Laundry Detergent-like Beverage Went Viral and Got Crackdown in China

Recently, a new beverage suddenly went viral on the Chinese Internet for one simple reason: it looks like a laundry detergent. The beverage with the strange packaging was embraced by the bubbling enthusiasm of some young consumers. Meanwhile, voices of criticism and doubts were mounting on the Internet. Eventually, the market witnessed its disappearance and the attention from regulators followed. 

The Bizarre Packaging Trend 

This "laundry detergent milk tea" uses a green outer package, with a handle and bottle cap of the same type of laundry detergent. The beverage inside the package is coconut milk. Shared by consumers on the Chinese social media Weibo, it spread rapidly and became a hot topic, with more than 100 million views.

The laundry detergent-like milk teaIn fact, in recent years, caught up in the fierce competition on the Chinese food market, a lot of food manufacturers and brands attempted to make a breakthrough by launching eye-catching products. Laundry detergent beverage is exactly one of those products, along side with soap-like cake, lipstick-like chocolate, candy in medicine bottle and more. Those products are deemed as both innovative and fun, catering to young, curious and adventurous consumers. Furthermore, as the super users of social media, young consumers are keen to share these interesting and bizarre items on the Internet, which promotes the continuous growth of this trend. 

soap-like cake

lipstick-like chocolate

The Simmering Dispute 

With the growing popularity attracting more consumers to have a try of this beverage, voices on the Internet started to discord. It didn't take long for critical comments from people who don't buy the business trick to entirely overshadow the previous adulation. Many comments expressed the doubt about the food safety, and concerned about the misidentification from children and the elderly.

Public comments

There is a fundamental distinction between edible and inedible products, which escalates the issue to the regulatory level. In this case, there should be warning signs or warning instructions in Chinese on the packaging according to law. As per the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests, if there’s any damage to personal and property safety caused by this kind of scenario, the manufacturer and operator shall bear the corresponding liability for compensation.

In addition, food safety not only refers to the safety of food itself, but also includes food packaging and other factors related to food safety. According to the Food Safety Law, the state has established a food safety risk assessment system to supervise the safety of food and packaging sold to the public. If food packaging is prone to cause consumers' misunderstanding or confusion, there may be harmful consequences. Even if the food itself is not harmful, the food producers and operators will still bear relevant legal liabilities.

As revealed by the staff of the local market supervision and administration bureau, they had received relevant complaints about the laundry-detergent-like beverage. The investigation has been initiated, and a preliminary result will be released soon. At present, this beverage has been removed from the shelf.

Chemlinked's Views 

Admittedly, innovation of the packaging design is a common and effective way for food enterprises to tap consumption potential and expand market space. However, there does exist a boundary of social ethics and regulations that any packaging design shall not cross. The blind pursue of attention and popularity by dressing the food up in “fancy clothes” is most likely to create a fad, but will definitely lead to backfire on brands’ development and reputation. Stakeholders should strictly abide by the bottom line of food safety ethics and carry out product packaging and appearance innovation in accordance with the law and food safety principle. Only by this wat can we safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and enhance the vitality of food products. Furthermore, to cope with this market chaos, it is expected that market regulators will step up efforts on the supervision and rectification of food packaging and labels, especially for those "fancy" and "eye-catching" packaging.