A few days ago, Changjiang Daily and Liangpin Store jointly launched 100 small family surveys targeting children aged 3- 12 with the theme "Will you buy lollipops for your children?" . The survey found that over 30% of families don't give their children lollipops, over 70% of mothers will consider food additives such as pigments and preservatives when choosing lollipops, and over 50% of mothers are worried that the sugar content of lollipops is too high.
Contrary to parents' fears, more than 60% children choose "like" and "like" lollipops.
It's time to redefine 3.0 lollipops.
More than 50% parents are worried about the high sugar content of lollipops.
More than 70% parents are worried about pigments and preservatives.
Among the considerations for buying lollipops, "the use of food additives such as pigments and preservatives" topped the list, accounting for more than 70%; "Sugar content" and "added nutrients" followed closely.
Parents put forward the expectation of lollipop iteration, and the high vote of "sugar control" was elected, exceeding 80%; The rational use of additives has won more than 70% of the votes; The safety and taste of packaging tied for third place.
It is not difficult to see that the "conflict" of lollipops in children's snacks is quite fierce, but the core is that children "like", so it is also a zero food category that parents and children urgently want to change and upgrade.
Iteration is too slow, and there are various additives.
Traditional lollipops say it's not easy to love you.
The changes in the demand side of lollipops reflect that the parents of "post-85 s" and "post-90 s" have already surpassed the sweetness and deliciousness of lollipops.
Judging from the childhood of "post-80s" mothers, it was the time when lollipops owned by domestic and foreign candy giants flourished in China market. In the 1990s, Wrigley's "True Knowledge Bar" (originally belonging to Jiakou Group) proudly laughed at major grocery stores. The lollipop on the glass counter, inserted in the cylinder, is colorful, sweet and affordable. Children can be happy all day if they put it in their mouths. At the turn of the century, domestic and foreign candy enterprises and brands represented by Alpine and Hsu Fu-kee began to iterate, adding ingredients and elements such as "milk" and "fruity taste" to replace lollipops made of white sugar, but various food additives still appeared in the ingredient list.
Relevant data show that in the domestic candy retail market, supermarkets account for the largest proportion, about 34.6%; Followed by grocery stores, accounting for about 22.5%; Then there are hypermarkets and e-commerce, accounting for 14% and 14.9% respectively.
In a large supermarket in Hankou, the candy area is full of all kinds of lollipops. A "1.0 version" traditional mixed fruit lollipop, labeled as starch syrup hard candy. Its ingredients list shows: glucose syrup, food additives (citric acid, sunset yellow, seductive red, carmine, brilliant blue). The nutrient composition table shows that protein is 0, carbohydrate is 32%, sodium is 1%, and energy is 20%.
In addition, there is a "version 2.0" lollipop, which not only contains syrup, brown rice sugar, citric acid, edible spices, but also contains vitamin C, but most lollipops are mainly composed of white sugar or glucose syrup.
"Compared with previous years, the sales of lollipops have a downward trend and are relatively stable at present. On the one hand, it is because of the off-season. On the other hand, with the upgrading of consumption and the change of lifestyle, people are no longer so keen on eating sugar, and the demand for' pure natural, no added sugar, no artificial color' is growing. Especially parents, they have certain restrictions on their children's eating sugar. " The supermarket purchaser said.
"Every time I take my child out for an outing or a trip, he always wants to buy a lollipop, and he will be very happy if he eats one. We really can't bear to spoil his fun. " A mother who is shopping for lollipops said that even if she bought some, she should lock them in a drawer and give them to her children slowly, for fear that they would get fat if they ate too many cavities. "The replacement of lollipops is too slow. I hope to see healthier and more nutritious lollipops."
Redefining 3.0 Nutritional Lollipop
Leading force in the field of domestic snacks
Looking back over the past 20 years, the lollipop brands consumed by Chinese consumers mainly come from Fanmeile Group, one of the largest candy manufacturers in the world, as well as Xu Fuji and Golden Monkey in China. However, judging from the speed of product iteration, most domestic candy enterprises are not fast.
According to the "Insight into the Marketing Trend of Online Children's Snacks Industry in 2020" released by Tmall Snacks and Ali Mama, biscuit puffing, dried bean vegetables, chocolate (candy), squid seafood and cakes jumped out of the development pattern of the big snack industry, which is an explosive category under children's food.
Among them, lollipops under the category of sugar cleverness have long been the representative snacks of "reward" in the process of children's growth, and are deeply loved by children. However, in recent years, because the problem of children's tooth decay has become more and more serious, more and more parents have "talked about sugar discoloration". How to make children happy in childhood and reassure parents that industry giants have not solved these pain points well.
Shang Jing, the person in charge of children's snacks in Liangpin Store, said that as the head enterprise of the domestic snack industry, we must and should undertake the responsibility of promoting the development of the domestic food industry in the direction of "nutrition, health, delicacy and gourmet education".
In view of the lack of industry standards, in 2020, Liangpin Store participated in the formulation of the first national group standard of General Requirements for Children's Snacks (T/CFCA 00 15-2020) and was the main drafter of the standard. The main technologies and opinions provided by good shops include: defining children's snacks, making some regulations on food safety and nutrition, putting forward some physical safety requirements for factories, and providing data and limits of pollutants and microorganisms. The alliance standard was officially implemented on June 5, 2020/kloc-0, which filled the gap in the domestic children's snack standard.
Lollipops have become the breakthrough and high-standard landing category of children's snacks in good shops. In the second half of 2020, the company began product upgrading and research and development: the rabbit hawthorn bar does not add sucrose, so it should maintain its original flavor. This puts forward higher requirements for research and development, technology and formula.
How to solve the delicate relationship between acid and sweetness without sucrose? Good raw materials become the key first step. In order to control the best sweet-sour ratio, the R&D team screened more than 20 hawthorn varieties from Shaanxi and Hubei, Lu Yu, and compared and analyzed the organic acid content, total sugar content, color and texture of more than 20 different varieties, and finally selected the sweet-sour ratio of 1:3 to 1:4.
Without adding sucrose, the common choice in the industry is to use natural sugar substitutes. Because the taste and molding effect of natural sugar substitute are not as good as that of white sugar, it is necessary to repeatedly test the sensory of the formula and debug the molding process in order to achieve the effect of soft taste and proper molding.
The R&D team selected more than 20 natural sugar substitutes with different specifications. After more than 90 experiments and debugging, erythritol was finally selected as special yeast for fermentation. Among many sugar alcohols, erythritol has the lowest calorie, which is almost negligible, but it still has 70% sweetness of sucrose, realizing the perfect integration of high dietary fiber and natural sweet substances. Thus, in May, 20021year, a hawthorn snack, Rabbit Hawthorn Bar, with 0 sucrose, 0 preservative, 0 edible essence and 0 colorant was first published in Good Snacks Xianye.
R&D and patent are the core of innovation. They are no longer only in the hands of international candy giants, but also in the planning of domestic leading snack enterprises. According to public data, in the first quarter of this year, the R&D expenses of good shops were 10334800 yuan, compared with 4 1 15800 yuan in the same period last year, an increase of151.
The annual report of Liangpin Shop also shows that in 2020, the company conducted in-depth research and development on healthy nutrition technology and processing technology, and researched and broke through key technologies such as differential pressure puffing, plant meat production, fresh-keeping and crispness-keeping of fruits and vegetables, sugar reduction of preserved fruit juice, triple sugar control and medium-temperature sterilization, and obtained seven patented technologies. During the reporting period, the company spent 33.72 million yuan on R&D, a year-on-year increase of 23.22%.
In the future, good shops will join hands with the industry to create a benign "ecological circle" for children's snacks. On 20021May 17, China Children's Food and Parenting Plan Strategic Alliance held a press conference in Beijing. China Children's Food and Parenting Plan Strategic Alliance Unit, China Non-staple Food Distribution Association, National Food and Nutrition Advisory Committee Office, China Children's Center Children's Nutrition and Health Research Center, China Education Logistics Association, Beijing Nutritionist Association and Liangpin Shop Co., Ltd. jointly issued "Research on the Current Situation and Countermeasures of Food Safety in China Campus". It aims to further deepen the cooperation of the whole industrial chain in Industry-University-Research, strengthen market innovation and standardization, promote the transformation and upgrading of the children's food industry and realize the high-quality development of the industry by giving play to the traction role of the strategic alliance of China Children's Food and Education Plan.
At the press conference, Liangpin Store, the standard-setter of Children's Snacks Group, redefined children's nutritional lollipops and officially released "the first series of nutritional and healthy lollipops in the industry" products: "Rabbit hawthorn stick (0 with sucrose version)", "Bovine colostrum high calcium stick" and "high calcium sugar-free lollipops", subverting the traditional category cognition of lollipops from the core level, redefining nutritional and healthy lollipops by reshaping the industrial chain, and opening the era of lollipops 3.0.