Can eating “beautiful” cheese really make you beautiful?
A portion of cheese contains functions such as calcium supplementation, beautification, and skin care. “Do you want to buy it?” Cheese has become a new choice for Chinese consumers in dairy product consumption, and new ways of eating it are emerging one after another. Recently, reporters visited the market and saw that cheeses that boasted blood-tonifying and antioxidant functions were appearing, targeting female consumers. It is well known that cheese has the function of supplementing calcium; however, the fact that cheese can also nourish the skin makes female consumers doubtful. In this regard, the reporter launched an investigation and interview.
Skin care and beauty cheese launched, attracting attention
Recently, cheeses with skin care and beauty functions have appeared on the market. “Astaxanthin (a good friend for aging), vitamin C (a self-care expert) and phospholipids (skin guardians)” “Rose, cranberry, blood-tonifying wolfberry…” On an e-commerce platform, A product page of the Cheese God Family’s “Five-Dimensional Plain Cheese” that is marketed as focusing on female consumers describes the substances contained in the cheese. The pink packaging design makes girls feel more friendly.
The reporter noticed that functionally oriented words such as “qi and blood support”, “bone support” and “GOS metabolism support” were marked on the introduction page. Unlike other cheeses, this “fresh cheese” is a watery and milky sucking cheese.
“Astaxanthin, vitamin C and phospholipids are the three major antioxidant factors. I was quite interested when I first saw them. My female friends and I are particularly interested in health and beauty products.” Works in clothing Ms. Li, a white-collar worker, told reporters that although she was interested, she stopped when she saw the price. A box of 7 sticks costs nearly 210 yuan, which means one bottle is nearly 30 yuan. “It’s quite expensive,” Ms. Li said.
In the survey, many consumers expressed doubts about the advertised functions of this type of cheese. Ms. Ouyang is an office white-collar worker. She has studied and worked abroad for a period of time and is very receptive to cheese. However, this was the first time she had seen cheese that can be antioxidant, beautifying, and replenishing blood. “Does it really have the corresponding function? Can I absorb it effectively? Then do I not need to take other beauty and health care products and just eat cheese every day?” Ms. Ouyang expressed the confusion of many consumers.
Eating cheese can improve your appearance. Is it an IQ tax?
So, does “beautiful” cheese really have such magical effects? Could it be an IQ tax?
“This type of product has a lot of ‘moisture’. The milk content is not much, and the total fat, carbohydrate and protein are only 20%.” Zhong Kai, director of the Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center and a doctor of food safety, read the ingredients of a product After the table, so said.
The reporter checked the ingredient list of this cheese and found that the protein content was only 5.5 grams per 100 grams, accounting for 9%.
The reporter also randomly selected a soft cheese imported from Germany. Its nutritional information table shows that the protein content of every 100 grams of cheese is 16 grams, accounting for 27%; fat, carbohydrates and protein add up to 70%.
Can the three major antioxidant factors, such as astaxanthin, vitamin C and phospholipids, work for the nutrients that consumers are most concerned about? Zeng Ting, a nutritionist at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, told reporters that in theory, astaxanthin, vitamin C and phospholipids can be added to cheese to play an antioxidant role. However, the stability and effectiveness of these antioxidants in the cheese making process need to be confirmed through scientific experiments. As for whether long-term consumption can provide antioxidants, Zeng Ting believes that it depends on each person’s physical condition and absorption capacity. This type of product contains vitamin C, calcium, etc. The dietary guideline recommended intake is 100 mg of vitamin C and 800 mg of calcium per day for adults. Many foods contain phospholipids, so it is recommended to eat a variety of foods.
Should cheese develop into a “snack”?
In recent years, domestic cheese companies have accurately entered the consumption scene of children’s complementary foods. Children’s cheese sticks have pushed cheese into the consciousness of most consumers. As the children’s cheese stick market becomes increasingly saturated, companies are beginning to look for new target groups and explore new growth points.
According to the “2022 Cheese Category Social Media Marketing Analysis Report”, from the perspective of consumer gender distribution, the purchasers of cheese category social media platforms are mainly women, accounting for as high as 82%. The rise of the “her economy” has brought about explosive growth in “women’s health food”. According to the “2021 China Women’s Health Food Market Insight Report”, between 2016 and 2020, the size of China’s women’s health food market rose to 203.15 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of approximately 10.4%. Women’s dietary demands have attracted the attention of the market and have become the focus of competition among many brands in the cheese industry.
Does that mean that “beautiful” cheese can usher in good development? Wang Chu (pseudonym), an industry veteran who declined to be named, believes that at this stage, he is not optimistic about bundling functionality with cheese and spreading it among adults.
“First, according to our survey, Chinese women have not actually formed the habit of eating this type of cheese, not to mention that it is a relatively expensive cheese. Cultivating the market and consumers requires cost investment and time. Second, the flower that is particularly advertised in this type of cheese There are corresponding products on the market for cyanins, collagen, etc., and the prices are not expensive. Therefore, functional cheese has more gimmicks than reality,” Wang Chu said.
However, he admits that cheese is moving in the direction of “snackification”. Taking Mioclando as an example, the instant nutrition series products that account for the bulk of its revenue are more biased toward snack logic than catering logic. It can be seen from Mioclando’s 2022 annual report that the cheese sticks closely linked to the children’s snack market have made it the “number one cheese stock”, and at the same time it has captured the gaps in the children’s snack market and the growth dividends of new cheese snack categories.
data
In the long run, my country’s cheese market has huge room for development. According to the “2023 China Dairy Merchant Index Report” released not long ago by the China Dairy Industry Association, domestic per capita cheese consumption in 2022 will be only 0.2 kilograms, compared with 2.32 kilograms in South Korea, 2.91 kilograms in Japan, and more than 10 kilograms per household in Britain and France. consumption, there is still a huge market.
According to Euromonitor statistics, since 2017, the proportion of cheese retail sales in China’s dairy consumption has increased year by year. By 2021, cheese sales share will increase to 2.77%. It is expected that the growth momentum will continue in the next few years. Keep.
Smart food: try a variety of eating methods to make you fall in love with cheese
There are many ways to eat cheese. The most common way is to eat it directly. For example, in the buffet of a five-star hotel, there must be a variety of cheeses on offer. You can cut it by yourself. You can pair it with wine. The blend of wine and milk will make your mouth feel better. If you are not careful, you will become addicted. Wines from different origins are a good match with cheeses from corresponding origins.
It can also be paired with cantaloupe and other refreshing fruits cut into strips, placed on a baguette and eaten as a side, which is also quite authentic.
At home, sandwich it with two slices of square bread and put lettuce in the middle to make a nutritious breakfast; salad is also a common way to eat cheese. Chop it up and mix it into the salad. The salty aroma of the cheese adds a variety of texture and flavor to the salad.
Finally, there is the way to eat hot pot. Cheese hot pot was also popular in Guangzhou many years ago. The cheese is boiled into a thick soup and used to cook meat or potatoes. It is full of aroma, but it is also easy to get tired, so not everyone can accept it. .
