By 2026, the advent food market size will be about 47.1 billion yuan

Reporter Wang Xiaoxuan

In recent years, the fight against food waste has become an important task
that the whole society pays attention to and continues to promote.
On April 29, 2021, the Anti-Food Waste Law of the People's Republic of China came into force, which clarifies that "supermarkets, shopping malls and other food business operators shall strengthen daily inspections of the food they handle, and make special labels or display and sell food that is close to the expiration date"
.
Recently, the China Chain Store and Franchise Association released the "Market Temporary Food Operation Status Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report").

The report introduces the current sales, management and operation of advent food (pre-packaged) by retail enterprises and food suppliers by channel; Sort out the policies and regulations related to the sale of advent food and the problems, risks and challenges existing in the process of advent food processing; From the perspective of proper disposal of advent food, it provides suggestions and references
for enterprises to reduce risks, improve operations, reduce costs and increase efficiency.
At the same time, the report provides reference
for improving relevant policies and regulations, creating a healthy and orderly market environment and protecting consumer rights and interests.

The rise and circulation of the advent food industry

In 2012, Beijing issued the "Food Sales Zone System Near the Expiration Date", which clearly states that the raw materials, finished products and bulk foods of on-site food production and sale should be marked with the storage date and shelf life in each batch, and outbound sales should be as far as possible first-in-first-out
.
Before closing the store every day, the food that is close to the expiration date (hereinafter referred to as "advent food") should be inspected, and the unsold expired food should be counted, stopped from sale, returned or destroyed in a timely manner, and a record should be made
.

For advent food, there is currently no clear definition
.
Based on the relevant policies and regulations issued by the state and the general understanding of the industry, the "advent food" in the report refers to food that is close to the shelf life and is within the safe range of edible food
within the shelf life.

At present, the domestic advent food market is relatively
large.
According to the "Development Report of Snack Industry under the Background of Consumption Upgrading" released by the Circulation Industry Promotion Center of the Ministry of Commerce in 2018, from 2006 to 2016, the total output value of China's snack industry increased from 424.
036 billion yuan to 2.
21564 billion yuan, an increase of 422.
51%, and the annual compound growth rate was 17.
98%.

According to the conservative calculation of 1% inventory in the snack industry every year, in 2020, the scale of China's advent food industry will be about 30 billion yuan
.
In recent years, the market size of the advent food industry has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 7.
8%, which calculates that the advent food market size in 2026 will be about 47.
1 billion yuan.

One of the reasons for the rise of the advent food industry is favorable policies
.
On April 29, 2021, the 28th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress passed the Anti-Food Waste Law of the People's Republic of China, which came into force
on the date of promulgation.
The favorable policy has made industry participants full of confidence in the future development of
advent food.

Food waste in the Anti-Food Waste Law refers to the failure to rationally use food that is safe to eat or drink in accordance with its functional purpose, including discarding, reducing the quantity or quality of food due to irrational use, etc
.
"In concrete implementation, such as bread cut corners for the production of fluffy sandwiches in factories, french fries for restaurants that exceed the 15-minute best tasting period, cold fresh meat that is not sold out of the day in supermarkets, and bento boxes that are not sold out after convenience stores close, in the past, in accordance with the requirements of the Food Safety Law, enterprises would destroy these foods as temporary food
.
The anti-food waste law does not require enterprises to change the original quality standards and disposal processes, but puts forward more economical, reasonable and operable high requirements
.
As food that is still "safe to eat or drink", food production and trading enterprises can deeply explore flexible solutions or compensation measures to reflect the goal of "reasonable use according to its functional purpose", that is, the goal
of making the best use of things.

Consumer preferences change
.
From the perspective of consumption, due to multiple factors, consumers' expectations for future income have decreased, as well as changes in consumption preferences, and have become more sensitive
to the cost performance of goods.
With the implementation of the Anti-Food Waste Law, anti-food waste has also begun to become a social and cultural consumption trend
.
Anti-food waste, the concept of sustainable consumption gradually penetrates into the consumer layer, and more and more consumers have become more rational in their consumption concepts and gradually accept advent food
.

At the same time, due to changes in the structural market environment, new consumer brands have overcapacity
.
In recent years, with the rise of new consumer brands, a large number of new consumer brands have poured into the market, goods have been rapidly updated, and e-commerce platforms have become a "testing ground"
for many new consumer brands.
However, with the disappearance of the Internet dividend, a large number of products of immature new consumer brands have accumulated in the hands
of brands and suppliers.

Offline retail enters the stock market
.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, from 2020 to 2021, the two-year average growth rate of China's GDP reached 5.
1%, and the average growth rate of total retail sales of consumer goods also reached 3.
9%.

From a structural point of view, the driving force for the growth of total retail sales of consumer goods comes more from online, and offline has entered the era
of stock market.
To a certain extent, this makes offline physical retailers and brands have an inventory backlog
.

The circulation path of advent food

The analysis of the report points out that at present, the circulation path of domestic temporary food is mainly divided into three parts: upstream supply side, midstream channel end, and downstream consumers and public welfare donation objects
.
Upstream supply: mainly for food manufacturers, distributors, agents of inventory goods, online sales channels such as major e-commerce platforms, large supermarkets of return and inventory goods, imported food merchants inventory goods
.
Midstream sales channels: mainly major e-commerce platforms, online channels for temporary food sales, temporary food discount stores, chain supermarkets, and convenience stores
.
Downstream consumer (receiver): individual consumers, public welfare organizations
.

2020-2021 is a challenging two years, under the background of the epidemic, the consumption growth trend has slowed down, changes in consumer behavior preferences, and the emergence of new channels such as community group buying have brought a great impact
to the physical retail industry represented by chain supermarkets and convenience stores.

Offline has entered the era of the stock market, which to a certain extent has increased the pressure on brand sales, and physical retailers have been affected by the diversion of new channels, and the inventory level remains high
.
However, changes in the structural market environment, changes in consumer preferences, and favorable policies introduced by the Anti-Food Waste Law also provide soil
for the innovation and development of physical retail enterprises.
While seizing market opportunities and exploring the road of transformation and innovation, brick-and-mortar retail enterprises represented by chain supermarkets and convenience stores are also actively assuming social responsibilities, reducing food waste and developing
low-carbon.

Management and disposal of advent food

In order to understand the sales and handling of advent food by retail enterprises represented by chain supermarkets and convenience stores, the China Chain Store and Franchise Association conducted written research, on-site visits and seminars for some chain member enterprises in 2022
.
The survey data comes from 47 retail enterprises, including 28 of China's top 100 supermarket enterprises in 2021, with annual sales of about 623.
9 billion yuan and about 11,000 stores in 2021
.

The report shows that there are currently no universal standards and rules
for the definition of advent food.
For the definition of advent food, the largest number of enterprises chose "based on the relevant regulations of government departments" as the basis, followed by "based on enterprise regulations or consensus with suppliers", and then "test results based on scientific testing such as shelf life and microorganisms"
.

The category composition of advent food includes: dairy products, special foods such as health food, infant milk powder and pre-packaged food
.
For the management of advent food, enterprises have formulated relevant advent management measures, but the rules are not uniform
.
Taking the feedback on the "Advent Definition Rules for Prepackaged Food with Clear Shelf Life" as an example, almost all supermarket companies have relevant advent management measures
for prepackaged food.
However, the definition of advent time varies greatly, and the rules are not uniform
.
For example, for prepackaged foods with a shelf life of more than 1 year, the advent period is defined as 30-150 days before expiration; If the shelf life is more than 30 days and less than half a year, the critical period is set at 7-45 days before expiration
.

Retailers take a multi-pronged approach to reducing food waste

The report shows that after the implementation of the anti-food waste law, supermarket chains and convenience store enterprises have generally carried out measures
to reduce waste.
On the one hand, strengthen the management of invoicing, sales and inventory, improve the new technology of digitalization and sales forecasting, upgrade the internal validity management system, improve the efficiency of the supply chain, and reduce the waste of inventory and purchases; On the other hand, from a marketing point of view, discount promotions are carried out to reduce waste
.

In addition, under the guidance of the Anti-Food Waste Law, the measures taken by enterprises to reduce food waste include: establishing a Love Food Bank, formulating and controlling in accordance with the company's internal rules and regulations such as the Advent Definition Table, as well as precise product positioning and control of order quantity, and early warning and promotion of advent goods
.
Some leading companies also disclose the management of advent food in their annual ESG reports or social responsibility reports
.

However, in the survey, it was also found that traditional supermarket enterprises still lack data monitoring of advent food and food waste
.
After the implementation of the Anti-Food Waste Law, 46.
8% of supermarket companies did not have specific statistics
on the problem of the increase or decrease of goods in the temporary food area of enterprises or on the sales shelves.

In terms of the disposal of advent food, the survey shows that the current methods of disposing of advent food by chain supermarkets and convenience stores mainly include three categories: the first type, in stores and stores specially set up shelves or areas for advent food, concentrated sales of advent food; The second category is to return the supplier or exchange the goods with the supplier for disposal; In the third category, a small number of enterprises participate in food donations
.

Industry insiders said that it is necessary to strengthen the publicity of the safety of "advent food", and strengthen the management of the communication and transmission of advent food information on the market side, and encourage businesses to correctly guide consumers to rational consumption
.
Introduce support policies related to food donation, and the government will take the lead in cultivating and setting up more food donation channels or, such as centralized processing points for temporary food, or explore government procurement of temporary commodities and allocate them to relevant institutions in demand
.
It is recommended that the government regularly collect and publish food waste data
.

As the concept of anti-food waste and sustainable consumption gradually penetrates into the consumer layer, more and more consumers will accept advent food
in the future.
With the implementation of a series of relevant policies and norms, the orderly, standardized and healthy development
of the advent food industry will be further promoted.

China Food News(2023.
01.
13.
07)

(Responsible editor: Gao Na)