumn Festival. Once the Mid-Autumn Festival is over, mooncakes will change from "good heart" to no one.

On October 4th, a reporter from Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News found that most supermarkets removed the mooncake stalls on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival or the next day. Only the baking area can see freshly baked mooncakes. Figure.

And these moon cakes will soon disappear.

　　The moon cake gift box area of ​​Hema Xiansheng has been replaced by the Halloween toy counter. The signature freshly baked moon cake stalls before the Mid-Autumn Festival are now selling sandwiches.

The staff told reporters that after the Mid-Autumn Festival, moon cakes have been completely removed from Hema Fresh.

At present, a few moon cake gift boxes can be purchased through the Hema APP. Many of them are out of stock in the store and will be delivered the next day.

　　Wal-Mart’s bulk pastry section also retains two moon cake shelves, selling bulk moon cakes from Tian Lun Joy and Guan Sheng Yuan. Buy one catty and get half a catty free.

The salesperson said that other brands have already returned to the manufacturer, and these two models will last until they are sold out.

According to her, in order to reduce the inventory risk, the supermarket ordered according to previous years' sales data and citizens' demand, and also signed an agreement with the moon cake manufacturer to return the remaining moon cakes after the holiday.

“There are also moon cakes that cannot be refunded and will be distributed as employee benefits. However, there are generally not many moon cakes left after the promotion.” She pointed out that the supermarket will formulate a promotion plan based on the inventory, especially on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Empty.

　　Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News reporters have seen moon cakes baked on-site in the baking areas of Carrefour and Wal-Mart, filled with beef and ham.

"We are making them and selling them now. We will make new ones when we sell them out. There is no stock." The staff told reporters that these freshly baked moon cakes will also be off the shelves within a month.

　　The reporter searched "Jingdong Daojia" and found that nearby supermarkets and department stores are still selling mooncakes online, including brands such as Nantaiyue, Tianlunzhile, Wufangzhai, and Guangzhou Restaurant. Most of them are discounted by 60 to 70%, and the inventory is already low.

　　Where is the inventory of moon cake manufacturers?

　　Packaging accounts for most of the cost of moon cake gift boxes.

In recent years, the main method of recycling mooncakes has been to "pull into pieces", that is, the gift boxes are removed and reused, and the mooncakes are sold separately.

　　The shelf life of moon cakes is generally 30 to 90 days.

In order to maximize cost recovery, moon cake manufacturers try their best to sell the remaining inventory within the warranty period.

In addition to discount sales in densely populated areas as the reporter saw, companies will also transfer inventory to township and rural markets.

　　"This is a very important sales channel." Hibake's sales staff told the Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News reporter. "In urban areas, we usually sell them until 20 days after the festival. At this time, the shelf life of mooncakes is more than half a month. It is more acceptable in suburban counties and rural areas.” She revealed that the expired mooncakes will be crushed in a concentrated manner. “Sold to related companies to make animal feed, the most common is pig feed. However, the companies produce according to orders. The market demand predicted by research and actual situation will not differ too much, and there are not many moon cakes that need to be destroyed."

　　Consumers are most worried about buying aged mooncakes and remade desserts made from mooncakes.

Some media have reported that the mooncakes from the previous year "returned to the market" to be sold in the second year; there are also vendors buying mooncakes at low prices and processing them into pastries to the market...

　　In this regard, some practitioners pointed out to the Chengdu Commercial Daily-Red Star News that the cost of refrigeration and storage of moon cakes is higher than that of re-production, and manufacturers generally do not choose to freeze them for one year before selling.

"It is more feasible to buy moon cake fillings such as lotus seed paste and make other desserts at low prices. Consumers need to be vigilant."

　　It is understood that the State Food and Drug Administration organizes and implements special law enforcement inspections on moon cake production and sales every year, through inspections to verify the manufacturer’s licenses, moon cake quality inspection batch reports, as well as surprise inspections and spot checks to prevent and crack down on the production and processing of obsolete raw materials or recycled moon cakes. The illegal act of moon cakes.

　　As early as 2013, Shanghai launched the "Mooncake Recycling and Reporting System". Any mooncakes that cannot be sold by distributors must be reported to the regulatory authorities, regardless of whether they are expired or not. Mooncakes must be sold before they are returned.

　　In 2016, the Beijing Food and Drug Administration required the city’s moon cake manufacturers to resolutely put an end to the act of modifying the production date, take the initiative to disclose the disposal of moon cakes to the public, take the initiative to take centralized and unified destruction measures, and implement the "seasonal food daily reporting system" in 2017. Starting from the date of moon cake production, the manufacturer will report to the local food and drug regulatory authorities daily information on the production, sales, sales destination, return volume, and destruction of the moon cakes, and grasp the production, sales, return and recycling of moon cakes.

　　This year, the Zhejiang Provincial Market Supervision and Administration Bureau announced that moon cake manufacturers must strictly implement the main responsibility for food safety and strictly prohibit "recycling and reprocessing" behaviors. Products can only be sold after they pass inspection.

The moon cake business unit shall standardize the management requirements for purchase inspection, storage management, label identification, self-inspection report, etc.

Traceability supervision of shopping malls and supermarkets, tracking where each moon cake went according to the sales ledger.