Entering ChinaThe tens of billions of condiment giant Qianhe Flavor Industry has overturned!
When consumers were still apprehensive about the 315 storm, the veteran condiment giant Qianhe Flavor Industry hit the muzzle again, and its “Qianhe 0” soy sauce was detected with cadmium, and the trademark “Qianhe 0” was exposed as a word game.
Qianhe 0 soy sauce cadmium exceeded the standard
On March 19, a test report of “Consumer Reports” set off a huge wave, and 12 of the 13 “zero additive” soy sauces submitted for inspection were detected with cadmium, of which the cadmium content of Qianhe Yuzang Brewing for 380 days reached 0.0110mg/kg. What’s even more magical is that the bottle of the product involved is impressively printed with the eye-catching “Qianhe 0” trademark, which is suspected of deliberately confusing the concept of “zero additive”. Cadmium is a non-essential and toxic element in the human body and may pose a carcinogenic and mutagenic risk; Arsenic is widely found in nature, and organic and inorganic arsenic pesticides are commonly used for insecticide, sterilization, weeding, etc.
“Is this ‘0’ a commitment of conscience or a trick?” Consumers are angry and denounced. As for whether “Qianhe 0” means zero addition, the customer service staff of Qianhe Flavor Industry has not responded positively, but just said: “Whether it is zero addition, you can refer to the ingredient list.” “Please be completely and completely assured that you can take a look at the ingredient list of our series of products with the Qianhe 0 logo, which are produced using only common food ingredients, and not even yeast extracts.”
The “Qianhe 0” trademark layout has been 16 years
It is worth noting that behind this, Qianhe Flavor Industry’s trademark layout has been as long as 16 years, in 2007, Qianhe Flavor Industry took the lead in playing the concept of “zero addition” to seize the market mind, and in 2018, the continuous application for “Qianhe Zero Additive” and “Qianhe Zero Tianjia” trademarks was rejected, and the “Qianhe 0” trademark was registered in 2020, and the bottle design deliberately enlarged the word “0”. This time, Qianhe Flavor Industry applied for two trademarks for “Qianhe 0”, one classification is still 30 categories of convenience food, the group is 3015, 3016, and the goods/services are mainly 3015 vinegar, soy sauce, 3016 cooking wine, tempeh, condiments, etc.; The other is 35 categories of advertising sales, 3510 for groups, 3510 for goods/services items, etc. In order to allow more groups to have the right to use the trademark, in 2023, Qianhe Flavor will add 8 additional groups to apply for the “Qianhe 0” trademark again, and the additional groups involve 3001 coffee, 3014 salt, 3019 cooking meat tenderizer, etc., and the current status of the trademark is under rejection review.
The stock price evaporated 950 million in four days
In response, the capital market chose to vote with its feet. Affected by this news, the share price of Qianhe Flavor Industry suffered a heavy fall today, opening nearly 2% lower in the morning, and falling 4% in the afternoon, with a single-day market value of 500 million yuan, it is worth noting that since 315, Qianhe Flavor Industry fell for four consecutive days, and the stock price fell 7.3% from the high, and the market value evaporated more than 950 million yuan. As of press time, Qianhe Flavor Industry’s share price was 11.78 yuan per share, down 3.87%.
At present, “zero additive” has become a must for condiment companies. Qianhe Flavor, Haitian Flavor, Jiajia Food, Lee Kum Kee and other condiment companies are all in the layout of zero additives. However, at present, there is no unified definition of “zero additive” in China, and the supervision is not perfect. When there is an error between the brand and consumers’ perception of zero additives, it is necessary to clarify whether the “zero addition” of the fire is a new health trend or a short-term marketing gimmick.
Regarding the situation of zero addition “flooding”, the relevant supervision is becoming stricter. In July 2020, the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Food Labeling (Draft for Comments) issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation clearly stipulate that food labels shall not be marked with the following: for substances that are not contained or used in food, emphasize that they are not contained or unused with words such as “no added”, “zero added”, “no contain” or similar words.
Zhu Danpeng, an analyst of China’s food industry, believes that it is difficult for condiment products to achieve absolute “zero additive”, and the country now has very strict requirements for zero added products, and is also strictly supervising them, but not all products are fully equipped with “zero additive” conditions. In addition, products with zero additives are not necessarily the most suitable for consumers, and are more just selling a marketing concept.
