(Original title: What is the impact of the Haitian Flavor Additives scandal? The supermarket has not removed the shelves, and the dealers said that the sales have declined but are better than expected)
Financial Associated Press, October 7th (Reporter Chen Mo, Li Yongjun, Xiao Lianghua)During the National Day, the Haitian Flavor (603288.SH) soy sauce additive incident continued to ferment. Although the company issued two statements within a week, doubts on the Internet continued.
Cailian News Agency reporters learned from dealers in Shandong, Hunan and other places that the public opinion turmoil has limited impact on the recent sales of condiments, and supermarkets have not yet removed them. A number of Shandong county-level dealers told the Financial Associated Press that the decline in sales was better than expected.
Regarding the additive incident and its impact on sales, a reporter from the Financial Associated Press sent a letter to the Haitian Flavor Industry Securities Department for an email interview. As of press time, no reply has been received.
The sales volume of the supermarkets not being removed from the shelves may be less than expected
Today, a reporter from the Financial Associated Press interviewed a number of Haitian flavor distributors and condiment sales professionals in Shandong, Hunan and other places and learned that due to the additive incident, the recent sales of some soy sauces in Haitian series have been affected to a certain extent, and there has been a certain decline, but the decline rate It’s not that serious. Some dealers said bluntly: “It’s much better than imagined.”
Distributors of other condiment brands also told the Financial Associated Press that after the fermentation of the additive incident, the sales of condiments had a certain impact, but the impact was not very deep. Some dealers explained this: “The younger generation is mainly affected by the Internet, but the consumers are still mainly middle-aged groups.”
In addition, reporters from the Financial Associated Press recently visited a number of supermarkets. The condiments of Haitian, Weijixian and other brands have not been removed from the shelves. Haitian’s golden label light soy sauce, selected light soy sauce, straw mushroom dark soy sauce, Weijixian soy sauce, etc. Products of various specifications are displayed in conspicuous positions, the shelf display has not changed significantly, and consumers can still purchase normally.
It is worth noting that under the incident of soy sauce additives, “0-added” soy sauce was sought after by netizens. Compared with conventional soy sauce, the ingredients of zero-added soy sauce only have natural raw materials, and some products are specially marked with “no added MSG, pigments, preservatives” on the bottle body, but their prices are relatively higher. In the official Tmall channel, Haitian zero-added gold standard light soy sauce 1.28L has a reference price of 19.9 yuan/bottle, and Qianhe Flavor Industry (603027.SH) zero-added soy sauce 1.28L is estimated to be 17.94 yuan/bottle.
A summary of the Haitian Flavor Industry incident exchanged by a reporter from the Financial Associated Press shows that this incident may lead to the loss of consumers in the short term, but it will have little impact in the long run. The exploration of both taste and zero-additive products accelerates the search for natural substitutes for umami substances (sodium glutamate) that Chinese consumers prefer, and solves the taste problems in the industry.
Or accelerate the “additive-free” trend of the soy sauce industry
In response to the “double standard” incident of food additives and domestic and foreign products, Haitian Flavor issued two statements within a week in response, and the China Condiment Industry Association also issued a statement to support condiment companies in safeguarding their rights in accordance with the law, but online public opinion did not stop. .
A reporter from the Financial Associated Press compared a variety of soy sauce and soy sauce products and found that in the ingredients list, in addition to natural raw materials, the additives mainly include sodium glutamate, yeast extract, 5′-flavor nucleotide disodium, 5′- Disodium inosinate, sodium benzoate, sucralose. According to the data, among the above additives, sodium glutamate, disodium 5′-flavor nucleotide, disodium 5′-inosinate are flavor enhancers, sodium benzoate is food preservative, and sucralose is sweet agent.
Among the above-mentioned additives, sodium benzoate is of particular interest. According to public information, sodium benzoate is used as a drug and food preservative, but it is also toxic. After a small dose of sodium benzoate enters the human body, it can be metabolized by the human body and excreted from the body. If a large dose of sodium benzoate is ingested for a long time, it will produce with gastric acid Reaction to form benzoic acid, which can easily cause chronic benzene poisoning.
The harm of sodium benzoate to the human body is inseparable from the dose problem. An article published by the European Union Food Safety Authority (EFSA Journal) in March 2016 showed that the EU Expert Group on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources (ANS) parabenzoic acid (e210), sodium benzoate (e211), potassium benzoate (e212) and The use of calcium benzoate (e213) as a food additive was evaluated and the study concluded that the acceptable daily intake (ADI) was 5 mg/kg body weight (expressed as benzoic acid).
An entrepreneur in the condiment industry said in an interview with a reporter from the Financial Associated Press that the hype on the Internet has demonized food additives. “Consumers don’t know the truth, which leads to an emotional reaction of panic when talking about additives.” The person believes that , “Actually, additives are not a bad thing. All over the world, the rational use of food additives is not a shame. Preservatives can preserve food, and many other food additives are also beneficial to increase the color and flavor of food.”
However, he also lamented that the hot topic of Haitian will make China’s soy sauce industry enter the era of zero additives at least five years ahead of schedule.
(Editor Liu Yan)