The content of additives such as sodium carboxymethyl cellulose in Wahaha Nutrition Express has been questioned. Because some enterprises are unable to relieve cost pressure through certain methods, they may resort to altering the raw materials.
The beverage giant Wahaha is becoming increasingly embroiled in the "gel" controversy, this time involving its flagship product "Nutrition Express," which generates over 10 billion yuan in annual sales. As of yesterday, Wahaha Group had issued two statements responding to this controversy, but with little effect. In response, experts have stated that relevant standards should be refined and supervision strengthened.
The incident originated when recently a netizen conducted an experiment: pouring Wahaha Nutrition Express into a porcelain dish, and after one night, the beverage turned into a white gel-like substance. The netizen also attached relevant pictures for explanation. This news, accompanied by vivid images, quickly drew the attention of netizens, with many consumers who had purchased the product stating, "I wouldn't dare drink it anymore."
In response, Wahaha Company issued a statement on the evening of December 19th, claiming "this is a normal phenomenon." According to the statement, liquid milk products or milk-containing beverages, which primarily use milk as their main ingredient, contain abundant proteins. Proteins in milk, like other proteins, possess physical and chemical properties such as gelation and film formation. "Because the protein content of milk in the Nutrition Express product is relatively high, thus its dehydration resulting in a gel is a normal protein gelation phenomenon."
On December 20th, Wahaha issued another statement, acknowledging that the "Nutrition Express Experiment" incident had caused some impact on the company, and sincerely inviting this "experimenter" to come forward, hoping to clarify the truth through open communication.
However, yesterday, reporters found on some supermarket shelves in Shanghai that the protein content marked on the milk-containing beverage "Nutrition Express" was only 1 gram per 100 milliliters, which is merely one-third of the protein content in regular domestic milk. In fact, the latter had been criticized not long ago for having too low protein content. According to dairy expert Wang Dingmian, the biggest feature of milk-containing beverages is that they have fewer milk components, with protein content mostly ranging between 0.7% to 1.3%.
"The rubbery substance that appeared in the netizen's experiment could very likely be due to these additives failing to dissolve sufficiently, reacting with each other to form a precipitate," said Wang Dingmian. In fact, the "Nutrition Express" that the reporter saw listed 11 food additives in its ingredients list, including sodium carboxymethyl cellulose and emulsified silicone oil. Experts stated that these 11 food additives all fall within the scope of national regulations, and Wahaha also mentioned in its statement that its additives and contents fully comply with all national safety standard requirements.
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