Is baby water reliable or not?, The price is 4.7 times that of regular water. Nongfu Spring | Mineral Water | Baby

Recently, Nongfu Spring launched a Disney Princess limited edition baby water, attracting many netizens to share and share photos on social media. Some people bought more than ten boxes of Nongfu Spring baby water to gather Disney princesses.

Nongfu Spring is one of the earliest companies in China to enter the baby water field. As early as 2015, it launched baby water products based on Changbai Mountain Moya Spring. Since then, multiple brands such as Evergrande Ice Spring and Quanyang Spring have entered this sub field.

However, after years of existence, baby water has still been questioned by the market and labeled as an "intelligence tax" by the outside world. Is baby water reliable or not?

The selling price is 4.7 times that of regular water

Baby water is a natural water suitable for infants and young children to drink, also known as baby water or mother and baby water by brands.

Compared to regular water, baby water is priced higher. Recently, China News Service visited the markets in Beijing and Wuhan and found that the most common baby water brands in their offline channels are Nongfu Spring. In a chain supermarket in Beijing, Nongfu Spring baby water is priced at 9 yuan/bottle, while the brand's more familiar natural drinking water is priced at 2.9 yuan/bottle. If converted to the same specifications, the former has a selling price of about 4.7 times that of the latter.

Search for "baby water" on e-commerce platform, and you can see more brands, such as Evergrande Ice Spring, Quanyang Spring, Bama Platinum Spring, Arctic Spring, Nongxin, Tiandi essence, 27000, etc.

On the e-commerce platform, a box of Evergrande Ice Spring Baby Water is sold for 83.4 yuan, with a total of 12 bottles, approximately 6.7 yuan per bottle; Ordinary natural mineral water suitable for infants and young children is priced at 33 yuan per bottle for 24 bottles, approximately 1.4 yuan per bottle.

The price of Quanyang Spring Baby Water is slightly higher than that of Hengda Ice Spring, with 12 bottles priced at 93.2 yuan, about 7.8 yuan per bottle; The brand's regular natural mineral water costs 51.8 yuan per bottle for 24 bottles, approximately 2.2 yuan per bottle.

By calculation, the prices of Evergrande Ice Spring and Quanyang Spring Baby Water are 2.4 times and 1.8 times higher than their regular water, respectively.

What are the differences?

What is the difference between baby water being so expensive and regular packaged drinking water?

Taking Nongfu Spring Baby Water as an example, this product claims to be taken from Moyaquan No.2 Spring in the Fushong Water Resources Protection Area of Changbai Mountain. It is a low sodium mineral spring with a sodium content of less than or equal to 20mg/L. It adopts a sterile production line to ensure the safety of drinking water for infants and young children.

Nongfu Spring introduced on its official website that the liver and kidney functions of infants and young children are not yet fully developed. If infants and young children drink high mineral water, it will increase the burden on their liver and kidneys. Nongfu Spring also mentioned that both the German Federal Legal Gazette and the Austrian Federal Legal Gazette explicitly require that the sodium content of drinking water provided to infants and young children should be no more than 20mg/L.

The group standard "Drinking Natural Mineral Water" released by the China Health Supervision Association in March 2020 stipulates that natural mineral water suitable for infants and young children should have a sodium content of no more than 20mg/L.

Upon examining the characteristic indicators of Nongfu Spring Baby Water, Zhongxin Jingwei found that its sodium content is specifically labeled as 0.8-20mg/L. The sodium content of the popular natural drinking water at Nongfu Spring is labeled as greater than or equal to 80ug/100ml, which is greater than or equal to 0.8mg/L. That is to say, compared to ordinary water, Nongfu Spring Baby Water only specifically indicates the upper limit of sodium content, and it is difficult for consumers to determine which product has a lower sodium content.

In addition to promoting "low sodium", some brands also consider the high content of metasilicic acid as a major selling point of their baby water. For example, Evergrande Ice Spring Baby Water claims to contain 8-12 minerals, of which the metasilicic acid content is as high as 54.6mg/L, far higher than the relevant standards for drinking natural mineral water; Arctic Spring also emphasizes that the product is rich in various mineral elements, with a high content of metasilicic acid of 50-85mg/L, which meets and is higher than the standard for drinking natural mineral water.

Metasilicate is believed to have effects such as promoting bone growth. According to the National Food Safety Standard for Drinking Natural Mineral Water, the content of metasilicic acid in drinking natural mineral water should be greater than or equal to 25.0mg/L.

But in fact, Evergrande Ice Spring's ordinary natural mineral water, priced at 1.4 yuan per bottle, has a silica content of 25-49.3mg/L; The natural low sodium mineral water priced at 1.9 yuan/bottle can even contain 44.4-69.8mg/L of silica.

Ruan Guangfeng, Director of the Science and Technology Communication Department of the Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center, told China News Service that there is no significant difference between baby water and regular water. While baby water may contain more minerals, it does not have significant nutritional benefits. In his opinion, the cost-effectiveness of baby water is too low for ordinary consumers to purchase.

"In fact, the minerals we consume mainly come from food, and the mineral content in any type of water cannot be compared to the food we eat. After all, children still have to eat a lot of food every day. Even for babies who eat formula milk, the amount of minerals contributed by the water used to make formula milk is far less than that of formula milk," said Ruan Guangfeng.

Ruan Guangfeng believes that as long as hygiene is taken into consideration and qualified products are selected, common bottled water can be given to children to drink. "Baby water, apart from being more expensive, has no other health benefits."

In September 2022, the Consumer Protection Commission also issued a document stating that there is no essential difference between baby water and regular water. The key for consumers to brew baby formula is to boil the water. As for purchasing bottled water, bottled water, or installing a drinking water filter, it is acceptable. "In summary, water is good water, but not necessary."

Is baby water a pseudo concept?

According to public reports, after Changbai Mountain Moya Spring became the water source of Nongfu Spring in 2015, the company launched three high-end bottled water products, including baby water.

Afterwards, Evergrande Ice Spring launched Baby Water and Baby Water in 2016 and 2018 respectively; Nestle launched Youhuo Children's Water in 2017, and Danone launched Yili Cartoon Fun Bottle in June 2017. Quanyangquan, Beijiquan, and Bai Shanshui, a subsidiary of South Korean Nongxin, have also launched related products in this niche field.

However, it should be noted that China has not established a classification system for baby water, and currently there is a lack of specialized laws, regulations, and national food safety standards in this field.

According to GB/T10789-2015 General Principles for Beverages, packaged drinking water includes three categories: natural mineral water, purified water, and other types of drinking water. Other types of drinking water also include natural spring water, natural water, and other types of drinking water. At present, in the field of packaged drinking water, China has implemented national standards such as GB 17323-1998 Bottled Purified Drinking Water, GB19298-2014 National Food Safety Standard for Packaged Drinking Water, and GB8537-2018 National Food Safety Standard for Drinking Natural Mineral Water, but there are no national standards related to baby water.

At present, in the baby water market, only the group standards "T/WSJD 005-2020 Drinking Natural Mineral Water" and "T/JTAIT 1-2021 Drinking Natural Water and Drinking Natural Mineral Water" can be used as references. The former is issued by the China Health Supervision Association and drafted by the Beijing Institute of Nutrition, China Food Fermentation Industry Research Institute Co., Ltd., and the National Drinking Water Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Center; The latter is released by the Jilin Provincial Inspection and Testing Technology Association, and drafted by units such as Nongfu Spring and Quanyang Spring.

According to the sorting of Sino Singapore Jingwei, some baby water products on the market currently implement the national standard for drinking natural mineral water, namely GB8537, such as Arctic Spring, Tiandi essence, etc; Some products also comply with the national standard for packaged drinking water, namely GB19298, such as Bama Platinum Spring Baby Water. The product standard number of Nongfu Spring Baby Water is Q/NFS 0012S. Zhongxin Jingwei learned from the customer service of Nongfu Spring's official flagship store that this standard is the enterprise standard of Nongfu Spring. "The product enterprise standard Q/NFS 0012S is stricter than the current standard of GB 19298 for packaged drinking water. The product is suitable for direct consumption by infants and young children or for preparing infant formula food," said customer service.

▲ Photo by Yan Shuxin, the new editor of Nongfu Spring Baby Water sold in supermarkets

"Baby water is a pseudo concept, and there is currently no corresponding standard in the country to define what kind of water is baby water. Baby water can be said to be a marketing tool and gimmick for the industry to seek higher profits." Zhu Danpeng, Vice President of Guangdong Food Safety Promotion Association and Food Industry Analyst, said in an interview with China News Service.

Zhu Danpeng said that in the brand's promotion of baby water, "low sodium" and "high metasilicate" are used as the standards for good water. However, in reality, different water sources and enterprises have different standards, and there is currently no scientific demonstration system to prove what kind of water is suitable for infants and young children. "At present, the homogenization of the entire drinking water market is too high, and many companies are developing new concepts, such as baby water, but many concepts have not been scientifically proven."

Beverage industry observer Ma Lei told China News Service that the baby water market is still small, and channels are relatively not concentrated enough, making it difficult to expand. "At present, except for Nongfu Spring, other brands do not attach much importance to it."

During the visit, Zhongxin Jingwei also found that the most common baby water brand among consumers through offline supermarkets and other channels is Nongfu Spring, while other brands are rarely seen.

According to the annual report, in 2022, Nongfu Spring's packaged drinking water products recorded a revenue of 18.263 billion yuan, an increase of 7.1% compared to 2021, accounting for 54.9% of the total revenue for the year. As for the income situation of baby aquatic products, it was not mentioned in the annual report of Nongfu Spring.

Recently, China News Service sent an interview letter to the person in charge of Nongfu Spring regarding issues related to the income of baby aquatic products and external doubts. The person stated that there is currently no response.

According to a research report by Fangzheng Securities, relevant data shows that the proportion of natural water and natural mineral water in the packaged drinking water market in China is increasing year by year, and it is expected to reach 22.60% and 8.69% respectively in 2024. At the same time, the high-end of drinking water has also become a new trend.