---
title: "Who Is Creating Ingredient List Anxiety?"
description: "Li Dan explores the growing consumer anxiety over ingredient lists, driven by social media and brands promoting '0-additive' products. This trend has boosted sales for companies like Yuanqi Forest and Jane's Yogurt, but experts caution that the real health concerns are high oil, salt, and sugar, not additives per se."
author: "让商业更具价值"
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published: "2023-06-10"
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# Who Is Creating Ingredient List Anxiety?

> Li Dan explores the growing consumer anxiety over ingredient lists, driven by social media and brands promoting '0-additive' products. This trend has boosted sales for companies like Yuanqi Forest and Jane's Yogurt, but experts caution that the real health concerns are high oil, salt, and sugar, not additives per se.

Li Dan

"Everything can be 0-additive," "Check the ingredient list when drinking yogurt," "The shorter the ingredient list, the better." In recent years, social media has stirred up a wave of ingredient list anxiety. Additives, which once fueled the rapid development of the food industry, are now increasingly rejected by consumers, as if any contact with additives equates to unhealthiness. Behind this anxiety, a batch of new companies are reaping huge profits.

#### **"Ingredient List Cleaner Than My Face"**

"Ingredient list cleaner than my face." Lin Pei, a white-collar worker born in the 1990s, often sees this phrase while scrolling through food and beverage reviews. Clicking in, the rhetoric is similar: absolutely no "technology and hard work," pure and original, safe to buy with eyes closed... "So, is it now trendy to have the shortest possible ingredient list?" With some doubt, Lin Pei posted on her Moments, and surprisingly received many affirmative replies. The reason, mostly, is "the shorter the ingredient list, the fewer additives."

Zhang Lin, also born in the 1990s, recently became a mother. Now, her only criterion for buying products for her child is "clean ingredient list." On social media platforms, mom groups, and shopping app pages, these five characters often appear, usually bolded and placed prominently. "For adult stuff, it's okay, but for kids, it must be healthy." In Zhang Lin's mind, "clean ingredient list" has become an important shopping standard, representing health, nature, and peace of mind.

For Chen Jing, born in 1995 and currently on a weight-loss journey, "clean ingredient list" means "no guilt." Chen Jing told 'Market Insights' that due to her need to lose weight and shape her body, she pays special attention to calorie intake. Whenever she feels stressed and wants a sweet drink or yogurt, she especially checks the ingredient list. "A clean ingredient list, especially with 0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories, makes me feel less guilty when drinking." Although Chen Jing understands that so-called "0-additive" is more of a psychological comfort, she admits she is willing to pay a higher price for a few "0s" on the label.

Lin Pei previously paid three to four times more for a pack of salt advertised as "natural triple zero." Despite the small 256g pack costing 6.8 yuan, the words "zero added iodine, zero added potassium ferrocyanide, zero added potassium chloride" on the packaging made her unable to resist checking out.

The "clean ingredient list" that consumers flock to is a continuation of the "clean label" movement in the food sector. Although it has a long history, due to the lack of a clear definition and universal standards, it remains at the stage of "businesses encode, consumers decode." "The 'clean label' originated in the EU, with core concepts including natural ingredients, supply chain transparency, and environmental protection. But in China, it mainly focuses on 'simple ingredient lists' and '0-additive,'" Chen Liang, who has worked in the food industry for over a decade, told 'Market Insights.'

When the patch-sized ingredient list is bundled with concepts like health and safety, consumers naturally accept the setting that "the shorter the ingredient list, the better," and willingly pay a high premium.

Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot

Driving this extreme anxiety over ingredient lists are Xin Jifei and social media platforms. Around the National Day holiday in 2022, the phrase "pure technology and hard work, bro," combined with the gimmick of "exposing additive scandals," made Xin Jifei a sensation on Douyin, gaining 7 million followers in a month. Subsequently, "additives" and the food industry behind them were put on the fire of public opinion. Everyone firmly believed that behind the achievements of the food industry, something must have been sacrificed. Those complex chemical terms, if not understood, should simply be eliminated.

Since then, with the help of social media platforms, the phrase "ingredient list cleaner than my face" has become deeply ingrained. On Xiaohongshu, thousands of bloggers gather to teach people how to read ingredient lists. In short, the standard is one: the shorter, the better, meaning no additives. One blogger directly stated, "I suggest everyone buy products with shorter ingredient lists. I learned from Xin Jifei. Since we can't check which ingredients are healthy one by one, we should choose shorter lists."

Additives have driven the rapid development of the food industry, but perhaps they never expected to be "rejected" one day. Zhang Lin told 'Market Insights' that in her home now, products containing artificial sweeteners or artificial colors are definitely not allowed. Chen Jing said that regardless of whether it's pectin or carrageenan, if she's not familiar with it, she won't buy it. "The yogurt at home only contains raw milk and lactic acid bacteria."

#### **Who Is Creating the Anxiety?**

Ingredient list anxiety is also the result of some brands' "deliberate actions." Looking across the food sector, whether it's bottled water, dairy, or sauces, every track has been dominated by giants for years. Seeing that distribution channels and consumer minds are firmly held by the giants, newcomers have ambitions but no way to realize them. Then, with consumption upgrades and the spread of health concepts, new players finally found opportunities to seize dividends, giving rise to slogans like "0-additive," "simplify ingredient lists," and "pure formulas."

Liu Shaowei, a food safety doctor and member of the Shanghai Food Safety Research Association expert group, told 'Market Insights': "Usually, new players and small companies are more likely to emphasize '0-additive,' which is a means of seeking differentiation and catering to consumers' health consumption psychology."

In the bottled beverage track, the biggest "catfish" in recent years is undoubtedly Yuanqi Forest. In 2016, the year it was founded, Yuanqi Forest launched its first sugar-free tea drink, "Ran Tea." At that time, from "no flavoring, no coloring" Oriental Leaf, to "refreshing and not bitter" Xiaoming Tongxue, to "unique" Tea Pie, "Ran Tea" faced at least three mountains ahead. So, two years later, Yuanqi Forest shifted its focus, printing "0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories" on its sparkling water packaging.

Amplifying the "0-additive" concept was a good move for Yuanqi Forest to directly face the beverage market surrounded by giants, and it achieved great success. After all, at that time, over 90% of the carbonated beverage market share was firmly held by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Subsequently, with the "0 sugar, 0 calorie" concept and the claim of erythritol being "low sweetness, low calories," Yuanqi Forest built a "healthy persona" and rode the wave of health consumption to soar.

But at the same time, the entire industry was drawn into an endless "0-additive" battle. Looking at the current sparkling water market, "0 sugar, 0 calories, 0 fat" has become basic. In the eyes of many brands, not writing a few "0s" will inevitably lead consumers to question "has additives." To replicate Yuanqi Forest's success, various companies have adopted a "critical" stance, seemingly determined to "zero out" everything consumers see as unhealthy. From "0 thickener" and "0 flavoring" to "0 coloring" and "0 sweetener," ingredient lists are full of "0s," and additives are running out.

Yuanqi Forest, which triggered the involution, after its revenue growth slowed, once again wielded its weapon: "0 preservatives." At the end of 2022, founder Tang Binsen stated that all Yuanqi Forest products would be free of preservatives in the future. "We want to know if it's possible to achieve a clean ingredient list," "The ingredient list best reflects a company's character," Tang Binsen said on several occasions.

Image source: Yuanqi Forest Tmall flagship store

"Everyone understands the significance of 'try not to use preservatives,' but as long as it meets regulatory requirements, everyone is used to making easy money." In an article, potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate, the two most common preservatives, were portrayed as outliers. The implication is that if a company cannot promise "0 preservatives," it is not truly considering consumers.

However, multiple industry insiders told 'Market Insights' that the preservatives Yuanqi Forest refers to are not heinous. Wang Sila, a food nutrition expert, told 'Market Insights': "Sorbic acid itself is a substance in human metabolism, and benzoic acid is also found in many fruits. As for the necessity of spending money to build a dedicated production line, it's more about competition within the industry and competitiveness in the youth market."

If we shift our gaze, from dairy products and sauces to children's food, almost every track has its own "Yuanqi Forest." In 2015, Jane's Yogurt, claiming to be "additive-free," burst onto the scene. At that time, the room-temperature yogurt market was already firmly controlled by several major brands. By 2018, Anmuxi, Chunzhen, and Mosilian had market shares of 45%, 31%, and 19% respectively, with a combined market share of 95%. Amid the giants, Jane's found the entry point of "0-additive."

"In the past, I thought about how to let 1.3 billion people drink yogurt; now I think about how to let Chinese families drink good yogurt," said Jane's founder Xia Haitong, who had worked at Mengniu for 15 years. To avoid direct competition with giants, he set a differentiation route for Jane's: focusing on simplicity and no additives, using only raw milk and lactic acid bacteria.

Now, searching for "Jane's Yogurt" on Xiaohongshu immediately brings up over 20,000 posts, ranging from product recommendations, reviews, to competitor comparisons. Through peer comparisons, Jane's Yogurt continuously labels itself with tags like "low sugar," "weight loss," and "healthy," increasingly attracting peer involution. In March 2021, Junlebao launched the lactic acid bacteria drink "Daily Zero," with the slogan "0 sugar, 0 fat"; in April of the same year, Bright Dairy followed suit, launching an upgraded version of Rushi yogurt, emphasizing "pure and honest" and "only simple and clean ingredient lists"... The "ingredient list action" in the yogurt industry is in full swing.

Currently, searching for "ingredient list" on Xiaohongshu brings up numerous promotional posts, along with purchase links at the bottom left. Xiaohongshu blogger Lin Meng told 'Market Insights' that she noticed ingredient lists due to her weight-loss needs, but later found some bloggers riding the trend, spreading anxiety indiscriminately, with the core purpose of selling products.

Behind the rounds of ingredient list involution, the "Yuanqi Forests" have successfully broken out of the red ocean, leaving consumers standing still: Does zero-additive and clean, simple ingredient lists mean products are more expensive, and thus living costs increase? Is it really necessary? The answer is uncertain.

In July 2022, a penalty notice lifted the veil on some "0 sugar" yogurts. According to the notice, Jane Run Yogurt's best-selling "0 sugar big fruit grain yogurt" indeed had "0 sucrose" as advertised, but it contained crystalline fructose, erythritol, and other sugar substitutes. "The so-called '0-additive' is more like a rhetoric. First, if the product itself doesn't need to add a certain substance, '0-additive' is a gimmick; second, when a brand claims '0-additive,' it implies competitors 'have additives'; third, companies often avoid the important and dwell on the trivial, not labeling what is actually added," Liu Shaowei told 'Market Insights.'

#### **The Business Behind the Anxiety**

"'Zero-additive' has never been an industry consensus; appropriate use of additives when necessary is the norm," food science blogger Qian Cheng told 'Market Insights.' "Additives have always been called the 'soul of the food industry,' and many additives indeed exist to protect food safety. It's just that everyone is increasingly bowing to consumers now."

Being intimidating is perhaps the original sin of additives. When the five characters "sodium ascorbate" appear on an ingredient list, no one associates it with "vitamin C," but in fact, they are the same thing.

▲Image source: E-commerce platform screenshot

To cater to consumer demands, more and more brands are stepping forward, seemingly determined to remove all chemical terms from ingredient lists, ultimately becoming the biggest beneficiaries of the so-called ingredient list involution. With the endorsement of clean ingredient lists, Jane's Yogurt's revenue has been rising over the past three years. Xia Haitong revealed in an interview that from 2018 to 2020, Jane's sales increased sixfold, from 300 million to 2 billion yuan. Jane's also successfully broke out of the fiercely competitive dairy market, securing a place, with revenue exceeding that of some regional old dairy companies like Yantang Dairy.

In 2022, Jane's, only eight years old, was listed in the Hurun Research Institute's "2022 Global Unicorn Index," with a valuation of 8 billion yuan.

Yuanqi Forest is similar. With the concept of "0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories," it caught beverage giants off guard. In 2018, Yuanqi Forest, only two years old, had revenue of just 200 million yuan, not even ranking in the beverage industry. But the next year, revenue soared to 660 million yuan, and in 2020 it reached 2.7 billion yuan, and in 2021 it became 7 billion yuan, shocking countless peers. To put it in perspective, after the Red Bull internal strife, Dongpeng Te Yin, which rose abruptly, had revenue of only 6.978 billion yuan in 2021; Yangyuan Zhi, which relied on six walnut milk, sold only 6.906 billion yuan that year; Chengde Lulu's revenue was even only 2.524 billion yuan.

For certain products or manufacturers, even within the same brand, products that share the same production line and have little difference can sell at a high price with the "0-additive" and "clean ingredient list" labels, helping them make big money. Take Qianhe Flavoring, the direct beneficiary of the Xin Jifei incident, as an example. In Qianhe's product portfolio, there are both "0-additive" soy sauces with a large "0" on the packaging and ordinary soy sauces with simple bottles and no "0." But in terms of price, for the same 1L bottle, the former sells for 17.9 yuan, while the latter sells for 9.9 yuan.

"Comparing the ingredient lists, the '0-additive' products mainly lack compound umami-enhancing substances and have lower sodium content, but in terms of taste, quality, and functionality, the difference is not as big as ordinary consumers imagine," Chen Liang told 'Market Insights.' "Even if consumers use soy sauce with additives, as long as they consciously reduce high-sodium seasonings like salt, MSG, and chicken essence, they can achieve the same salt reduction and sodium control effect as using '0-additive' soy sauce. However, '0-additive' has higher selling prices and profits, so brands naturally prefer to promote it."

During the Haitian "double standard" incident half a year ago, a seasoning manufacturer said that within just one month, the sales of "0-additive" sauces across the industry expanded several times, and everyone was happy to see it.

Not long ago, Qian Cheng accidentally came across Xin Jifei's online store, "selling additive-free food."

To this day, the ingredient list anxiety trend continues unabated, and brands and channels are still leveraging it. Chen Liang told 'Market Insights' that as far as he knows, many distributors now prefer to sell Qianhe "0-additive" soy sauce. "Compared to ordinary soy sauces from Lee Kum Kee and Haitian, '0-additive' offers higher rebates."

Correspondingly, at the operational level, after the soy sauce "additive" public opinion incident in October last year, the sales of Qianhe's "0-additive" category accelerated significantly in Q4. The company's 2022 financial report shows that both revenue and net profit increased, with year-on-year growth rates of 26.55% and 55.35%, respectively. Thanks to the promotional effect of "0-additive," the company's sales expenses also decreased by 14.69% year-on-year in 2022.

In contrast, Haitian Flavoring, which was embroiled in the ingredient list controversy, saw its revenue growth rate only 2.42%, and its net profit even declined for the first time since listing.

With the endorsement of "0-additive," Qianhe Flavoring's revenue in 2021 exceeded that of the old soy sauce company Jiajia Food for the first time. That year, Jiajia Food's revenue declined by double digits, selling only 1.755 billion yuan; after Qianhe's revenue surged, it sold 1.925 billion yuan in a year. A decade ago in 2013, Qianhe's annual revenue was only 613 million yuan, while Jiajia Food could sell 1.678 billion yuan.

Against the backdrop of consecutive annual performance growth over the past five years, the gap between Qianhe Flavoring and industry leader Haitian Flavoring is also narrowing. A decade ago, Qianhe's revenue was only 7.2% of Haitian's; last year, it became 9.5%. In terms of market value, Qianhe is already the undisputed second in the soy sauce industry. As of the close on May 31, its market value of 20.2 billion yuan was 4.68 times that of Jiajia Food on that day. In 2022, Qianhe's soy sauce gross margin was 37.15%, 10.84 percentage points higher than Jiajia Food's. In the first quarter of this year, Qianhe earned 145 million yuan in a single quarter, more than ten times that of Jiajia Food.

The prevalence of "0-additive" and ingredient list topics is filled with consumer anxiety. Multiple industry insiders told 'Market Insights' that consumers themselves have a resistance to additives full of chemical terms, and businesses are merely catering to consumers, even amplifying anxiety to a certain extent, thereby reaping high profits. But in fact, consumers should not only focus on additives. "High oil, high salt, and high sugar are the real causes of unhealthy food," Qian Cheng told 'Market Insights.' "What consumers should really do is use the ingredient list and nutrition facts table to understand whether the product's nutritional structure is healthy."

(Consumer and Chen Liang are pseudonyms in the article.)


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