Produced by Sanyan Finance
Author | ｜DorAemon
Recently, there has been a heated discussion about online celebrity Simba’s live broadcast of Mingzhi brand bird’s nest products, which are actually sugar water. In the whole "bird’s nest counterfeiting" incident, many bloggers participated in it, which made the Simba team quite unable to get off the stage.
At present, Simba has issued a statement in response that the product has been sent for inspection, and consumers can choose to return it if they are dissatisfied. However, this incident is not limited to this famous brand of bird’s nest. Wang Hai, a "professional counterfeiter" who participated in "counterfeiting Simba", stressed in a recent interview with the media that bird’s nest itself is an "IQ tax" and that there are more than one brand that uses "bird’s nest" as a selling point for false propaganda.
As early as June this year, Wang Hai began to focus on the false propaganda of online celebrity bird’s nest brand "Xiaoxiandun". Up to now, Wang Hai has published nearly 10 anti-counterfeiting articles on his social platform, exposing the hype of using bird’s nest in Xiaoxian stew from various dimensions, but it is actually the essence of false propaganda.
Sanyan Finance combed Wang Hai’s anti-counterfeiting articles against Xiaoxian stew and found that Wang Hai’s allegations mainly focused on the nutritional value of bird’s nest, the content of effective components in Xiaoxian stew, and the alleged false propaganda of Xiaoxian stew. Wang Hai believes that the essence of Xiaoxian stew is eight-treasure porridge containing bird’s nest ingredients; At the same time, the nutritional value of bird’s nest is not high, which is completely an "IQ tax".
Online celebrity bird’s nest on the platform of many stars
Sanyan Finance noticed that, despite Wang Hai’s series of anti-counterfeiting activities against Xiaoxian stew products, the brand has actually become a popular online celebrity product.
This is also the persistent brand promotion strategy of Xiaoxian stew since its establishment. In order to open the market, Xiaoxian stew once invited many celebrities to speak for it.
The effect is also obvious, not only the reputation of Xiaoxiandun brand has increased greatly, but also the traffic has increased. Moreover, the stars are not only endorsements, but even become investors in Xiaoxiandun.
According to Tianyancha, Xiaoxiandun has obtained four rounds of financing at present, among which there are first-line stars like Chen Shu and Zhang Ziyi. And Zhou Hongyi, Yu Minhong and other business leaders are also generous.
In addition to attracting stars and technology giants to invest and endorse for themselves, the marketing of Xiaoxiandun is also flooded in various social media platforms.
Sanyan Finance found in Xiaohongshu that there are a lot of notes about grass planting in Xiaoxian stew on the platform. Almost all kinds of girls publicize how to rely on Xiaoxian stew to maintain themselves and that girls during pregnancy and postpartum should "always insist on drinking Xiaoxian stew".
This kind of star, science and technology tycoon and KOL publicity in online celebrity have brought extremely high income to Xiaoxian stew. For example, in 2019, Viya sold 580,000 small fairy stew products in 5 minutes; Zhang Dayi Live sold 110,000 bottles, which were snapped up in seconds.
During the Double Eleven this year, the turnover of Xiaoxian stew reached 456 million yuan, which is also the latest record of bird’s nest sales.
But now, the heat of Xiaoxian stew, other bird’s nest products and even the bird’s nest itself may be "lowered".
It costs 2,500 yuan to buy 1,500 grams of small fairy stew.
To reach the sialic acid content of an egg.
In a report published on June 19 this year, Wang Hai emphasized that spending 2,000 yuan to buy 1,500 grams of freshly stewed bird’s nest stewed by Xiaoxian is equivalent to an egg.
Wang Hai spent 364 yuan to buy three bottles of fresh stewed bird’s nest with 70g package. According to the product composition table, each 100g contains 2.6g of protein, which is equivalent to one third of an egg.
In addition, the most effective ingredient of bird’s nest is actually sialic acid, but Wang Hai said that this ingredient is not clearly marked on the product packaging. After inquiring about the public information in the flagship store of Xiaoxian Stewed Tmall, it is known that Xiaoxian Stewed Tmall contains 2.5 to 5 grams of dried bird’s nest per 210 grams, which is equivalent to 1 gram of dried bird’s nest per 100 grams of fresh stewed bird’s nest.
According to the enterprise standard of Xiaoxian Stewed Company, every 100g of Xiaoxian Stewed Fresh Stewed Bird’s Nest contains more than 0.1g of sialic acid.
In contrast, Wang Hai pointed out that an egg contains 1.5 grams of sialic acid, so the sialic acid content of 100 grams of stewed bird’s nest with Xiaoxian is actually only one-fifth of that of an egg. According to the price of Xiaoxian stew, it costs 2,500 yuan to buy 1,500 grams of Xiaoxian stewed bird’s nest, which is equivalent to the sialic acid content in an egg.
Eight-treasure porridge convenience food covered with bird’s nest coat
On June 20th, Wang Hai once again issued a document accusing Xiaoxian of stewing fresh bird’s nest, which is not even bird’s nest at all, but an eight-treasure porridge convenience food with more than 1 gram of dried bird’s nest per 100 grams.
Wang Hai cited the definition of freshly stewed bird’s nest in the enterprise standard Q/CYXXD0001-2020 named "Fresh Stewed Bird’s Nest"-"Take dried bird’s nest and water as the main raw materials, with or without adding rock sugar, tremella, ginger juice (powder) brown sugar, red dates, donkey-hide gelatin, longan, osmanthus, brown sugar, coconut juice, honey, Sydney and papaya.
At the same time, the sensory requirements of "fresh stewed bird’s nest" meet the national standard GB/T10786 "Inspection method of canned food", and the physical and chemical indicators meet the national standard GB/T31116 "Canned eight-treasure porridge".
Therefore, Wang Hai said that Xiaoxian Stewed Fresh Stewed Bird’s Nest is actually a canned eight-treasure porridge containing dried bird’s nest ingredients.
Small fairy stew: product ingredients or serious "water injection"
However, even according to the corporate standards and publicity of Xiaoxian Stewed Bird’s Nest, there are not many effective ingredients in Xiaoxian Stewed Bird’s Nest, but it is still suspected of exaggerating publicity and other issues.
On July 9, Wang Hai released a test report on Xiaoxian stew. According to the report, Xiaoxian stewed fresh bird’s nest contains about 0.6 grams of bird’s nest per 100 grams, which means that the bird’s nest content is less than 1%.
According to the customer service statement of Xiaoxian stewed Tmall flagship store, the content specification of Xiaoxian stewed fresh stewed bird’s nest and dried bird’s nest is:
Each bottle of 45 grams contains 2.2 grams of dried bird’s nest, and the solid content is above 90%;
70g/bottle contains 3.5g of dried bird’s nest, and the solid content is over 90%;
Each bottle of 100g contains 5g of dried bird’s nest, and the solid content is over 90%.
In addition, the customer service provided a 70g test report. According to the report, the acid content of bird’s nest is 2.1g/kg. According to the GHT1092-2014 standard "Bird’s Nest Quality Grade", Xiaoxian stewed fresh stewed bird’s nest instant porridge contains about 2.1g of bird’s nest per 100g.
However, the test results of 70 grams of the same specification that Wang Hai entrusted Ai to buy for inspection showed that the acid content of bird’s nest was 0.06 g/100 g. According to the above-mentioned "Bird’s Nest Quality Grade" standard, Xiaoxian stewed fresh bird’s nest contained 0.6 g of bird’s nest per 100 g, and the actual content was less than 1%.
On the other hand, Wang Hai pointed out that the so-called "0 addition" of Xiaoxian stew was not accurate. According to the test report of 70g bird’s nest with Xiaoxian stew sent by Wang Hai, every 100g contains 1.87g of protein and 100g of Xiaoxian stew. The test report shows that it contains 2.17g of protein, and the content of protein marked in the nutrition composition table on the outer packaging is 2.6g..
According to the standard of Bird’s Nest Quality Grade, the protein content of Xiaoxian stewed bird’s nest should be 0.3g or 1.05g per 100g. Because there is an item of "adding or not adding marine fish collagen" in its enterprise standard, Wang Hai thinks that the content of protein in the ingredient list of Xiaoxian stew corresponds to marine fish collagen.
Finally, Wang Hai said that the "solid content greater than or equal to 90%" promoted by Xiaoxiandun also had problems.
According to the advertising video of Xiaoxian stew in 2015, Lin Xiaoxian, the founder of Xiaoxian stew, once advertised that 8 grams of dried bird’s nest can be soaked to 77 grams, and the soaking rate is about eight or nine times.
However, Xiaoxiandun customer service said that 90% of the solid content is the ratio of bird’s nest silk to water, and its 100-gram test report said that the solid content of bird’s nest is 95.4%.
According to previous tests, less than 1 gram of bird’s nest is added to every 100 grams of freshly stewed bird’s nest. Even if it is calculated according to 2 grams of bird’s nest, the foam is only 20 grams of solid matter ten times; Even if 5 grams of bird’s nest is added, the ten-fold foaming rate is only 50 grams.
Therefore, Wang Hai said that more than 90% of the solids in Xiaoxian stewed bird’s nest are mostly water and other unlabeled ingredients.
Buy a "big prize" to pay for yourself.
Confusion concept of "traceability code"
In addition to exaggerating the actual content of bird’s nest, Xiaoxian stew also has the behavior of forcibly "selling gold" for itself.
On June 27th, Wang Hai published a document revealing that Xiaoxiandun’s so-called winning the "Monte Prize" for three consecutive years actually had no gold content at all.
According to the investigation, the so-called Monte Prize, namely MONDESELECTION, is usually translated as "International Monte Prize" or "World Quality Appraisal Conference". Founded in 1961, its agent website advertised that it was the oldest and most authoritative international quality research institute. Founded by the European Community and the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, it is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.
But in fact, the European Community was founded on July 1, 1967, and there was no European Community in 1961.
In addition, according to Wikipedia, the "International Monte Prize" is an organization that "tastes" food for inspection and then provides feedback by charging fees.
According to its Chinese official website, the "Monte Prize" is actually a kind of fee evaluation and appraisal. The identification criteria are completely dependent on experts’ subjective feelings, that is, taste, smell and vision.
Therefore, any food company can send the products to the experts in the organization for tasting by paying a certain fee, and the other party will feed back an evaluation report. Wang Hai pointed out that this is not the concept of "award" at all.
Taking this as a propaganda point is an act of "gilding gold".
In addition, Wang Hai pointed out that the "traceability code" of bird’s nest products promoted by Xiaoxian stew is actually false propaganda. The truth is that the so-called traceability of one bottle and one yard refers to where the instant porridge of bird’s nest is produced, not the traceability code of bird’s nest itself.
Wang Hai pointed out that, first of all, the Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine does not directly engage in the certification of bird’s nest products, and the certification activities are carried out by certification bodies. The Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine only serves as the "owner" of the technical service of bird’s nest product certification.
Secondly, according to the information of China bird’s nest traceability management service platform, bird’s nest traceability only provides services for the bird’s nest exported to China by overseas bird’s nest enterprises registered in China and the bird’s nest products reprocessed in China with the bird’s nest exported as raw materials.
According to the above test, the main raw material of Xiaoxian stewed bird’s nest is not bird’s nest, and the product belongs to the staple food instant porridge rather than bird’s nest products, so there is no basis for obtaining bird’s nest traceability service on the traceability platform.
Thirdly, China Academy of Inspection and Quarantine sells traceability labels at a clearly marked price, which is not the implementer of certification activities, nor does it supervise certified enterprises. The institute also did not supervise on-site the labeling of bird’s nest traceability and whether it corresponds to the product. Then, the promotion of "one bottle and one yard traceable" is suspected of false propaganda.
Finally, in March 2016, Xiaoxiandun publicized "launching product traceability code in conjunction with China Academy of Inspection and Quarantine". In fact, the bird’s nest product traceability service was launched as early as December 2013, and Xiaoxiandun did not participate.
Bird’s nest = IQ tax?
In an interview with the media, Wang Hai revealed that at present, many so-called health care products advertised under the banner of bird’s nest have false propaganda problems, and even the value of bird’s nest itself is not that high.
First of all, Wang Hai said that instant bird’s nest products are essentially "sugar water". The bird’s nest sold by Simba this time and the bird’s nest stewed by Xiaoxian have very little actual bird’s nest content, which is suspected of false propaganda.
And the truth is that ready-to-eat bird’s nest can be produced without even adding bird’s nest. Because the functional component of bird’s nest is sialic acid, it can be produced by adding a small amount of sialic acid to the instant bird’s nest, supplemented by water, sugar, sodium alginate and calcium lactate.
Secondly, even the bird’s nest itself is an "IQ tax". The nutritional content of an egg is equivalent to 30 grams of dried bird’s nest. Only Southeast Asia and Chinese people have the habit of eating bird’s nest in the world.
Wang Hai emphasized that the efficacy of the so-called bird’s nest can’t stand scientific verification and inspection. In the past, bird’s nest itself was similar to "luxury" and had a high price threshold, so it could only "cheat the rich"; But now with the development of society and technology, bird’s nest products have been able to "cheat" more consumers, so we need to be vigilant.
As of press time, Xiaoxiandun has not responded to the relevant questions, and Sanyan Finance will continue to pay attention to the follow-up development.
This article first appeared on WeChat WeChat official account: Sanyan Finance. The content of the article belongs to the author’s personal opinion and does not represent Hexun.com’s position. Investors should operate accordingly, at their own risk.
(Editor: Li Xianjie)
