Elderly nutrition OEM

The core essence of elderly nutrition OEM is that it is a factory with professional nutrition research and development capabilities and food production compliance qualifications. It provides customized nutritional food/meal plan production services that adapt to the physiological characteristics, chronic disease conditions, and dietary habits of the elderly for B-end customers such as elderly care institutions, elderly consumer brands, and community service platforms. The core difference from ordinary food OEM is that all formulas and processes are designed around the "personalized nutritional absorption needs of the elderly." It is by no means an OEM business that replaces ordinary food with "elderly-specific" packaging.

Last week I had a meal with the purchasing director of a chain of elderly care institutions in Shanghai. He said that the biggest pitfall he had encountered in the past two years was to find an ordinary meal replacement factory to make nutritional porridge for the elderly. After half a month of drinking it, seven elderly people developed constipation. When they were sent for testing, they found that the dietary fiber added in the formula did not take into account the gastrointestinal tolerance of the elderly and was higher than that for young people. This is a typical problem of not finding the right professional nutritional porridge for the elderly.

What’s interesting is that domestic factories that produce nutrition for the elderly are naturally divided into two groups, and no one can convince the other. One group came from the special medical food track, and is called the "hard-parameter group" in our circle. The first step in making formulas is to meet national standards. For example, food for diabetic elderly people must pass a GI value test, and the GI must be lower than 55. Protein powder for elderly people recovering from surgery must have a short peptide content of not less than 60%, and animal experiments must be conducted to measure the protein absorption rate. There is a factory in Xiaoshan, Hangzhou that has been manufacturing special medicines for 8 years. The rules for accepting orders from the elderly are that each formula must be tried on 30 elderly volunteers over 65 years old for 14 days, and fasting blood sugar and adverse digestive reaction rates are measured. If the formula is not qualified, it will be returned directly. The products are indeed highly adaptable, but the price quoted is 20%-40% more expensive than ordinary OEMs. They are generally contacted by hospitals and high-end nursing institutions for orders. The other group is the factory that has been making traditional elderly food for more than ten years. Most of them are in Fujian and Guangdong. They belong to the "palatable first group". What they say is "no matter how good the formula is, if the elderly don't eat it, it means nothing." I have been to a factory in Quanzhou. Their R&D room is full of feedback forms from elderly people who have tasted it. For the same multigrain powder, 8 levels of sweetness need to be adjusted. Repeated trials with xylitol and maltitol are required, and the particles must be ground to more than 120 mesh. There is no residue when it is washed out, and the elderly who have lost all their teeth can also swallow it directly. Most customers who buy community group purchases and mass consumer goods for the elderly come to them. They are cost-effective and widely accepted.

To be honest, there is no absolute good or bad between the two factions. It depends on the customer's demand scenario. Last year, a brand in Guangzhou came to us to provide community services for the elderly. It had a limited budget. It not only had to cover the daily meal replacement needs of ordinary elderly people, but also take care of more than 200 diabetic elderly people in the community. We came up with a combination plan for them: the basic oatmeal meal replacement powder was made by the Shikopai factory in Fujian. It was slightly sweet and priced at 9.9 yuan/bag. The repurchase rate can reach 35%. ； In addition, we separately found a special medical OEM factory in Hangzhou to make a low-GI customized model, which is only sold to the elderly with chronic disease needs. The profit is three times higher than the basic model. The entire project ran for half a year, and the overall profit was nearly double what they had previously done with a single factory.

Many customers who have just entered the elderly nutrition track think that OEM is just to find a random factory to put a brand on it. This can really lead to trouble. Last year, an Internet celebrity food brand for the elderly found a small factory without special medical qualifications to make "sugar-free nutritional powder". In fact, a large amount of maltodextrin was added. Several family members of diabetic elderly people complained to the Municipal Supervision Bureau. Not only did they pay hundreds of thousands in compensation, but the brand was ruined. Here is a hard standard: when looking for an elderly nutrition OEM factory, SC qualification is the most basic bottom line. To make special medical and special dietary products, the factory must have corresponding production qualifications and be able to issue third-party nutritional content testing reports. Don’t listen to the sales hype, first check the qualifications and then give samples to the elderly around you. It is more reliable than anything else.

Let me tell you an interesting little thing. Last month, I brought home some soft cookies for the elderly sent by the factory. My mother is 72 and has bad teeth. She usually soaks hard cookies in milk. That day she picked them up and gnawed two pieces. She said, "It's not sweet, it doesn't hurt your teeth, and it's quite fragrant." I told the factory salesperson at that time, you don’t need to show me those fancy test reports. Give it to the elderly at home first. If the elderly are willing to eat it, then it will be qualified senior food.

Orders for elderly nutrition OEMs have increased very rapidly in the past two years. The volume of orders we received last year more than doubled compared to 2021. However, the entire industry has not yet reached the stage of complete standardization. There is no so-called "best OEM". The one that suits your customer group is the best. After all, in the elderly nutrition industry, the final battle is not the concept, but whether the things you make can make the elderly eat comfortably and healthily.