When it comes to milk tablets, people usually think that it is a type of dairy product that can help to intake nutrients more easily.
However, a reporter from the Beijing News recently conducted a survey of 22 brands and 36 "milk tablets" products sold in the Beijing market and found that more than 40% of the products used are non-milk powder ingredients such as plant fat powder and milk-containing food base powder. At the same time, the amount of core ingredients used in some "goat milk shells" and "camel milk shells" is a mystery, and among the five "milk slices" that are nominated to contain colostrum, 3 of the colostrum are added to colostrum, and 1 is added to colostrum.
Liu Junhai, director of the Institute of Commercial Law of Renmin University of China, pointed out that this type of product has a big gap with consumers' psychological expectations, "suspectedly misleading consumers and infringing on consumers' rights to know and choice." More than 40% of the main ingredients used for "milk"
Since March 7, a reporter from the Beijing News visited Beijing supermarkets, convenience stores, maternal and infant stores, new retail stores and other channels, and collected information on 36 milk tablets and milk shellfish products from 22 brands. He found that more than 40% of the products used were non-milk powder ingredients such as plant fat powder and milk food base powder, which is far from consumers' expectations for the word "milk".
National Standard "General Rules for Pre-packaged Food Labeling" (GB7718-2011) stipulates that various ingredients should be arranged one by one in the order of decreasing amount added during manufacturing or processing, and ingredients with no more than 2% of the added amount may not be arranged in the order of decreasing amount. Therefore, the ingredients ranked first in the ingredients list generally contain the most food raw materials.
is based on this. Among the 36 "milk tablets", 21 main ingredients (the first in the ingredients list) are milk powder, accounting for about 58.3%. Another 10 main ingredients are milk-containing food base powder, and the 4 main ingredients are plant fat powder, involving "Kung Fu Duckling" toy milk slices, "Danton" original milk candy, "Peppa Pig" milk slices, "Sydar Hall" building block-shaped milk slices, Yonghui's "Greedy Master" original milk shell, "Snowfield" colostrum milk shell, "Mu Nuo" prebiotic goat milk shell, "Prairie Red Bull" probiotic milk slices, etc. In addition, the milk content labels of "milk tablets" are also varied. There are 14 types marked with milk powder content, and the milk content ranges from 25% to 81%. There are 19 products that have added milk powder, but no content is marked.
"Denton" original milk candy is the main ingredient of vegetable fat powder.
Public information shows that plant fat powder, also known as creamer, is a product with refined vegetable oil or hydrogenated vegetable oil, casein, etc. as the main raw materials. A research and development worker of a dairy company in Beijing told the Beijing News reporter that in terms of ingredients, dairy-containing food base powder is also a type of fat-grain powder. The vegetable powder has a milky aroma, but its taste is worse than that of milk powder. One of the main purposes of enterprises using vegetable powder is to reduce the use of milk powder and reduce costs. "Currently, the price of full-fat milk powder per kilogram is about 37 yuan, while the fat powder does not exceed 10 yuan."
The research and development staff also mentioned, "The hydrogenated vegetable oil in fat powder contains trans fat powder, which is not good for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health. Any consumer who is accustomed to looking at the ingredients list may have a bad impression of the product when the nutritional labeling rules for pre-packaged foods stipulate that when food ingredients contain or use hydrogenated and/or partially hydrogenated fat in production, the trans fat content should be marked in the nutritional composition list. If the trans fatty acid content in every 100 grams of food is less than 0.3 grams, it can be marked as "0". The "Peppa Pig" milk sugar (original flavor) marked as commissioned by Leda Food (Dongguan) Co., Ltd. has a unit content of 0.5 grams of trans fatty acids, and the main ingredient of the product is fat powder.
"Peppa Pig" milk sugar (original flavor) is the main ingredient of the vegetative fat powder, and the unit content of trans fatty acids is 0.5 grams. Photography/Wang Siyang
In addition, from the perspective of nutritional content, the more milk powder added in the "milk tablets", the higher the protein content. For example, the "Urban Ranch" milk tablets with nominal full milk powder addition amount ≥81%, the unit protein content reaches 18.2 grams. The 14 "milk tablets" products that use plant fat powder or milk-containing food base powder as the main ingredients have generally not high protein content.For example, the main ingredient of the toy milk tablets of "Kung Fu Duckling" is fat powder, the amount of whole milk powder added is not marked, and the unit protein content is 3.2 grams, which is the lowest among the 36 "milk tablets".
Relevant person in charge of a milk tablet OEM factory in Shandong introduced that the milk tablets sold on the market have a milk powder content of 40%-60%. Without other costs such as packaging materials and freight, if the processing volume is between 1 million and 1.5 million, the OEM cost per piece (2 grams) of milk tablets is 5 cents, and the price will be better. The person in charge said that some of the milk tablets sold on the market have a milk content of 20% or 30%, and the cost of each piece of milk tablets with granules as the main raw materials can be 1 cent cheaper.
The amount of colostrum added to the part "beef colostrum tablets" is only 0.3%-0.5%
In addition to the conventional "milk tablets", there are also many "camel milk tablets", "goat milk tablets", "beef colostrum milk tablets" and "probiotic milk tablets" on the market, but the actual content of special ingredients such as camel milk and colostrum is not high.
Among the 36 "milk tablets" counted by reporters from the Beijing News, 5 are no longer known as colostrum. According to the product ingredients list, the "Urban Ranch" milk slices (original colostrum flavor), "Pu Zhen" contains colostrum milk shells, and the "Snowland" contains colostrum milk shells. The amount of colostrum added to the three products is about 0.5%; the amount of colostrum added to the "Saiwei Hall" colostrum milk stick (original flavor) is only 0.3%; the content of colostrum powder for "Xiaomihua" contains colostrum milk powder is the highest, but the amount of added per 100 grams is only 5 grams.
And in "camel milk shells" and "goat milk shells", the content of its related core components is generally a mystery. For example, the "naughty beef" camel milk shell, its camel milk powder is in the sixth place in the ingredients list and the content is not marked; among the three products, "Mu Nuo" prebiotic goat milk shell (original flavor), "Enhejin" goat milk slices (original flavor), and prebiotic goat milk slices, the goat milk powder is in the second place in the ingredients list, but the content is not marked.
"Naughty Beef" camel milk shell camel milk powder is sixth in the ingredients list.
Relevant person in charge of Inner Mongolia Munuo Food Technology Co., Ltd. responded to the Beijing News reporter on March 11 that the logos of the company's products have passed the review of third-party institutions, and a test report has been issued. The reason why the product is not marked with goat milk powder content may be "the country has no standard to give the standard." As for how much goat milk powder is contained in the product, he said it is not convenient to ask the R&D department when he is on a business trip. The relevant person in charge of the "naughty cow" producer, Hohhot Maleqing Food Co., Ltd., has not replied as of press time.
"It is not impossible to add camel milk powder and goat milk powder, but the cost is high. For example, camel milk powder is now at an average price of five or six hundred yuan per catty. Of course, you can also add a little as a gimmick, and it doesn't have to add much, right?" The relevant person in charge of a milk tablet factory in Shandong mentioned above that if the product name is "camel milk tablet", "goat milk tablet" or "beef colostrum milk tablet", the content is usually only ≥5%. In terms of cost, the person in charge said that each piece of milk tablets with a milk powder content of more than 50% is about 5 cents. If it is "camel milk tablets", "goat milk tablets" or "coloss milk tablets", relevant ingredients must be added, "the cost of each piece of OEM is about 6 cents."
For "milk tablets" products that are no longer added with probiotics, the person in charge said that adding probiotics to milk tablets requires a special process, and the activity of the strain cannot be compared with probiotic powder. "In fact, it's useless to add probiotics to tablets, and they'll be gone as soon as they are heated."
Yun Wuxin said that the main ingredients of some "camel milk shells" are maltodextrin and sugar, "called 'camel milk shells', but in fact, camel milk powder is pitifully small. This product name belongs to the gray area of supervision and is easy to cause misunderstandings from consumers."
Liu Junhai, director of the Institute of Commercial Law of Renmin University of China, believes that if the actual content of the product is only 0.5% or 5%, but the product name is "camel milk sheets" or "goat milk sheets", it will have a big gap with consumers' psychological expectations and a big gap with rational merchant information disclosure requirements. "Such products are suspected of misleading consumers, infringing on consumers' rights to know and right to choose, and need to be corrected."
milk tablet products have no unified mandatory standards
Beijing News reporter noticed that at present, milk tablets and milk shellfish products are mainly divided into solid tablets and solid-formed products with milk. There is no unified mandatory standards. Some companies implement corporate standards.
tablets and candy "milk tablets" mostly implement "Candy Tablets and Candy" SB/T 10347-2017. This standard is a recommended standard issued by the Ministry of Commerce. There is no special regulation on "milk tablets" products, and there is no limit on the amount of milk and protein content.
, and milk shellfish products that are regarded as local specialties by many consumers, mostly implement the local standard of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region "Solid-formed Products for Milk Powder" DBS15/002-2011. This standard requires the protein content in the product to be ≥6.5% (added sucrose), and the protein content of products without sucrose must be ≥8%.
However, a person in charge of a traditional dairy product enterprise in Inner Mongolia revealed to the Beijing News reporter that there are many local manufacturers that produce milk tablets, but milk tablets and milk shells are not traditional dairy products in Inner Mongolia. "Because the milk content is low, we rarely eat this kind of thing. The processing of milk slices is relatively simple, and the machinery and equipment are ready as soon as it arrives, unlike traditional dairy products that require a lot of manual labor. Many products are under the banner of "Inner Mongolia", which may be because we have a lot of milk sources here. "
Beijing News reporter noticed that a "Lizi Mongolian Milk Shell" produced by Shantou Jinduobao Health Food Co., Ltd. has a yurt pattern printed on the product packaging, but the actual origin is Shantou, Guangdong. The product ingredients are composed of glucose, pulp fat powder, milk flavor, and lemon yellow, and even the milk powder is not even added.
The name meaning of "Mongolian Milk Tablets" Shantou Jinduobao Health Food Co., Ltd. explained to the Beijing News reporter on March 11 that its product uses Inner Mongolia's milk source, but due to the small amount of addition, it is not marked in the ingredient list.
Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law and standing committee member of the Legal Advisory Committee of the China Advertising Association, believes that the product is marked "Mongolian Milk Tablets". "Is this 'Mongolian' the milk of Mongolian sheep in the variety? Camel's milk? Or is it the origin in Inner Mongolia? Very easy to confuse and suspected of misleading consumers. ” ( Source: Beijing News )
