Wahaha nutrition fast line gel storm experts say with a variety of additives

Drink industry giant Wahaha falls into the "drinking" turmoil. This is the flagship product “Nutrition Express” with annual sales of more than 10 billion yuan.

Recently, some netizens made an experiment to pour Wahaha's beverage nutrition line into a porcelain dish and dried it overnight. The drink turned into a white jelly. This news quickly attracted people's attention and heated discussions, and questioned the nutritional value of fruit milk beverages such as the Nutrition Express.

For the trial of netizens, Wahaha Group issued a statement yesterday evening (December 19) that products based on milk, such as liquid dairy products or milk-based beverages, are rich in protein, and the protein in milk is the same as other proteins. Physical and chemical properties with gelling and film forming properties. The products made with this gel property of protein are also found everywhere in daily life, such as bean curd skin, yogurt, fish jelly, aspic and cooked eggs. The professional R&D personnel of the company through experiment comparison and mechanism research, all types of liquid dairy products on the market, such as milk, yogurt, milk beverages and other milk-containing products will appear gel after dehydration. Due to the high milk protein content of the Nutrition Express product, its dehydration into a gel is a normal protein gel phenomenon.

However, some experts say that, strictly speaking, fruit-fat products similar to nutritional fast foods do not belong to dairy products but only beverages, and their nutritional value is much lower than that of dairy products.

User experiment "Nutrition Express"

A few days ago, an online news about the “Nutrition Express” stated that some netizens had done an experiment and poured the Wahaha Nutrition Express beverage into a porcelain dish. The beverage became a white jelly-like material overnight.

The netizen said in the post that Wahaha Nutrition Express was poured into a plate for "curiosity and verification of the authenticity of postings by other netizens." As a result, it was found that there was only one "gel-like skin" left in the dried drink. The netizen also attached a picture of the relevant test to explain.

This news has attracted widespread attention because of the huge sales of the Nutrition Express.

On December 19th, a manager of a supermarket chain in Binjiang District of Hangzhou told the reporter of “Daily Economic News (Weibo)” that currently on the market, similar to Wahaha’s “nutrition express line”, there are many fruit milk products, but the Wahaha brand sales The situation is best, "Wahaha similar brands, the earliest market to sell the best style."

Wahaha company's official website shows that, at present, the company's fruit milk series of products mainly have nutrition fast line, nutrition line fast line of happiness, nutritional fast line upgrades, greeting sunshine, longing C and so on.

Wahaha Group achieved a revenue of 55 billion yuan in 2010, profits and taxes reached 11.2 billion yuan, and it has become China's largest and fourth-largest beverage maker in the world. According to public reports, the annual sales volume of Wahaha's nutrition line has exceeded 10 billion yuan. From January to October this year, Wahaha's operating income was 55.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.46%.

Low protein content variety of additives
Tang Jiaxuan, a member of the China Children's Food Professional Association and member of the Zhejiang Food Additive Association's expert group, told the Daily Economic News reporter that the protein content of most milk drinks can only reach 1 gram/100 ml, so it cannot be classified as a dairy product. The protein content of milk-containing drinks is usually about one-third that of ordinary milk, and 1 kilogram of milk can be exchanged for 3 to 4 kilograms of milk-containing beverages.

According to public information, according to regulations, the protein content in fresh milk should not be lower than 2.5 g per 100 ml of emulsion. "Daily Economic News" reporter on December 19th purchased a bottle of production for the day before September 19, 2011, number 432033HC Wahaha brand "nutrition fast line", the label shows that its juice content ≥ 5%, milk content ≥ 5%, while nutrients, protein 1 g, shelf life (room temperature) 9 months.

According to Wang Dingmian, a dairy industry expert and former director of the China Dairy Industry Association, a feature of milk-containing beverages is high sugar content and good taste.

Wang Dingmian said that containing a variety of food additives is also a major feature of milk-containing beverages, "some beverages up to nearly 20 kinds of food additives."

The “Nutrition Express” ingredient list purchased by the Daily Economic News reporter includes water, reconstituted milk (water, whole milk powder), white granulated sugar, food additives, and food additives including carboxymethyl cellulose. A total of 11 food additives such as sodium, aspartame and emulsified silicone oil, as well as other components such as taurine. However, Wahaha said in a statement that its additives and content are in full compliance with national safety standards.

Expert: Nutritional value is not as good as milk

Wahaha's official website described the Wahaha Nutrition Express Line as saying that nutrition is one step ahead of the time and it is a brand new milkshake drink made by the Wahaha Group based on the Chinese people's unique dietary structure and nutritional status.

As for its nutritional content, the site’s information shows that “the perfect combination of pure fruit juice and fragrant milk allows the Nutrition Express to not only have rich nutrients and calcium from milk, but also rich vitamins from fruit juices.”

Regarding the nutritional value of the “Nutrition Express”, the introduction also stated that the mouthfeel is refreshing, smooth, nutritious and comprehensive, and it has won the favor of many consumers on its listing.

However, in the eyes of some people in the industry, the main reason why the “nutrition express” is favored by the market lies in its taste, and its actual nutritional value is far lower than that of milk.

Wang Dingmian told the reporter of “Daily Economic News” that the biggest characteristic of milk-containing beverages is that it contains less milk and its protein content is more than 0.7% to 1.3%. If it is strictly classified, it does not belong to dairy products but only contains milk components. And the actual nutritional value is much lower than milk.