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following chinese herbal tea, bread and ice cream, this mid-autumn festival, the trend of chinese medicine is blowing towards mooncakes - dendrobium officinale, american ginseng, tangerine peel and other chinese herbal medicines are part of the fillings. how much does chinese herbal mooncakes cost? which brands are selling them?

“120 boxes a day are not enough to sell”

chinese medicine mooncakes are also known as "medicine and food mooncakes", "medicinal diet mooncakes" and "herbal mooncakes".

at noon on the 28th, china news service came to beijing tong ren tang zhima health offline store. at the entrance and in many places in the store, there were mooncake gift boxes with the theme of "five-sided full moon, fulfilling wishes", which contained 9 mooncakes in 6 flavors, including five-nut wolfberry and ginseng mooncake, rose american ginseng and angelica mooncake, coconut lily and yam mooncake, pumpkin egg yolk codonopsis and astragalus mooncake, green grape jasmine and dendrobium mooncake, and five-black tangerine peel coffee lava mooncake.

the above-mentioned mooncake gift box is priced at 318 yuan per box, which is about 35 yuan per mooncake. the five-nut wolfberry ginseng mooncake weighs 200 grams, and the other mooncakes are 80 grams each.

▲"the five-sided full moon fulfills all wishes" mooncake gift box photo by lin wansi, china business network

according to the store staff, the mooncake gift box was launched about 20 days ago and is expected to be sold until mid-september. there are about 20 boxes left in the store, and five to ten boxes can be sold every day, mostly for gifts.

the above-mentioned staff member said that the medicinal materials added to the mooncakes are all from beijing tong ren tang. except for the pumpkin egg yolk codonopsis and astragalus mooncake, which has a slight taste of codonopsis, the medicinal taste of other flavors of mooncakes is not obvious. the staff member also said that although chinese medicinal materials are added to the mooncakes, they still have a certain sweetness, and people with high blood sugar are not recommended to eat too much.

in addition to beijing tong ren tang, beijing boji and yunnan baiyao have also launched chinese medicine mooncakes. among them, beijing boji launched the "bowen yueli herbal" mooncake gift box, which is said to be developed by a team of experts from beijing university of chinese medicine, with zero added sucrose, less oil and low fat, and added with chinese medicinal materials such as licorice, polygonatum, dried lotus leaves, and poria cocos. the national retail price is 388 yuan/box, and the pre-sale discount price is 258 yuan/box, with 8 mooncakes in each box.

according to public information, beizhong boji belongs to beijing beizhong asset management co., ltd., which is 100% owned by beijing university of chinese medicine. in addition to chinese medicine mooncakes, beizhong boji has also launched products such as golden plant extract solid drink, ruicao yishenggui nourishing paste, and wuzang zhenyan tea drink.

yunnan baiyao has launched the "bencao yiyue" mooncake gift box, which contains 8 mooncakes in four flavors: gastrodia elata ham mooncake, black truffle and black pork ham mooncake, polygonatum sibiricum rose mooncake, and tangerine peel and hawthorn mooncake. the box is priced at 138 yuan.

▲"bencao yiyue" mooncake gift box source: tmall app screenshot

in addition, traditional chinese medicine hospitals and clinics such as nantong traditional chinese medicine hospital in jiangsu province, wu'an traditional chinese medicine hospital in hebei province, and hu qingyu tang medicinal restaurant in hangzhou have also launched chinese medicine mooncakes.

for example, hangzhou hu qingyu tang medicinal mooncake restaurant launched two types of medicinal mooncakes this year. one is an 8-piece "moonlight thousand miles" mooncake gift box, including red bean paste and tangerine peel mooncakes, roselle, hawthorn, and black plum mooncakes, osmanthus, small hanging pear, and green plum mooncakes, etc., priced at 168 yuan per box; the other is a 12-piece "moon reflects all things" mooncake gift box, including dendrobium officinale mooncakes, egg yolk and white lotus seed paste mooncakes, etc., priced at 268 yuan per box.

on the 28th, china news service called the nantong traditional chinese medicine hospital in jiangsu province as a consumer. the relevant staff said that the hospital is currently selling simple chinese medicine mooncakes at 48 yuan per box and gift boxes at 58 yuan per box. each box contains six mooncakes of different flavors, with added chinese medicinal materials such as wolfberry, eight treasures, and longan.“there are so many people ordering (moon cakes) that they have been waiting for several days. we used to produce 120 boxes a day, but it was not enough to sell, so we are now increasing the daily supply.”the staff member introduced.

wu'an city traditional chinese medicine hospital in hebei province has also launched four kinds of medicinal mooncakes: tangerine peel and hawthorn, sesame and mulberry, lily and lotus seeds, and yam and wolfberry. they are divided into normal sugar and xylitol. the normal sugar mooncake is priced at 5 yuan per piece, and the xylitol mooncake is priced at 6 yuan per piece.

“traditional chinese medicine +” foods become popular

under the health economy, chinese medicinal materials have entered people’s daily diet.

previously, the "healthy european bread" of the first affiliated hospital of tianjin university of traditional chinese medicine attracted many young people to line up to buy it; the heilongjiang academy of traditional chinese medicine launched chinese medicine ice cream, claiming that it has the effects of dispelling cold, filling the stomach and strengthening the spleen.

article 38 of the food safety law of the people's republic of china stipulates that drugs shall not be added to food produced and sold, but substances that are traditionally both food and chinese medicinal materials may be added.

cheng wei, executive director of the shenzhen institute of chinese medicine and professor at beijing university of chinese medicine, said at a forum in june this year that china has released a list of 102 "food and medicine" raw materials that have both food safety and medicinal efficacy.

from chinese herbal tea, chinese herbal bread, chinese herbal ice cream, to chinese herbal mooncakes, why are more and more hospitals and pharmaceutical companies starting to develop "chinese medicine +"?

an industry insider who declined to be named told china business network that the chinese herbal mooncakes, chinese herbal bread, etc. launched by hospitals and pharmaceutical companies are extensions of the big health products, and may be intended to increase revenue.

zhu danpeng, vice president of the guangdong food safety promotion association and food industry analyst, also mentioned that appearance management, weight management, nutrition management, and health management have been integrated into the lives of the new generation and most chinese people. the company's layout of "traditional chinese medicine +" has seized the consumer's demand for big health products.

according to the "2024 china mooncake industry consumption trend insight research report" released by iimedia research, under the trend of healthy consumption, healthy mooncakes with low sugar and low fat have begun to appear. among the consumers who participated in the survey, more than 80% are willing to buy healthy mooncakes, 55.8% of consumers expect mooncakes to be improved in terms of crust, such as ice crust, milk yellow crust, water and oil crust, etc., and 50.6% of consumers expect mooncakes to be improved in taste. iimedia research analysts believe that consumers' demand for healthy mooncakes and expectations for product innovation will bring new growth points to the industry.

tian xin, associate professor of the chinese medicine teaching and research department of beijing university of chinese medicine, told china business network that integrating traditional chinese medicine into traditional food is a promotion and emphasis on the culture of chinese medicine. it should be noted that for foods high in oil and sugar, try not to add similar ingredients, such as moon cakes, try not to add sweet dates, candied beans, brown sugar, high-sugar fruits and other ingredients, otherwise it will make the originally sweet food taste heavier and have a greater impact on the spleen and stomach of the human body.

tian xin suggested that consumers can choose mooncakes with corresponding chinese medicinal ingredients according to their own physical characteristics. for example, people with weak spleen and stomach can choose mooncakes with yam or lotus seeds, people with poor digestion can choose mooncakes with hawthorn, and people with heavy moisture in their bodies can choose mooncakes containing tangerine peel and coix seed.

it is worth mentioning that compared with previous years, the mooncake gift box packaging has been significantly slimmed down this year, and the price has returned to normal. the china baking food and confectionery industry association recently released the "2024 china mooncake industry market trends" report, which shows that the overall production and sales of mooncakes this year are expected to remain basically the same or slightly decline year-on-year. among them, the output is nearly 300,000 tons, the sales are about 20 billion yuan, and the profit margin will decline. the mooncake product packaging has been significantly slimmed down, and the price of gift boxes is mainly concentrated between 70 yuan and 220 yuan. mooncake gift boxes above 500 yuan have basically withdrawn from the regular market.

in recent years, documents such as the "announcement on curbing "sky-high" mooncakes and promoting the healthy development of the industry", "restrictions on excessive packaging of food and cosmetics" (gb 23350-2021) and its no. 1 amendment have been successively issued. in april this year, the "general rules for mooncake quality" (gb/t 19855-2023) was also officially implemented. it clearly stated in the "fillings" that "wild protected animal ingredients such as shark fins should not be used in mooncake fillings, and precious and rare ingredients such as bird's nests should not be used."