After being notified by the State Food and Drug Administration, the "lead-excessive" scandal in Spirulina caused a stir in the city. In this incident, By-Health (300146, SZ), a listed company, has remained silent in the face of media inquiries about the origin of its spirulina raw materials.
Recently, By-Health executives revealed to a reporter from the "Daily Economic News" that its spirulina raw materials come from Jiangsu Province, not from abroad or "produced from the world's largest spirulina production base" as some propaganda claims.
Regarding the issue of not labeling the source of Spirulina raw materials, Guangdong lawyer Xu Yufa believes that manufacturers are obliged to label the origin of the main raw materials, otherwise it is suspected of fraud.
Company executives: Raw materials come from Jiangsu
Tomson By-Health's first quarter report shows that since the "excessive lead" incident did not occur in the reporting period, the company continued last year's rapid growth in the first quarter of this year. Among them, operating income increased by 114.64% year-on-year, reaching approximately 280 million yuan.
Due to the early Spring Festival this year, some brand promotion investments were advanced to the end of last year, resulting in the growth of By-Health's sales expenses in the first quarter being much lower than the growth of operating income. Therefore, Tomson By-Health’s net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies in the first quarter increased by 161.1% year-on-year, reaching 107 million yuan.
While announcing a surge in performance, By-Health reminded that the spirulina incident may have a certain negative impact on the company. The impact of this incident on the company's actual sales remains to be seen over a longer period of time. Currently, all the company's products, including spirulina tablets, are being sold normally.
Recently, when a reporter from "Daily Economic News" called Liang Shuisheng, deputy general manager of By-Health, he revealed to the reporter that By-Health's current spirulina raw materials come from Jiangsu Province. Liang Shuisheng also emphasized that By-Health has never promoted that its spirulina products are "produced in the world's largest spirulina production base."
It is worth noting that By-Health has previously mentioned in its prospectus that since the company’s spirulina raw materials are outsourced, “the growth environment is easily contaminated”, so the company plans to build a dedicated spirulina supply base. In this regard, Liang Shuisheng said that By-health has basically selected a location. The specific method is to cooperate with the selected suppliers. The suppliers will operate in accordance with the requirements and fixed models proposed by By-health, that is, "exclusive suppliers" or dedicated base”.
Lawyer: Companies should indicate the origin of raw materials
Tomson timesThe answer that healthy spirulina raw materials are produced in Jiangsu is a bit surprising. Previously, many BYHEALTH Spirulina online shopping promotions claimed that "the raw materials are produced from the world's largest spirulina production base, and 100% naturally grown Spirulina platensis". A reporter recently searched for "ByHealth Spirulina" online and found that there are still many online shopping messages continuing the above propaganda.
When reporters recently asked a drugstore salesperson about the origin of By-Health's spirulina raw materials several times, he said that the raw materials for By-Health's products all come from abroad. This misunderstanding is likely due to BY-HEALTH’s strong promotion of its “global sourcing” of raw materials. It is understood that BY-HEALTH's raw material importing countries include New Zealand, the United States, Norway, Germany, France, Australia, Brazil, etc. By the end of 2011, the company purchased 73.35% of its main raw materials from abroad.
The reporter observed that By-Health’s protein powder, squalene soft capsules, acerola chewable tablets and many other products will print the origin of the product’s main materials on the lower right corner of the front of the product bottle, such as “Squalene used in this product” Pen is imported from Japan." Such words are also specially used in red letters in the product introduction on the By-Health official website. These products with the origin of the main raw materials marked are basically raw materials imported from abroad. However, its spirulina tablet products do not label the source of the main raw material spirulina.
Xu Yufa told reporters that according to the "Product Quality Law", manufacturers are obliged to mark the origin of the main raw materials. Otherwise, it is suspected of fraud. The relevant regulatory authorities can impose administrative penalties on them, and consumers can also request returns. "When there are quality problems with the product, the seller must first be held accountable, and the seller may shift the responsibility to the raw material supplier." Xu Yufa explained. However, although he believes that there are laws to follow, Xu Yufa said that there are still many health products that conceal such information.
·Extended reading
The battle for the largest spirulina base
The domestic spirulina breeding industry has launched a competition for the title of "the world's largest spirulina breeding base".
After the "excessive lead" incident of Spirulina was exposed, someone told the media that the world's largest Spirulina production base is the Spirulina Industrial Park in Otok Banner, Inner Mongolia, which accounts for 50% of the world's Spirulina powder production. Luyuan Microalgae and Shuangfengbao are the two major companies in the park.
At the same time, a nutritionist who is familiar with spirulina told a reporter from the "Daily Economic News" that because spirulina requires higher average annual temperatures, the climate conditions in Inner Mongolia are not very conducive to the growth of spirulina nationwide.
Currently publicly announcedThe only company that calls itself “the largest base in the world” is Green A Company, a giant in the domestic spirulina industry. Green A said that among the 30,000 lakes in the world, only Lake Texcoco in Mexico, Lake Chad in Africa and Chenghai Lake in Lijiang, Yunnan, my country naturally grow spirulina. Green A’s spirulina base is the largest spirulina base in Chenghai Lake.
Regarding the issue of spirulina cultivation in Inner Mongolia, a person in the Lijiang spirulina industry believes that Inner Mongolia does not produce spirulina. "There are three lakes in the world that produce spirulina. They (the three lakes) are basically at the same latitude on the earth. It is conceivable that only such a unique geographical environment can produce spirulina."
However, some people believe that although Ordos, Inner Mongolia, developed spirulina farming relatively late, it is quite large-scale. The annual output of spirulina powder in the Spirulina Industrial Park in Etuoke Banner, Inner Mongolia reaches 3,500 tons, accounting for 50% of the world's total.
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