How can China's infant formula powder achieve the transition from following to leading?
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger - a famous quote by the 19th-century philosopher Nietzsche. If placed in today's era of prevalent global trade protectionism, its significance and weight remain undiminished.
From chip computing power to industrial software, from medical devices to the energy revolution, domestic substitution has become the main theme of the times' development.
In the mobile phone industry that emphasizes independent research and development, Huawei has returned with its native Hongmeng operating system and Kirin chip, breaking the long-standing confusion of high-end development that has plagued Chinese mobile phone manufacturers. In the field of new energy battery and vehicle manufacturing, BYD, which was once only a battery manufacturer, has now spread its battery production and vehicle manufacturing factories overseas. While promoting China's new energy vehicle production to the top in the world, it has also pressed the "acceleration key" for the domestic substitution of vehicle-grade chips.
Behind this, It is not only the confrontation between the old world order and the new era's discourse power, but also an opportunity window for Chinese enterprises to move towards a new industrial cycle and high-quality development. From dependence to independence, from imitation to innovation - when these high-precision and cutting-edge fields that were once "choked" by foreign capital are no longer an insurmountable threshold, Chinese enterprises that break the foreign monopoly are promoting the era's narrative of domestic substitution while also creating the birth of a new-quality productive force.
This transition has also occurred in China's milk powder industry under the new cycle.
On December 27, 2024, Xinhua News Agency launched the first science and technology innovation program "New-Quality Science and Technology Brain", taking the story of Mengniu, a Chinese dairy giant, and its high-end milk powder brand Ruibunen catching up with foreign infant formula milk powder as a discussion sample. It invited Jiang Changjian, the well-known host of "The Strongest Brain", Dr. Wen Yongping, Vice President of Mengniu Group and Head of Global R & D and Innovation, Dr. Liu Zhengdong, Head of the R & D Management Center of Mengniu Group's Milk Powder Division, and Professor Wang Xingguo, a famous functional lipid expert and Chief Breast Milk Lipid Scientist of Ruibunen, to jointly analyze how Mengniu Ruibunen achieved a "major feat" in the history of the global infant formula milk powder industry with the world's first [1] mother-source MLCT [2] + new OPO [3] formula.
When Chinese milk powder leads the "global infant formula milk powder industry", how does Mengniu Ruibunen become a domestic substitution sample that breaks the constraints with an 18-year "marathon" of breast milk research?
Why is "Mother-Source MLCT + New OPO" a Critical Breakthrough in the Infant Formula Milk Powder Industry?
The infant formula milk powder industry, which has crossed a history of more than 100 years, has been driven by scientific research and innovation from the beginning to the end.
The earliest infant formula milk powder originated in Europe in the 19th century. At that time, driven by the development of disciplines such as nutrition, people began to study the components of breast milk and tried to use milk and other raw materials to adjust the proportion of nutrients through processing to produce basic synthetic milk. Thus, the birth of basic synthetic milk in 1915 laid the foundation for the later development of infant formula milk powder.
With the accelerated arrival of the industrialization wave, European and American enterprises not only invested a large amount of funds in nutrition formula research and development, but also accumulated advanced technologies such as spray drying in the industrialization process. It not only enables milk powder to better maintain nutrients during the production process, but also improves the production efficiency of milk powder at the same time.
For a considerable period of time, European and American enterprises that master core technologies have occupied the dominant position in the global infant formula milk powder market.
In fact, this dominance comes more from the definition of the industry's discourse power. For example, in the formulation process of the infant formula milk powder standard of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), European and American enterprises and scientific research institutions have an absolute advantage. This also makes other countries and regions largely refer to European and American standards when producing and importing infant formula milk powder.
Looking globally, in terms of financial support, talent cultivation, and industry standards, the Chinese infant formula milk powder industry in the past two decades has largely been crossing the river by feeling the stones of European and American enterprises.
Consumers also vote with their feet. Once upon a time, foreign milk powder represented by countries such as New Zealand and the Netherlands rose rapidly in the Chinese market and ushered in the "golden decade" of development. The scene of Chinese people carrying large and small bags of foreign milk powder back to China when leaving the country once made Chinese milk powder brands fall into an embarrassing situation of not being trusted.
It was not until 2019 that multiple departments including the National Development and Reform Commission, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the National Health Commission jointly issued the "Action Plan for Improving Domestic Infant Formula Milk Powder". For domestic milk powder enterprises that are working to reshape their competitiveness, they have begun to work together to regain the "lost decade", and have taken practical actions from milk source construction, quality control, and R & D investment.
In 2022, while the market share of domestic milk powder brands was continuously increasing, in the global infant formula milk powder formula research and development process that has been monopolized by foreign capital for a hundred years, the figure of Mengniu, a Chinese enterprise, finally appeared.
In July of that year, Mengniu Ruibunen announced the innovative integration of mother-source MLCT and new OPO, and successfully applied it to its infant formula milk powder, breaking the "choking" [4] problem of China's infant formula milk powder fat base material's long-term dependence on foreign imports. This achievement has not only been appraised by the national authoritative institution and unanimously recognized by many academicians and experts, but also won the first prize of the "Product Innovation Award" of the Science and Technology Innovation of the Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology.
Why is mother-source MLCT + new OPO a critical breakthrough in the infant formula milk powder industry?
On the one hand, MLCT structural lipid, as a type of triglyceride in breast milk, combines the dual absorption advantages of MCT [5] and LCT [6] in digestion and absorption. The absorption rate of MLCT is twice that of LCT, and it has less burden on the infant's liver [7]; on the other hand, the new OPO prepared by the UPU [8] technology, compared with the traditional OPO, can provide a more balanced proportion of fatty acids, is closer to the lipid structure of breast milk, is more friendly to Chinese babies, and also helps to promote the absorption of nutrients such as fatty acids and calcium, and soften stools and other 7 feeding effects.
In the view of Professor Wang Xingguo, the Distinguished Professor of Jiangnan University, the close cooperation between Mengniu Ruibunen and Jiangnan University has broken through the key technologies of breast milk structural lipid MLCT and new OPO, and for the first time in the world, they have been applied to the design and production of Mengniu Ruibunen formula milk powder, obtaining a formula milk powder product with a similarity coefficient to breast milk fat reaching 90%. [9]
In fact, as a blank area in breast milk research, when developing mother-source MLCT, the primary challenge faced by Mengniu Ruibunen is the collection of breast milk samples. Based on the collection and research of 5000 breast milk samples from 17 provinces, 24 cities, and 2 foreign countries, Mengniu Ruibunen and Jiangnan University bought all the more than 590 formula milk powders that could be bought on the market at that time for research. It is with such determination and courage that Mengniu Ruibunen has published more than 80 MLCT-related literatures in the field of mother-source MLCT, filling the gap in the milk powder industry.
More importantly, the formula powder composed of mother-source MLCT + new OPO has had its 10 real feeding effects tested by the highest level of infant clinical evidence [10] in the pyramid.
In terms of nutrient absorption, compared with babies drinking ordinary milk powder [11], babies fed with formula powder containing mother-source MLCT and OPO, have a 42% reduction in undigested and absorbed triglycerides in the body, a 16% reduction in unabsorbed free fatty acids, and a 29% decrease in the risk warning indicator value of fat accumulation. This means that their fat nutrient digestion and absorption is better, and the absorption rate is also higher.
In terms of weight gain, babies using the mother-source MLCT + new OPO formula also show a more stable growth trend, laying a solid foundation for the baby's growth. According to the data shared by Professor Zhu Huilian, a professor in the Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, and an executive member of the Chinese Nutrition Society, babies fed with Ruibunen formula milk powder, have a 16% higher weight gain than ordinary milk powder, 63% of babies have better weight than their peers, and 55% of babies have a better height growth rate than children of the same age.
In terms of intestinal protection, studies have shown that the number of probiotics such as Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus in the intestines of babies in the mother-source MLCT + new OPO formula group, increased by 23% and 25% respectively compared with before the intervention, while the number of harmful bacteria such as Shigella decreased by 14%. It can be seen that the intestinal vitality of the babies has been effectively optimized, and the improvement in the stool color score is more significant than that of the ordinary milk powder group.
Why is Mengniu Ruibunen's Clinical Evidence the "Top" Representative in the Field of Infant Formula Milk Powder Evidence?
A question worth answering is: Why does milk powder also need to do clinical evidence?
As an important source of growth, development, and nutrition supply for infants and young children, driven by some forward-looking dairy research, milk powder has carried out some scientific evidence-based studies in key areas such as absorption, growth, self-protection, and brain nutrition.
In fact, this also conforms to the needs of consumers in the era.
As the key decision-makers in milk powder purchases, the new generation of parents, driven by the concept of scientific parenting, no longer only focus on safety for milk powder as they did more than ten years ago. Now, they also pay attention to more effects such as balanced nutrition, good absorption and affinity, and helping physical development. It can be said that with the continuous fermentation and in-depth dissemination of the concept of refined feeding on social media, today's parents not only have enhanced safety awareness but also professional awareness when choosing milk powder.
For milk powder brands, the feeding effects they promote must be able to withstand the scrutiny and examination of these new generation parents. At this time, A professional endorsement with authoritative influence can better help them reduce this trust and decision-making cost.
This is the significance of the infant formula milk powder moving towards the era of clinical evidence - Verifying whether the nutrients in milk powder are safe and effective through scientific methods can not only reduce the trust cost of consumers, but also force the dairy industry to have its own requirements for high-quality development.
What is more worthy of mention is that Mengniu Ruibunen has passed the highest level of the infant clinical research in the evidence pyramid level.
You should know that this is the highest level in the evidence pyramid. Through the feeding control experiment carried out by recruiting eligible baby subjects, although the research threshold is high, the time-consuming is long, and the cost investment is large, the research results are also closer to the actual feeding effect compared with in vitro or cell experiments and animal experiments (rats, pigs, etc.). The clinical feeding evidence of Mengniu Ruibunen's "patented affinity formula" [12] lasted for 15 months before and after, and hundreds of babies were recruited to ensure the rigorous and objective conclusion of the empirical research.
Eighteen Years of Breast Milk Research, Only to Create the "Gold Standard" for Infant Formula Milk Powder Formulas
Since ancient times, breast milk has been the "gold standard" for infant feeding.
It is rich in nutrients, can meet all the needs of infants aged 0 - 6 months for growth and development, and the bioactive substances it contains can also help the baby's self-protection.
This superiority that neither cow nor goat milk can replace has led countless dairy enterprises to the "deep water area" of breast milk research, trying to improve the infant formula milk powder in terms of absorption, self-protection, and nutrient components through the research and development and innovation of the core formula.
However, looking at the development of breast milk research, although the medical scientist Li Shizhen in the Ming Dynasty recorded the medicinal efficacy of breast milk in the "Compendium of Materia Medica", it was not until 1983 in modern society that China began to study the components of breast milk. Compared with European and American countries that can be traced back to the 19th century, it is at least a hundred years behind.
After the millennium, the Chinese dairy industry gradually took the first step in the exploration of breast milk research.
In 2006, Mengniu infant formula milk powder was launched, and at the same time, the research on the breast milk components of Chinese mothers was also initiated. At a time when the local breast milk research in China was relatively weak, Mengniu has taken the lead in seeing the important significance of breast milk research for the research and development of infant formula milk powder.
In 2011, the Mengniu Sino-European Maternal and Infant Nutrition Research Center was officially established. Mengniu Ruibunen has built a "breast milk technology tree" covering multiple fields such as breast milk protein, breast milk fat, breast milk prebiotics, and breast milk probiotics. The world's first clinical evidence-based formula - mother-source MLCT + new OPO, comes from the branch field of breast milk fat.
This year, through the study of breast milk components, Mengniu also started the construction of a local breast milk database. Through a one-year follow-up survey of 300 mothers in 8 cities in China, Mengniu broke the dependence of Chinese enterprises and scientific research institutions on foreign breast milk data in the stage of insufficient scientific research awareness and backward technical equipment.
1. Breast Milk Protein
Based on the data advantage brought by the local breast milk database, Mengniu took the lead in developing a domestic leading protein and amino acid optimization formula through the comparative study of the amino acid content of breast milk from 0 to 12 months. It has published many articles on breast milk protein and obtained core authorized patents [13], providing authoritative support for the nutritional quality and functionality of infant formula milk powder.
2. Breast Milk Fat
In May 2020, Mengniu and the School of Food Science of Jiangnan University jointly established the Functional Lipid Collaborative Innovation Laboratory, focusing the research on the application and transformation of breast milk structural lipids. In the research process, the research experts not only found that the OPL content in Chinese mothers' breast milk is greater than OPO, and based on this, they jointly innovated and developed a new OPO structural lipid. At the same time, MLCT was applied to infant formula milk powder. With this world's first, it broke the monopoly of Western scientists on the core ingredients of infant formula milk powder.
3. Breast Milk Prebiotics
In 2016, when HMO was still in an early stage of being a fresh concept, Mengniu, in conjunction with top domestic and foreign scientific research institutions, carried out a related cohort study on the composition of HMOs in Chinese mothers' breast milk. After 7 years of technical research and development, in 2023, Mengniu's independently developed "Breakthrough and Application of Breast Milk Oligosaccharide (HMO) Production Technology" has successively passed the US self - GRAS certification and the approval of the National Health Commission, becoming the first in China to solve the "choking" problem of China's HMO raw materials.