Social media turns up heat over Unilever's ice cream ingredients
Two varieties of Magnum's premium ice cream products.
Multinational food giant Unilever is the latest overseas brand to be embroiled in controversy after online claims that it uses inferior ingredients in its popular Magnum ice cream in the Chinese market made headlines.
Unilever said it has maintained a consistent recipe for the Magnum in different regions but raw materials vary at each production site based on local situations.
Zeng Xiwen, president of Unilever North Asia Public Affairs, last week said in an interview with Xinhua Finance the company uses water plus milk powder in the Magnum, but in Europe it uses condensed liquid milk with water as a major ingredient.
Social media posts sparked fury in early August by claiming that Magnum, one of the earliest premium ice cream brands sold in the domestic market, has been using milk powder to reduce cost.
It would not be practical to import fresh milk from Europe, Zeng said, given the transportation cost, and locally available raw materials would be a better choice for mass production.
He also refuted online accusations that the company is reaping higher profits in China by opting for local raw materials instead of those used in overseas markets.
Unilever said in an August 1 Weibo posting that the Magnum is produced under the GB/T31114 food standard that covers combination vegetable fat ice cream.
It pointed out that vegetable oil should not be confused with hydrogenated vegetable oil, or what's more commonly known as creamers, but the post was later deleted.
According to Chinese national standards issued for ice creams by the Standardization Administration of China (SAC), combination vegetable fat ice cream refers to products that combine vegetable fat-based ice cream with crispy chocolate or biscuit coatings and have less than 2.2 percent of dairy fat.
High-priced ice cream has stirred a craze among domestic consumers in recent years and they've become more demanding of premium snacks.
But Chinese shoppers are also more critical and are increasingly hard to please by companies that claim their items are of premium quality.
Others have also taken to social media to suggest that far cheaper ice cream products are just as good.
A normal size 65-gram Magnum costs from 10 yuan to 12 yuan, about double the price of local brands such as Mengniu and Yili.
Domestic premium ice cream brand Zhong Xue Gao also came under fire earlier this year when it priced one of its upscale popsicles at 66 yuan (US$10.15), citing the scarcity of raw materials.
Song Liang, an expert at the National Farmland Dairy Product Alliance, told CCTV's Business Channel that many ice cream producers are aiming to generate as much profit as possible within the current national standards.
He called for stricter standards for specific ice cream types and ingredients.
