Laundry Detergent Market Chaos: Lack of Active Substances
- Chaileedo Press
- Sep 16, 2022
- 5 min read
Why does the“Low price, low quality, low dirt removing detergent” still can be sold under strict regulations?
Recently, the Chinese Consumers’ Association (CCA) announced the results of a comparative test of 31 laundry detergent products, after testing, three products with insufficient active substances and poor detergency.
Laundry detergent was found to be "Not Qualified" and has been a common occurrence. Only this year, there are laundry detergent sampling failure events in Zhejiang, Shandong, Hainan, and other provinces, and a high number of laundry detergent brands.
Why do laundry detergents have poor performance so often?
Insufficient active substances, washing detergent doesn't wash clean
The information on the official website of the CCA shows that in order to know the stain removal capability of different laundry detergent products sold in the market, in the first half of this year, the CCA staff purchased 31 laundry detergent samples from some Internet platforms and online stores (involving 29 brands, except for "Kao Antibacterial EX Laundry Detergent" samples marked with the origin of Japan, the others are made in China ), commissioned the Beijing Institute of Product Quality Supervision and Inspection to complete a comparative test of the product test.
It is reported that the comparative test is based on GB/T 13174-2021 "Determination of detergency and cycle of washing property for laundry detergents", the detergency value is the contrast value with the standard laundry detergent in the standard, the standard stained cloth is for the standard provisions of the stained cloth.
The test results show that among the 31 samples, three samples have a total active substance content of less than 2%, and each detergency is obviously poor. And the unit price of the product is very low, combined with its stain removal power test results, they are low-cost low-quality products.
According to the industry standard QB/T 1224-2012 "Liquid Detergent for fabric", the overall active substances content of ordinary laundry detergent products needs to be greater than 15% to meet the qualified standard. At the same time, it is also required that the detergency index of three specified stained cloths (charcoal black stained cloth, protein stained cloth, and sebum stained cloth) is better than the standard laundry detergent to be qualified. The above-mentioned three products have an active substance content of less than 2%, and the standard provisions are far from 15%.
The CCA said that the total active substance content in detergent is directly related to the detergency, which can also reflect the cost and quality level. Generally speaking, the higher the total active ingredient content of detergents, the better the detergency effect, and the price is relatively high.
Low quality, low price, chaos abounds
According to Frost & Sullivan’s statistical research data, from 2015-2019, the total retail sales of the Chinese laundry detergent market continued to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13.1%. It is estimated that from 2020-2024, China's laundry detergent industry will still maintain a high growth rate of 13.6% CAGR, and by 2024, the national laundry detergent industry market size will exceed 50 billion yuan ($7.182 billion).
While the huge market brings opportunities, it is also accompanied by the need for restraint and rectification of "chaos".
The low level of active substances has been a persistent problem in laundry detergent sampling. For example, in 2018, 2019, and 2020 three national product quality sampling, some laundry detergents also have low total active substance content.
Then again, the Zhejiang Administration for Market Regulation announced on May 30 this year, recalling 110,000 bottles of laundry detergent produced by Zhejiang Nanpeng Daily Products Co., Ltd. due to insufficient active substances and poor detergency when used by consumers.
Laundry detergent with poor detergency often has a low price, and the 3 products named by the CCA are examples. Meanwhile, CHAILEED, through major e-commerce, and live streaming platforms, noted that there are many brands in the laundry detergent market today, and filled with a large number of low-cost products. On many e-commerce platforms, many laundry detergent products are as low as 1-2 yuan/kg ($0.29-0.57/kg).
Several industry sources told CHAILEEDO that in the current laundry detergent market, many small enterprises pursue sales without a bottom line and produce numerous low and poor-quality products, especially on e-commerce platforms, where some low-priced products cut corners to gain greater profits by compressing costs.
Key account manager Chen Tao from Fenhao Fragrance & Flavor House said bluntly, "many consumers can not specifically identify the product is good or bad, low-priced unqualified products is a deception of consumers. In addition, due to the low price, the effective active substances are reduced, and the detergency is definitely failed."
According to Li Xiangting, founder of laundry detergent brand Yipinjing, the concentration of new retail platforms online has provided laundry detergent manufacturers with a more convenient circulation and sales channel. "But the pursuit of only low prices to attract traffic and thus achieve the ultimate traffic cash disrupts the normal market order and price system, causing consumers to be unable to judge the merits of goods in terms of their selling prices."
National standards need to be established
In the view of many industry professionals, the phenomenon of low-quality inferior laundry detergent is serious, the main reason behind this is that the production standards for such products are not rigid and do not need to be filed.
CHAILEEDO learned that the above-mentioned national standard GB/T 13174-2021, as well as the industry standard QB/T 1224-2012, are not mandatory and belong to the recommended standards.
Some industry sources said that many laundry detergents today mostly use corporate standards, and there are no mandatory requirements, which has led to some laundry detergents and laundry beads manufacturers’ developing of corporate standards set lower active substances and detergency standards.
CHAILEEDO noted that in the sample test of the CCA, the implementation of the industry's recommended standard QB/T 1224 products accounted for 48%, and the implementation of corporate standards accounted for 52% of the products.
In this regard, the CCA said that there is no mandatory national standard for laundry detergent products, certain companies in the development of corporate standards to reduce the total active substance content and the requirements of the detergency, which has become the reason for the uneven detergency performance of the laundry detergent purchased by consumers on the market.
In response to the current laundry detergent market chaos, Chen Tao suggested that "China Cleaning Industry Association(CCIA) and the state can come up with a regulatory standard threshold, and active substances below a certain index are considered shoddy goods because such products are seriously harmful to environmental pollution."
Li Xiangting said, "the production of low-quality laundry detergent products are basically small and workshop-type enterprises. Such enterprises do not pay taxes, do not have social security, and do not have quality control costs, and may not even have raw materials and packaging inventory."
It is worth mentioning that the laundry detergent market chaos has long attracted the attention of the relevant departments. For low-quality laundry detergent, in August last year, the CCIA issued an initiative to resist the production and sale of low-quality detergent products, saying that there are numerous low-quality, low-priced, and shoddy laundry detergent and laundry gel beads on the market, It should resolutely stop and combat the market chaos and put forward five initiatives for enterprises across the industry.
The current laundry detergent market chaos is caused by a variety of factors. Remediation of the market is long-term and complex, only when the regulatory authorities, manufacturers, and consumers are aware of the phenomenon and action, the chaos can gradually be cracked.
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