Reading guide: On May 13th, the Eagle Brother Factory Exploration Team came to Biruiji's production base in Jinshan, Shanghai, and started the 18th stop of the Eagle Brother Factory Exploration column.
This is the first time I have come to the Biriji Jinshan factory since I entered the industry for seven years, and the protagonist of this visit is the new product of "0 added baking full price natural cat food" officially launched in April this year on behalf of Biriji's return to the natural food track.
From "Amazing Me" to "Rediscover Yourself"
Birigi returned to the "natural grain" track after 6 years
If there is a main axis in the 22 years since its establishment, it is like the interpretation of the titles of three books published by Chen Haixian, a well-known psychological counselor I am currently reading, namely "The Great Me", "Love, Need to Learn" and "Rediscover Yourself", which correspond to the three stages of Birigi's development:
When we entered the pet industry in 2017, Birigi, founded in 2002, was already a leader in China's pet food industry, and in 2011, it took the lead in launching natural food products in China, becoming the first batch of enterprises to compete with international brands in the local market, and growing into a leading brand in the domestic pet food track.
In 2018, Order No. 20 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Birigi clearly stipulates the compliance requirements for natural grains (details are shown in the figure below), especially the raw materials or additives must be "unprocessed and processed by non-chemical processes", which has become a bellwether for the development of the natural grain market. Under the guidance of this wind vane, the domestic natural grain brand represented by Birigi has entered a period of brand and product adjustment in order to meet the compliance requirements.
After 2018, Birigi temporarily stopped using the brand positioning of natural grains. In recent years, the private label in the domestic market has been trying and making mistakes, looking for directions, opportunities, and even looking for themselves, and has been tested in the communication and trust between teams, channels and users.
As stated in the book "Reverse Business", the time when you encounter the greatest setback in your life is often the time when you are more likely to achieve epiphany. Just like the revelation in the story of the gold rush, where the river bends, it is easier to precipitate gold.
And the "corner" of Birigi is the new 0 added baked full-price natural cat food launched in April this year. This time, Birigi has rediscovered itself, and after six years, it has once again launched "natural food", and can confidently say to channels and users, to the industry and regulators, that it is "natural food".
Birigi is back on the "natural grain" track
Construct a new and new natural grain product management system
As a representative work of Birigi's return to the natural food track, its team introduced us to the story behind this 0 added cat food on the spot.
According to reports, Birigi has never stopped investing in the research and development of natural food products - in 2019, the team will "do not use non-nutritive artificial chemical additives in the product formula" as the research and development direction, and by 2022, the team has the ability to develop "natural food products in line with national regulations".
In the past two years, Birigi has established a solution to replace artificial chemical additives from the four dimensions of natural raw materials, supplier management, production process and quality control, and finally built a new generation of natural grain product management system:
The first is the determination of the product formula - the R&D team has gone through more than 40 experiments and repeatedly verified the raw material ratio and indicators before it can be determined.
The second is the selection of natural raw materials and the construction of supplier management system - since 6 years ago, we began to search for high-quality animal raw materials without chemical additives in the upstream supply side such as chicken and oil, and at the same time selected high-quality plant additives such as tea polyphenols and rosemary extract as natural antioxidants.
To this end, Birigi has also built a new set of supplier management system:
The first is to establish a list of qualified suppliers, strictly control the major links of the supply chain, and ensure the quality of raw materials;
The second is to sign a contract with the supplier, review the composition of raw materials, and ensure that no 42 chemical additives are detected from the supplier's production and circulation.
The second is the matching of the production process - from the production end to achieve 0 addition of 42 chemical additives, the production process itself also needs to be optimized and improved, such as controlling the water activity value (AW) of pet food particles in the range of less than 0.8, inhibiting the growth of mold, and then achieving 0 addition of chemical preservatives.
Finally, the quality control of quality control - in addition to the self-inspection and third-party testing agency for each batch of products, Birigi also displays the raw material origin, factory, production process, and test results to pet users in an open and transparent manner, which not only achieves the full link traceability of the product, but also allows pet users to visit Birigi's dry food and wet food factories online through VR at any time.
On June 3, Birigi obtained the compliance verification certificate issued by Beijing CTI Food and Agriculture Certification Service Co., Ltd., which showed the attached "test results of 42 test items that were not detected in Bi Ruiji 0 Added Baking Full Price Natural Cat Food (as shown in the figure below)".
Birigi 0 added natural cat food: 0 added ≠ 0 additives
Rather, 42 chemical additives in 8 categories are added with 0 additions
One of the important links of Brother Diao's visit to the factory is to gain an in-depth understanding of the main product of Birigi's return to the natural food track - the new product of 0 added baking full-price natural cat food.
According to the official introduction, this cat food in the 0 addition of harmful chemical additives under the health concept of the proposition, from the raw material feeding, to achieve 75% of the fresh meat content, the ingredient list of "raw materials" column to achieve the top four are fresh chicken breast (35%), fresh bone-in chicken (30%), fresh chicken liver (5%), fresh chicken heart (5%); From the perspective of nutritional composition, the protein content has achieved a proportion of ≥42%, the fat content is controlled at a relatively ideal ≥15% proportion, and the 100g specification of nitrogen-filled and fresh-keeping independent small packaging is used, and the retail price of the official 1kg specification (adding 5% freeze-dried version) is 119 yuan.
Among them, a statement that may be misunderstood, the "0 additive" in the 0 added baked cat food launched by Birigi refers to the absence of the following 42 chemical additives, not 0 additives, that is, you see the "additive composition" column on the product packaging bag.
For your convenience, we have compiled the four categories of essential beneficial ingredients for full-price cat food marked in the "Additive Composition" column on the packaging bag of Birigi 0 Added Natural Cat Food: natural antioxidants (rosemary extract, tea polyphenols), amino acids (taurine), vitamins (vitamins-A, D3, E, B1, B2, B6, B12, niacin, folic acid, D-calcium pantothenate, D-biotin), mineral trace elements (amino acids-zinc, copper, iron, mammocomplex).
In fact, the 0 addition of Birigi is intended to clarify that "there are no 42 chemical additives in 8 categories", and the starting point is to elaborate from the product development of natural grains.
According to the founder of Birigi, Brother Jiu, shared in an interview with the media, the team divided the chemical additives that are not allowed to be used in natural grains into 8 categories and 42 items according to the relevant regulations of natural grains in the announcement No. 20 of 2018 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs:
化学抗氧化剂:特丁基对苯二酚(TBHO)、丁基羟基茴香醚(BHA)、没食子酸丙酯(PG)、二丁基羟基甲苯(BHT)、乙氧基喹啉、L-抗坏血酸
Chemical preservatives: sodium benzoate, disodium edta, benzoic acid, dehydroacetic acid, acetic acid, sodium dehydroacetate, sodium lactate, calcium lactate, sodium sorbate, potassium sorbate, sorbic acid
Chemical antifungal agents: butyric acid, sodium propionate, calcium propionate, propionic acid, ammonium propionate, calcium acetate
Chemical colorants: allura red, carmine, new red, amaranth, acid red, sunset yellow, lemon yellow, brilliant blue, lycopene, erythrosin, astaxanthin, indigo
Chemical sweeteners: sodium saccharin, sorbitol
Chemical stabilizers: propylene glycol, maltitol
Chemical regulators: tartaric acid, malic acid
Chemical attractant: allicin
Among them, chemical antioxidants, chemical preservatives, and chemical antifungal agents are commonly used additive ingredients in the pet food industry, and they have also become the key directions that need to be overcome after the compliance of natural food is strictly restricted.
For this purpose, Birigi offers alternative solutions that are "chemical-free" are:
First, natural antioxidants replace chemical antioxidants - the raw material uses natural antioxidant composition of tea polyphenols, rosemary extract and vitamin E; The process adopts the exclusive patented nitrogen filling and preservation technology (patent number: CN21 31 68700U), which controls the oxidation and deterioration of oil on the one hand, and the growth and reproduction of microorganisms on the other hand.
The second is the substitution of chemical preservatives and chemical fungal inhibitors - the water activity (AW) value of the particles produced by the finished product is controlled below 0.8 at the process end, which can inhibit the growth of mold.
The third is the substitution of chemical attractants - the selection of fresh chicken, fresh chicken hearts, fresh chicken liver and other natural fresh ingredients to improve the palatability of the product.
Fourth, the substitution of chemical colorants, chemical sweeteners, chemical regulators, and chemical stabilizers - through the proportion of raw materials, as well as the control of baking process time and temperature.
Excessive chemical additives are a potential hazard for dogs and cats, not an empirical hazard
What needs to be clearly pointed out here by the Eagle Brother Exploration Team is that for the "0 added 42 chemical additives" claimed by Birigi in 0 added cat food, it is emphasized that excessive chemical additives have potential hidden dangers for cats and dogs, rather than empirical harms, such as in terms of quantitative intake dose, intake time, etc., which need to be further demonstrated by scientific experiments.
In this regard, there are four main reasons why Birigi insists on making 0 added cat food:
First, from the perspective of its own values, the vision of Bigis is to make dogs and cats healthier and live longer, and there is no tolerance for potentially harmful ingredients to the health of dogs and cats.
Second, from the perspective of the current situation of the industry, there are still a certain number of chemical additives in the pet food industry. In view of the current situation of the industry, we investigated the content of chemical additives in the top 10 brand products, mainly focusing on the use and detection of chemical preservatives, chemical antifungal agents and chemical antioxidants, and the results showed that most products still have a certain amount of chemical additives.
Third, from the perspective of cat and dog health, there are potential hazards for dogs and cats to eat too much and contain artificial additives for a long time.
Birigi said that from a large number of scientific literature and research reports to prove that many chemical additives are not good for human health, but there is no authoritative scientific research on the health of cats and dogs, but they are mammals like humans, so when the human body uses toxic chemical additives for a long time, these chemical additives also have potential hazards and risks for cats and dogs.
In the short term, the presence of chemical additives will improve the appearance, palatability and shelf life of food. Long-term consumption will affect the normal metabolism of dogs and cats, damage self-protection, and even shorten the life span of cats and dogs. Therefore, Birigi calls on the industry and consumers to pay attention to the hidden dangers and hazards of long-term ingestion of chemical additives in cats and dogs.
Fourth, from the perspective of user research and product feeding tests, the team found that many pet parents are very concerned about the addition of chemical ingredients, and hope that their furry children can also eat zero added pet food. At the same time, the product was fed before the product was launched, and positive feedback was received on the product experience, which provided confidence for the launch of this product.
Shanghai has its own dry food and wet grain factories
Tetra Pak becomes the "King of Wet Food Packaging Process"
In fact, after seeing the Shanghai Jinshan factory with an investment of more than 500 million yuan and an area of more than 50,000 square meters, the biggest feeling of the carving brother factory team is that the basic skills are solid and open and transparent enough.
It is important to know that when the industry began to build its own factories in recent years, Birigi had a complete set of imported Swiss Bühler puffed grain production lines as early as 2014, achieving a daily production capacity of up to 200 tons, which was rare at that time.
The wet food production line, which was put into operation in 2018, is the first and only Tetra Recart pet wet food production line in Asia, which can achieve a daily production capacity of up to 40,000 packs of wet food packaged by Tetra Pak, which is also a precedent for the pet industry.
From my personal experience, seeing it in public information and actually seeing it in the field are really two different things.
When we enter the wet grain workshop in Birigi, the first visual impact comes from the entire workshop (note: 139.1m long, 31m wide, 8m high), the top and body are made of large areas of stainless steel.
At present, most of the wet food process production lines are in the roll packaging process, from canned food to Miao Xian Bao, and then to cat strips, broken cups, ham sausages, and the Tetra Pak packaging process is the king of rolls in the wet food packaging process.
According to the factory personnel, the Tetra Pak wet grain production line purchased and introduced by Birigi and used sealed filling has reached 40 million yuan in single equipment alone, and all Tetra Pak packaging materials need to be imported originally, and even for the printed matter on the outer packaging, it needs to be strictly approved by Tetra Pak's official compliance audit before it can be listed on the market.
It can be seen that Birigis's pursuit of wet food quality is "not only there, but also good", and there is a detail, the production of Tetra Pak's first 9-layer packaging product, even more stringent than the human milk packaging standards.
According to the latest developments of on-site harvesting, in addition to the basic puffed grain business line, the Biriji Jinshan plant has a fresh meat baking grain production line with a daily output of 5 tons, and will be expanded to 10 tons per day in the future; In the wet food business, it has been equipped with a daily output of 12 tons of staple food/snack canned food, cat strips, Miao Xian Bao and other wet food production lines, not only to supply its own brand development, but also to cooperate with brands at home and abroad.
At the same time, Birigi also has two professional scientific research bases - pet food safety and quality food testing center, small animal nutrition research and development center, through BRC, HACCP, GMP, ISO 9001, ISO 22000, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 seven certifications, and has an area of more than 70,000 square meters of puffed dry food production base in Shandong.
epilogue
At the end of the talk, when the Eagle Brother Detective Team communicated with a ten-year-old employee of the Birigi factory on the spot, her biggest evaluation of Birigi was that "it is very real here".
Behind this "truth" is the awareness of a company that does its job as a product, and even gives us a value of "morality is more important than anything else here at Birigi".
Just like the sincerity we felt during our factory visit, there are no secrets in the Birigi factory, and it is an open and transparent mentality, as well as a gesture of communication and learning.
When I relive the journey of Birigi, there is a connotation of "tasting old wine with friends", as Mr. Ji Xianlin said in the book, "Time never speaks, but answers all questions; The years have never spoken, but they have witnessed all the sincerity", hoping to rediscover their own Birigi, to be able to shoulder responsibility and love, regain trust, and move forward confidently.