[editor’s note]
You may not imagine that as early as 2017, China has become the country with the largest number of obese people in the world. According to AI media consulting data, 45.6% of China’s Internet users felt overweight in 2021. More data show that the scale of China’s slimming market has exceeded 300 billion yuan.
With the trend of “taking thin as beauty” and Chinese people’s pursuit of health, over the past decade, a variety of slimming products “continue to flock to people who want to lose weight. From the overwhelming “defecation, detoxification and moistening intestines” in TV advertisements to the “exquisite and fashionable lifestyle” created in KOL grass planting and online Red live broadcasting, slimming products continue to iterate.
After ten years of changes, the chaos of false publicity, illegal addition and illegal operation has not stopped, and the slimming market rectification is imminent.
China Quality News Network Nie Nie p align = “center” “Qingchang road” weight loss tea is popular p align = “center” representative brands: Bishengyuan and Dayi
“Wash your intestines quickly!” “So, don’t be too thin!” Many people who started using weight loss products earlier still remember these two widely circulated advertising words in those years. In September 2010, with the help of its leading position in the health tea market, Bishengyuan landed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, known as “the first share of weight loss tea”. At that time, Bishengyuan slimming tea occupied a prominent position in major pharmacies and supermarkets. From traditional paper media to TV advertising, Bishengyuan’s advertising words were heard on buses and elevators. From 2000 to 2014 alone, the sales of Bishengyuan slimming tea and Bishengyuan Changrun tea reached 4.5 billion yuan.
The weight loss tea represented by Bishengyuan mainly uses the green health image brought by tea to the public, reconciles the effect of oil and greasiness, publicizes the weight loss effect, and even adds diarrhea drugs with different doses in order to reflect the effect of rapid weight loss. The “senna leaf” component of Bishengyuan slimming tea has been criticized repeatedly, and consumers complain constantly. Although it has the identity of health food, due to illegal publicity, Bishengyuan has been frequently warned, stopped selling and even revoked the approval by the regulatory authorities in Beijing, Liaoning, Guangdong and other places. In 2016, the State Food and Drug Administration required that “the name of health products shall not contain efficacy propaganda words”. Bishengyuan slimming tea was discontinued and re listed after its name was changed, but the formula remained unchanged. Although Bishengyuan’s overall performance is declining and its brand is aging, it still occupies the first place on the list of Taobao slimming tea.
Another popular Daying brand slimming tea gradually faded out of people’s sight after it was renamed “Daying brand Daying tea” in 2016. In 2017, Guangdong food and Drug Administration found that the protein of Daying tea exceeded the standard. Nowadays, many subsidiaries of Daying group operate abnormally and the brand is silentP align = “center” pseudo concept frequent enzyme, L-carnitine… p align = “center” representative brands: zimeitang, beautiful four seasons, p align = “center” fanda infinite Chang, By-Health Co.Ltd(300146)
Enzyme is an enzyme in human body and an efficient biocatalyst. This word comes from Japan, but it is different from enzyme products as fermented products of fruits and vegetables. After the concept of enzyme was introduced into the mainland through Taiwan, the packaging of businessmen was also labeled with “anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and anti-tumor”, “detoxification and beauty”, “adjusting immunity and lowering blood pressure” and other “effects” when promoting weight loss. Guided by the enzyme stock solution and enzyme powder from Japan and Taiwan, domestic enzymes such as enzyme plum, enzyme powder, enzyme jelly, coffee enzyme, enzyme tea and enzyme tablets have emerged one after another. Self made enzymes were once more popular on the Internet.
Zimeitang has long been the top seller of tmall enzymes. In the flagship store of zimeitang, its enzyme products were publicized with the contents of “Gina with the same model”, “selling 6.6 million + boxes”, “real enzyme that can absorb oil” and “Hi, you’re not afraid of freshness and smoothness”.
Consumers can find clues as long as they pay close attention to the product packaging. Zimeitang claims that “a bag of oil absorption before the meal and a bag of unobstructed after the meal” and “wrapped anti oil sugar” enzyme powder. The food category corresponding to its production license number is “candy products and beverages”, but the publicity often implies the “health care product” attribute of the product. According to the relevant provisions of the advertising law, ordinary food shall not publicize the efficacy of health food. Zimeitang’s move is suspected of false publicity. Correspondingly, there are not a few complaints about “no effect” of zimeitang enzyme products on the black cat complaint platform. Some consumers claim to have menopause after taking them.
Image source: food production license enterprise information query platform
Zimeitang continues to imply the attribute of “health care products” in the video. Source: black cat complaint platform
The “same” operation with zimeitang is also the fruit and vegetable tablet candy of fanda infinite Chang, which is sold under the names of “chewing enzyme”, “white kidney bean blocker” and “fat burning bean” on the e-commerce platform and circle of friends. The agent claims that it can drain oil, control sugar, decompose fat and prevent three highs after taking it.
Source: black cat complaint platform
Enzyme plum was once favored by wechat merchants. “Mei Yan”, “Kaka Shou” and “clean fruit” and so on, are actually “candied” foods, but they become “cure fruits” for improving or treating uremia, gout, cerebral infarction, diabetes, hypertension, breast cancer and even helping pregnant women.
What endangers the health of consumers is the illegal addition of enzyme products. In order to solve the problem of constipation, Aunt Wang, 63, in Zhejiang, took enzymes for three consecutive years and said that she did feel unobstructed during taking. During a colon examination, the doctor found that Aunt Wang’s intestines were covered with dark brown patterns, like snake skin. After diagnosis, Aunt Wang suffered from “colon melanosis”, which is likely related to her long-term use of enzymes. For a time, the network set off a discussion on the safety of enzymes. Sun aning, a clinical pharmacist in the pharmacy department of Beijing Tiantan Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University, said that laxatives illegally added in enzyme products were the main inducement of colon melanosis.
Illegal addition is the focus of the regulatory authorities. In 2019, Xiamen hongzeping Trading Co., Ltd. was identified as serious by Xiamen market supervision and Administration Bureau for adding peak sodium sulfate (drug) to its enzyme plum and other products, and was fined more than 3.9 million yuan. The case is a case of “suspected illegal addition of peak sodium sulfate in food” listed and supervised by the State Administration of market supervision. It is also the first administrative punishment case in China to add peak sodium sulfate as an enzyme in food. Hongzeping company was also accused of adding Maca extract to enzyme plum, but the outer package did not fully mark the relevant information of Maca unsuitable people. The court held that it violated the relevant provisions of the food safety law, and decided to refund the payment to consumers and make compensation.
The other is related to L-carnitine.
In 2013, the famous popular science website nutshell released nine commercial pseudo concepts, “L-carnitine can lose weight” among them.
The term L-carnitine seems strange and professional to most people. It was originally a substance involved in energy metabolism in the human body and widely exists in food. Unless there are metabolic diseases, the human body will not lack this substance. However, through the publicity of “carnitine can turn fat meat into lean meat” and “lose 12 kilograms in a month and burn fat even when sleeping”, a “expert” calling himself “Dr. Ximu” quickly became popular in a satellite TV variety show. In recent years, L-carnitine has attracted more attention from fitness people. It is used in conjunction with fitness, claiming that it can “improve burn-off efficiency, supplement vitamins and improve state”.
Searching for “L-carnitine” on Taobao involves as many as 91 brands.
In fact, China Central Television’s “consumption proposition” column has long exposed L-carnitine products, pointing to their false propaganda. Liu Yanping, an attending doctor in the Nutrition Department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, also said in an interview: “this ingredient has not been formally verified clinically, and its effectiveness is hard to say.” Shanghai food and drug administration has banned six series and 22 batches of claimed weight loss foods with the name of “bomeitang L-carnitine weight loss capsule” in the whole city. These products were found to contain sibutramine, phenolphthalein and other prohibited ingredients, endangering the health of consumers.
Even the leading enterprise of health products By-Health Co.Ltd(300146) , has also been questioned by the media that its nominal “twelve baskets of L-carnitine tablets” are actually candy products and are suspected of unlicensed production. The matter came to an end when By-Health Co.Ltd(300146) took the initiative to recall some products, including L-carnitine, and the regulatory authorities did not punish itP align = “center” “healthy food substitute” has sprung up p align = “center” representative brands: wonderlab, Wang satin
Substitute food is a young field. Over the past five years, it has become an indisputable fact that substitute food has become popular and capital has entered the market. In 2019, the field of substitute food ushered in an outbreak. Euromonitor International Data predicts that China’s catering market is expected to exceed 10 billion yuan in 2022.
Substitute meal powder, substitute meal stick, substitute meal biscuit, substitute meal beverage, etc. made of konjac, chicken breast, grain, fruit, etc. take “high protein, balanced nutrition, low calories, satiety, 0 sugar” as the selling point. Many people who lose weight use it to replace part or all of the dinner.
Wang Baobao, Wonderlab, ffit8, shark fitt and other net red brands, with the help of jitter, live broadcast, B station, net red belt goods, Xiao Hong book, joint brand and other new marketing tools, the whole network screen, heavy gold marketing, mainly focus on the tiktok group after 95. Sports fitness app cross-border entry, and substitute meals bring vitality to its inherent model of weak growth; Traditional food enterprises have joined the scuffle of substitute meals. For example, COFCO has launched biscuits with the effect of reducing weight, Wangwang has launched the healthy snack brand fix body, Master Kang has launched substitute food sticks, and Quaker’s “credit card control” series focuses on substitute food milkshakes. In addition, By-Health Co.Ltd(300146) , Herbalife and other health products enterprises have also launched meal substitute powder and meal substitute milkshake.
While substitute meals are popular, a series of problems have surfaced.
“Wanghong” Wang’s product quality has been criticized repeatedly. “Eating plastic”, “eating sharp foreign bodies”, “eating screws”, “hair in cereal”, “cereal moldy” and other complaints can be found on the third-party complaint platform black cat complaint. In June 2020, Hangzhou fuller Food Co., Ltd., Wang Fuller’s self built factory, was fined and confiscated 2017694 yuan by Hangzhou Xiaoshan District Market Supervision Administration for “selling other foods that do not meet food safety standards or requirements”.
Source: black cat complaint platform
The Shenzhen Consumer Council suggested that some consumers had adverse reactions such as abdominal distension and liver pain after eating sibutramine, a banned drug, because the meal substitute powder purchased from wechat merchants. The comparative test report of 2020 young food substitute meal powder released by it points out that the actual test values of some nutritional indexes of COFCO Tianke, Smeal, Netease strict selection and Bishengyuan samples are inconsistent with their label values, which does not meet the requirements of GB 280502011 general rules for nutrition labeling of prepackaged foods. In fact, the question of single nutrition of substitute food has always existedP align = “center” slimming products for external use are unwilling to lag behind p align = “center” representative brands: YANGSEN thin bag, houxiu sweat clothes, Changqing xianti body clothes and lubimas body clothes
Worried about the side effects of oral slimming products? Slimming cream, thin bag, sweat clothes, body clothes and other external slimming products meet this demand.
Slimming cream, slimming cream and burning cream claim to be able to lose weight and lose weight when applied on the body, and can “lose weight locally, wherever you apply it”. A fat burning cream with the largest sales volume on Taobao, which shows a monthly sales of 1000 +, claims that it “loses 50 kg in three days” and “burns fat all over the body”. One bottle is marked with “minimum weight loss of 10-15 kg”, “buy 2 hair 3” is marked with “minimum weight loss of 25-35 kg” and “buy 3 hair 5” is marked with “minimum weight loss of 45-55 kg”. However, according to the product name “Capezio slimming cream” provided on the store page, the corresponding product cannot be queried in the special purpose cosmetics database of the State Drug Administration, and its claimed “national special certificate” is in doubt.
At the forefront of the sales volume of “skinny bags” on a platform is YANGSEN swish yiswish skinny bags. The customer service of the platform “YANGSEN personal care flagship store” told China quality news that YANGSEN thin bag is hot pressed on the abdomen and penetrated through the navel, “regulate endocrine, dissolve fat, reduce the volume of the stomach and increase gastric motility… After external use of drugs, excess fat is excreted through urine and urine. After three days, the urine is brown, and there are oil flowers in the stool, so you can lose fat and return your healthy and slender waist”, And said: “the dosage of one box is 30 days, and three boxes are a course of treatment. Generally, a course of treatment can lose about 15 kilograms.” The product is not marked with any medical device registration information, and the relevant qualification can not be queried.
The concept of “sweatsuit” is not new. The advertisement of sweatsuit after hotsuit is popular in the elevators of many office buildings. Its scientific principle is: “using thermal control silver technology and far-infrared heating to quickly form a thermal cycle on the body surface, heat awakens cells and improves metabolism… Exercising in sweaty clothes can really, effectively and quickly burn calories”, so as to achieve the slimming effect. The target population is slimming people who are usually difficult to sweat, need to squeeze time to exercise, have edema and are prone to obesity. At the same time, the hot sale of sweat clothes has also caused great controversy in the fitness industry and sports medicine industry. The opposition believes that it is only rapid dehydration rather than fat reduction. Excessive sweating will harm health, and the gains outweigh the losses.
Without injection, diet, medicine and exercise, you can easily build an S-shaped figure. Such publicity makes many girls buy plastic clothes at a high price.
Lubimas corset can also “regulate gynecological diseases and treat cervical spondylosis”. China Quality News Network received complaints from many consumers about lubimas corsets, claiming that the use of the products was invalid and the return was rejected. One of the consumers said: “as soon as the teacher arrived at the store, he told me to take off my clothes, pushed and pinched me… He took my nude photos without permission, and said that his husband would talk to Xiao San… After measurement, the price calculated for me was 26256 yuan.”
Source: China Quality News Network black bull complaint platform
Ms. Gan in Hangzhou spent 40000 yuan and wore the “Zhenmei” brand body underwear for nearly three months. She thought she could lose weight and breast, thin waist and hips as advertised. Unexpectedly, she gained 7 kg – the “Zhenmei” brand body underwear exposed in the first episode of Zhejiang Radio and television 1818 golden eye in November 2021 was questioned as just a makeover of Zhongmai LACA body clothes. After the media exposed that the former Zhongmai LACA body clothes was suspected of MLM and broken reputation, it made a comeback and changed the soup without changing the dressing. Coincidentally, it was also exposed that it contained “spring spirit stone” and had been wearing evergreen fiber twig body clothes shaped by combustible fat for a long time, which could not achieve the effect of burning fat. Experts pointed out that long-term wearing this kind of body shaping clothes will also bring great hidden dangers to women’s bodiesP align = “center” can you lose weight without spending money? Slimming software seeks profit growth point p align = “center” representative brands: keep, mint health
In recent years, a large number of sports / health apps have appeared on the market, which has become another “sharp weapon” loved by slimming people. According to statistics, in the two indicators of “weekly active users” and “30 day retention rate”, sports health applications are second only to weather applications and news applications.
These slimming related software call for scientific fat reduction and slimming. Most of them formulate corresponding fat reduction plans and adjust them in time according to users’ physical conditions and fat reduction needs. “One-to-one guidance of professional body fat teachers”, “connecting Bluetooth body fat scale”, “three meal punch in recording and monitoring calories”, “exercise punch in”, “personalized fitness plan” and corresponding community communication are the main selling points. Among them, “keep” ranked first in the “health and fitness software ranking” of Apple’s Appstore, and the official website data of “Mint health” showed that there were more than 80 million registered users in 2019.
In addition to launching paid courses, one-to-one member services and offline events, slimming software also crossed into the catering track to open up new growth points. Keep, Gudong and mint health have launched “control card substitute food products”, “spicy series” substitute food products and “easyace series” substitute food products respectively. Data show that mint health can “come back from the dead” by selling consumer goods such as substitute mealsP align = “center” illegal operation almost becomes the norm in the industry p align = “center” representative brands: Zhenmei, fanda Youjian, liqingcheng
In addition to the illegal addition and false publicity mentioned many times above, the use of slimming products to induce consumption, fraud and MLM has become more and more intense in recent years.
There are a large number of slimming brands involved in MLM, and Zhenmei LACA body clothes are not an example. The 5-level agency and multi-level compensation model of Bishengyuan’s new retail products has been questioned; China business daily revealed that the two ordinary foods “protein bar” and “food partner” that Vatican has reduced are developed by means of pulling heads, paying entry fees and team compensation; The Beijing News exposed that Shenzhen sijimeimei Trading Co., Ltd. and its products “casual fruit” were suspected of MLM.
Slimming products have become the “new outlet” of Telecom fraud gangs.
At the end of 2021, Changsha police successfully destroyed a number of online fraud criminal gangs using the corporate operation mode and under the guise of selling “weight loss products”, and arrested 585 people involved, involving an amount of more than 30 million yuan.
The police uncovered the routine of such weight loss fraud cases.
Criminal gangs randomly combine ordinary low-cost food and health food to attract customers with weight loss intention through early advertising, telemarketing and wechat circle of friends. After that, they will fake professional slimming consultants and ask customers according to the pre-designed “script”, gradually induce customers to buy “slimming products”, and further win customers’ trust by sending false videos and pictures of successful slimming. If the customer’s use of the product is invalid, they will attribute the problem to the customer’s own physical reasons through “false consultation”, which requires professional conditioning and the guidance of a professional “body fat planner”, so as to continue to sell the “weight loss” products with higher prices to the customer. In this way, the price of “weight loss products” with a cost of only 10 yuan is 1000 yuan, and the profit is amazing.
On the black cat complaint platform, there are 447 complaints against “Li Qingcheng”, including “routine deception”, “intimidation and inducement of consumption”, “false publicity” and “invalid products”.
Source: black cat complaint platform
The phenomenon of package number and labeling of health products emerge one after another, including many slimming health products.
People.Cn Co.Ltd(603000) reporters found that many health care products seized by the market supervision department applied the approval number of formal products, or directly embezzled, rented, or multi-purpose, or the old batch number of new products and the batch number of health care products for ordinary food. Among the slimming health care products with the names of well-known pharmaceutical enterprises such as “correction” and “Renhe” on tmall and other platforms, there are not a few OEM production and sales.
Ten years of changes, why is the slimming industry in chaos? Why can various pseudo concepts continue to reap the consumer intelligence tax?
The threshold of slimming industry is low
Public health literacy needs to be strengthened
According to the China business daily, there are 45000 enterprises in China with the words “weight loss” in their names, business scope and brand products, of which only 2% have a registered capital of more than 5 million yuan, 4% have a registered capital of between 1 million yuan and 5 million yuan, and 94% have a registered capital of less than 1 million yuan, To some extent, this reflects the low threshold of slimming industry and the lack of industry access standards. In order to pursue high profits, slimming product enterprises invest very little in product R & D. The data shows that the advertising and marketing expenses of Bishengyuan were 41 times of the R & D cost. Wang manfull and other online popular brands ignored the creation of the core of the product while spending a lot of money on marketing and occupying the peak of topic public opinion. Coupled with the disturbance of fake and shoddy products, the chaos of the industry has been exacerbated.
Over the past decade, slimming products and communication forms have iterated together, and new and old problems in the slimming market are intertwined. In addition to the persistent disease that once plagued China’s slimming market and even the whole health care product market, such as multiple law enforcement and many blind areas of law enforcement, it is difficult to trace, spot check, obtain evidence and pursue blame in the process of protecting consumers’ rights. The entry threshold and quality control threshold of e-commerce platform are low, and the fish and dragon are mixed. While e-commerce is booming, it also brings many challenges to supervision.
According to Guangming Daily, the monitoring data show that the health literacy level of Chinese residents was only 8.80% in 2012, which increased to 23.15% in 2020, exceeding the target value of 20% in 2020 proposed in the outline of the “healthy China 2030” plan. In 2019, the State Council issued the opinions on the implementation of healthy China action, proposing 15 special actions, and the health knowledge popularization action ranked first. In any case, popularizing the concept of healthy slimming and improving citizens’ health literacy will undoubtedly contribute to the healthy development of China’s slimming industry.
New start of slimming market supervision
Over the past decade, the regulatory authorities have continued to make efforts through various channels.
The State Administration of radio, film and television, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and other departments have repeatedly issued notices to stop TV shopping advertisements and newspaper advertisements introducing weight loss, oil scraping, fat throwing and other products; The State Food and drug administration has successively issued opinions on Further Strengthening the supervision of health food (Draft for comments), measures for the administration of registration and filing of health food, etc., requiring to standardize the management of functional claims, “shall not be named after health functions”, and carry out special treatment on the illegal addition of drugs and illegal claims of efficacy; The food safety office of the State Council and other nine departments jointly carried out the rectification of food and health food fraud and false publicity, and investigated and dealt with more than 12000 illegal cases within half a year, involving 360 million yuan.
In March 2018, a new round of institutional reform of the State Council, the establishment of the State Administration of market supervision, entered a new stage of market supervision, and a series of laws, regulations and special actions related to slimming products were introduced one after another.
New year new weather. At the beginning of 2022, the State Administration of Market Supervision issued a heavy announcement. Among the 24 functions of health products included in the function catalogue, only “help regulate fat function”, “help digestion function” and “help moisten intestines and defecate function” are related to weight loss. Except for the products whose health care function has been cancelled, the production and sales of health food whose health care function is inconsistent with the function catalogue shall be stopped after 5 years from the date of announcement.
Can the new regulations lead the slimming industry to further standardize? It’s worth looking forward to.
