National standard-Apple vinegar shall not be blended.
Fruit vinegar drinks have always occupied a place on the dining table. In supermarkets, there are more than ten kinds of fruit vinegar drinks. However, most products on the market have vague descriptions of their own ingredients, which makes it impossible to tell which ones are blended and which ones are fermented, leaving consumers confused. A few days ago, the first national standard for fermented apple vinegar beverage and the national standard for concentrated apple juice, which have been debated for more than two years, were finally promulgated, setting an example for the current chaotic fruit vinegar beverage market.
Market phenomenon: unknown composition, similar appearance
In recent years, although fruit vinegar beverage has been regarded as the so-called "sixth generation golden beverage" after carbonated beverage, water beverage, tea beverage, fruit juice beverage and functional beverage, the reporter visited the retail market and found that all fruit vinegar beverages are not well-known brands except one or two big brands. The appearance design of drinks is very similar, especially the fruit vinegar drinks packaged by Tetra Pak. At first glance, you would think that they are made by the same manufacturer. If consumers study the ingredient list, they will find that jujube vinegar, apple vinegar, grape vinegar and other products are basically marked with apple vinegar, but it is impossible to tell whether apple vinegar is fermented or blended. However, the price difference of different fruit vinegar with the same capacity and similar components can reach one to three yuan, which is confusing.
It is understood that real fruit vinegar is made from fruit juice through two fermentations (alcohol fermentation and acetic acid fermentation), and the time generally takes 3 to 6 months. The blended fruit vinegar beverage is a mixture of essence, saccharin and vinegar essence, which is commonly known in the industry as three essences and one water. It is puzzling that the average consumer can't judge from the taste, and may even think that the latter tastes better.
The first national standard stipulates that blending is not allowed.
In view of this, the country recently announced the first national standard of apple vinegar beverage, Fermented Apple vinegar beverage, which was jointly formulated by the Beverage Industry Association, Tiandi No.1, Shenyang McKinley and Henan Miaoyu. The suggested implementation time is 2065438+May 2002 1. The standard stipulates the raw materials and characteristic organic acids used in apple vinegar, and clearly puts forward that vinegar, acetic acid, malic acid, citric acid, etc., which are not produced by apple fermentation or artificially synthesized, such as grain, should not be used to prepare apple vinegar drinks; In addition, the standard also stipulates apple juice, malic acid, citric acid, lactic acid and so on. In apple vinegar beverage, it is especially pointed out that fermented apple vinegar should not contain free inorganic acids and other components, because this component will cause indigestion and diarrhea reaction of consumers after eating, which is harmful to health. However, people in the industry have different views on whether the formulation of this standard can really reverse the chaos in the fruit vinegar beverage industry.
Industry voice: the implementation of the national standard may not help to change the chaos.
For consumers, the introduction of national standards for fermented apple vinegar drinks will help them buy real natural apple vinegar drinks. Because this regulation belongs to the national mandatory standard, products directly blended and extracted without fermentation will not be included in the national standard unless fermented apple vinegar is really used, and the word "fermented" cannot be marked on the packaging in the future. This clarifies the difference between fermentation type and blending type, which allows consumers to distinguish conceptually, which will undoubtedly eliminate a number of small enterprises that fish in troubled waters.
However, this regulation only regulates apple vinegar drinks. For people in the industry, the effect is not as good as expected for the broader fruit vinegar beverage market. Chen Sheng, the person in charge of Tiandi No.1, said that there are too many small and micro enterprises with a scale below 10 million yuan in the fruit vinegar beverage market, accounting for 50% of the whole industry. At present, there are 200 to 300 domestic manufacturers, but apart from a few one or two, there are few enterprises with a scale of hundreds of millions. Especially in Henan province, where there are the most fruit vinegar beverage enterprises, most of them are hundreds of thousands to millions of small enterprises or even small workshops. Due to the limitation of production scale and technology, it is difficult to use fermented apple vinegar in their products. In view of this situation, the country is only implementing the standard of apple vinegar beverage, and there is no national standard of fruit vinegar beverage, so it can be expected that the impact on the fruit vinegar market will not be too high. At the same time, there is still no clear national standard for fruit vinegar beverage market. Another reason is that the positioning of fruit vinegar drinks is unknown, and some of them are branded as health products, saying that they contain a variety of trace elements and can protect the cardiovascular system. Others take the beauty route and claim that they can lose weight ... In this regard, some insiders said that these statements are actually gimmicks, and they have not been truly certified, lacking objective standards and judgment standards, which also affects consumers' cognition of it, making it difficult for the current fruit vinegar beverage market to further expand and have a greater impact. This also indirectly leads to the difficulty in introducing the national standard for fruit vinegar drinks.