After the baptism of this epidemic, the health consciousness of the elderly will be strengthened, and the directions related to health, food, and health products will usher in greater development space. With the continuous increase in the number of middle-aged and elderly patients with diabetes, sugar-free foods may usher in huge development opportunities in the future.

The epidemic continues, but there are signs of containment and the situation will gradually improve in the future.

At the same time, after this baptism, the health consciousness of the elderly will be strengthened, and the directions related to health, food, and health products will usher in greater development space.

Diabetes, as one of the most common diseases among middle-aged and elderly people, has given birth to a huge market of drugs, blood glucose meters and test strips.

There are 18 listed companies with the concept of A shares of diabetes, including Qianhong Pharmaceutical, Yongtai Technology, which specializes in diabetes drugs, and Dean Diagnostics and Jiu An Medical, which specialize in blood glucose meters and testing instruments.

With the increasing number of middle-aged and elderly diabetic patients, sugar-free foods may usher in huge development opportunities in the future.

The Report on the Status of Nutrition and Chronic Diseases of Chinese Residents (2015) pointed out that in 2012, China’s population aged 18-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69 and 70 The prevalence of diabetes in the population was 3.4%, 5.5%, 9.6%, 14.6%, 18.9% and 20.5%.

In 2019, China ’s population of people over 50 years of age has reached 441 million. According to the above-mentioned incidence rates of different age groups, the number of people with diabetes over 50 in China is between 66 million and 88 million.

There are more and more middle-aged and elderly diabetic people, but among so many listed companies, they have not seen a company that specializes in the development and production of sugar-free foods for diabetic people.

Even if a person with diabetes consumes only 1,000 yuan per year for sugar-free food, this will be an outright billion-dollar market.

Current situation of sugar-free food: Europe and the United States are developing rapidly, and China is still in its infancy

Sugar-free foods generally refer to sweet foods that do not contain sucrose (sucrose and beet sugar), glucose, maltose, fructose, etc., but should contain sugar alcohols (including xylitol, sorbitol, maltitol, mannitol). ) And other alternatives.

Diabetic patients should not eat sugary foods at random, because the easily absorbed sugars can cause the blood sugar to rise rapidly, make the damaged islet B cells overwhelmed, and aggravate the disease; sugar-free foods contain sweet sugars. Flavors have no significant effect on blood sugar.

The popularity of sugar-free concepts in Europe and the United States began as early as 2007. The United States, which has the third-largest number of diabetic patients in the world and the world’s largest obese population, at that time the concept of “low-carb” was popular. Sugar-free products were constantly emerging in the market, and many mainstream brands were developing sugar-free products.

Europe’s well-known marketThe research company Euromonitor did a statistics of sugar-free food in the confectionery field in 2016:

  • 94% of tabletted mints in Japan are sugar-free, compared to 2% in China;

  • In pouring sweets, German sugar-free products account for 35%, while China’s proportion is only 1.4%;

  • As for chewing gum products, sugar-free gum in the UK and Germany has accounted for 80% of the market share, and the corresponding figure in China is 28%;

  • Some data show that sugar-free foods occupy 1% -2% of the Chinese market, while they account for 30% of European and American markets.

    Although there are the most diabetic patients in the world, China’s food industry is undoubtedly slower in the sugar-free food market. AgeClub’s new senior business research institute tries to get a glimpse of the development status of sugar-free food in China through online and offline surveys.

    1. Offline channels: It’s hard to find traces of supermarkets, and there are only a handful of specialty stores.

    In early 2020, we visited the three most representative supermarkets in Wuhan: Wushang Supermarket, Carrefour, and Wal-Mart, to truly restore the experience of finding sugar-free food in the supermarket.

    The Shangchao visited on this site is located in Nanhu Street, one of the most densely populated residential areas in Wuhan. It is a large living area with 300,000 people. The scope of Shangchao is within one kilometer of Poly Heart, Water Skyline, Fenghua Tiancheng. Many potential residents of sugar-free foods live in this residential area, including many residential communities such as South Korea’s Flower County.

    Wal-Mart Supermarket asked the shopping guide in the snack food area, and the result was unclear whether there was no sugar-free food, and a carpet search did not find anything; the candy area only had Yida xylitol chewing gum; the beverage area was Pepsi. Coca-Cola’s sugar-free cola, Nongfu Spring Oriental Leaf Tea, etc.

    Carrefour supermarket

    Middle-aged and elderly diabetic people break through 80 million, and there will be hundreds of billions of blue ocean markets for sugar-free foods?

    Ask the shopping guide in the snack food area. The result is that there is no sugar-free food. After a carpet search, a Silang fiber bran without sucrose-digested biscuits was found. In the candy area, only xylose such as Yida was found. Gum gum; in addition to sugar-free cola and oriental leaves in the beverage area, a tea-free tea drink from Coca-Cola is also available.

    Wushang Supermarket

    Middle and oldDiabetes surpasses 80 million people a year, and sugar-free food will have hundreds of billions of blue ocean markets?

    Ask the shopping guide in the snack food area on the second floor. The answer is that there are no special shelves. After a carpet-like search, three sugar-free foods were found on three different shelves that are far apart. Cane sugar vegetable cake, Royal Flavor Sucrose-free Shaqima and Jinyu Sucrose-free Coarse Grain Bread. The three products are mixed in ordinary food and there is no special logo for sugar-free food. It is difficult to find if it is not deliberately searched.

    Apart from Yida Xylitol Gum, there is no sugar-free candy in the candy area, except for Pepsi and Coca-Cola’s sugar-free cola in the beverage area, except for Nongfu Spring Spring Leaf Tea, a sugar-free beverage.

    Exceeding overtime for leaving the store, accidentally found a shelf with the promotional logo of “Alpha Xylitol Healthy Food” next to the frozen yogurt area on the first floor. Sugar-free foods with xylitol and maltitol as sweeteners, and coarse grain biscuits and tartary buckwheat crisps.

    Although a special shelf for sugar-free food was found, this shelf was far away from the food area on the second floor, and even the shopping guides didn’t know its existence.

    Through a field visit to the Supermarket, we can find that in the Supermarket store, the main sales channel of snack foods, sugar-free foods are either completely absent or left in the corner. Diabetic patients want to buy sugar-free foods in traditional Supermarkets. In addition to taking time to find, you also need a little luck to find the right supermarket.

    It’s not easy to buy sugar-free food at the supermarket, so we investigate another purchase channel, the sugar-free food specialty store.

    Search for “sugar-free food” as a keyword on the public comment. There are only three stores in Wuhan. It is found that the scale is very small through the door picture. It is worth noting that one of the three stores is called “Alfa Wu”. “Sweet Food Monopoly”, which is the “Alfa” brand that appeared in the Wushang Supermarket in the above.

    Similarly, search for “sugar-free” as the key word. The search results of the four first-tier cities in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen are all within 10, of which the only search result in Shenzhen is a diabetes rehabilitation center.

    Middle-aged and elderly diabetics break through 80 million, and sugar-free food will be worth hundreds of billions of blue ocean markets?

    Shangchao requires luck to buy sugar-free foods. There are only a handful of offline sugar-free food stores. Diabetics can only buy sugar-free foods offline with one word: difficult.

    2. Online channels: The collective absence of well-known food manufacturers for insufficient product information disclosure

    In recent years, with the rapid development of e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and JD.com and the rise of the mobile Internet, snack consumer e-commerce channels have achieved rapid development, and the proportion of online sales has continued to increase. AgeClub counts the sales data of sugar-free foods on mainstream e-commerce platforms, and analyzes the data to restore the characteristics of sugar-free foods online channels.

    First, the collective absence of well-known food manufacturers.

    In the top ten single-food sales of online sugar-free food products, Xu Fuji, Delicious, Shanghaojia, Panpan, Want Want and other mainstream well-known food producers are collectively absent, and imported food Guyou high diet biscuit contributed Since the only well-known manufacturer, Gu You, is the largest biscuit maker in Spain and the largest market share owner in the Spanish healthy biscuit market, the domestic market for sugar-free foods is not currently joined by well-known food manufacturers.

    Middle-aged and elderly diabetic people break through 80 million, and there will be hundreds of billions of blue ocean markets for sugar-free foods?

    Top ten sales of sugar-free food products online channels

    Second, the current marketing of sugar-free foods on the e-commerce platform is inadequate.

    Although most items have added the words “high blood sugar” and “diabetes” to their names to emphasize their sugar-free properties, they asked questions about the products in “Ask Everyone” on Taobao and “JD. There are still many questions about whether people with diabetes can eat this product, and the responses from buyers below are not the same.

    Middle-aged and elderly diabetic people break through 80 million, and sugar-free food will have hundreds of billions of blue ocean markets?

    On the one hand, this proves that the demand for sugar-free foods by diabetic patients is real, and on the other hand, it reflects that the information provided by manufacturers and merchants to consumers is insufficient and marketing is weak.

    According to this situation, AgeClub has carried out a detailed study of the top ten sales items on the e-commerce introduction page, and classified the products according to the degree of information disclosure.

    The first category is in addition to the sugarless andIn addition to keywords such as diabetes, the introduction page has no further introduction to the effect of the product on blood sugar. Consumers have extremely limited information. Danfoss waffles, Guyou high diet biscuits, ancestral monkey head biscuits and Kangquan whole wheat bread Belongs to this category.

    In the second category, the product introduction once again emphasized that people with high blood sugar can rest assured. However, there is no more detailed explanation. Zhongshantang grain cereals and grandma belong to this category.

    Middle-aged and elderly people with diabetes break through 80 million, and there will be hundreds of billions of blue ocean markets for sugar-free foods?

    In the third category, detailed sugar-free test reports and frequently asked questions are provided in the product introduction, which not only guarantees the sugar-free product but also answers many consumers’ questions. Alfa coarse grain biscuits belong to this. class.

    Middle-aged and elderly diabetic people break through 80 million, and there will be hundreds of billions of blue ocean markets for sugar-free foods?

    The fourth category is a product that has been fully introduced in detail for the impact of diabetes on blood glucose changes, including glycemic index testing and customer-tested blood glucose changes, so that patients with diabetes have the most intuitive understanding of the impact of blood glucose on commodities. Chuchi low GI whole grain biscuits belong to this category.

    Middle-aged and elderly diabetics break through 80 million, and sugar-free food will have hundreds of billions of blue ocean markets?

    There is no doubt that the more the information provided on the product introduction page fits the actual information needs of diabetic patients, the less doubts consumers have when buying, the higher the success rate, and the better it is reflected in sales. .

    The total sales ranking of sugar-free food brands on the online channel basically confirms this. The product introduction page has a more detailed explanation of blood sugar, such as Alfa, Zhixin Grandma and Zhongshantang. The aspect is the most accurate and detailed, but is limited by a single product, so it ranks behind (only the star-level single GI biscuit and whole wheat bread are two sugar-free products).

    Middle-aged and elderly diabetics break through 80 million, and there will be hundreds of billions of blue ocean markets for sugar-free foods?

    Ranking of total sales of sugar-free food brands in online channels

    3. Key raw materials for sugar-free food: domestic manufacturers prefer maltitol, erythritol or the future direction

    AgeClub noticed that for sweeteners, the key raw material for sugar-free foods, most domestic manufacturers use maltitol instead of xylitol, which is more familiar to the public and is commonly used in chewing gum. why?

    Middle-aged and elderly diabetics break through 80 million, and there will be hundreds of billions of blue ocean markets for sugar-free foods?

    The main physical properties of several sugar alcohols

    Articles from the professional journal of the food industry “Science and Technology of Cereals, Oils and Foods” show that foreign scholars F. In 2005, Ronda et al. Studied the effects of seven filling sweeteners on the quality of sugar-free cakes, and concluded that the substitution effect of xylitol was closest to that of the control group, followed by maltitol, and both were the sweetness closest to sucrose. Sugar alcohol.

    Middle-aged and elderly diabetics break through 80 million, and sugar-free food will have hundreds of billions of blue ocean markets?

    Although xylitol has slightly better taste than maltitol in the experiment, maltitol has other advantages:

    • First of all, maltitol is difficult to be used by baker’s yeast, molds, and other fungi. It is a difficult-to-ferment sugar and can extend the shelf life of food, which is of great significance to manufacturers and businesses;

    • Second, the body’s tolerance to maltitol is higher than xylitol. In terms of the characteristics that cause diarrhea and flatulence, maltitol is better than xylitol;

    • Finally, the market price of xylitol is higher than maltitol for a long time, and the production cost of using maltitol is lower.

      Xylitol is not used in the production of sugar-free foods such as biscuits and bread for the above reasons, but it has been used on a large scale in the field of sugar-free confectionery such as chewing gum and mint by virtue of its own characteristics.

      Because the heat of dissolution of xylitol is almost 10 times greater than that of sucrose, a large amount of heat is absorbed during dissolution to make the medium low temperature. After adding xylitol to food, it will feel cool and can enhance the flavor of foods such as mint.

      In addition, xylitol cannot be fermented by dental caries-producing bacteria in the mouth, and it can also inhibit the growth of streptococcus and the production of acids to prevent dental caries.

      The U.S. sugar-free food market on the other side of the ocean is another story. They are more susceptible to erythritol.