Many consumers often compare imported milk powder with domestic milk powder. They think imported milk powder must be better than domestic milk powder. Is that true? What are the differences between imported milk powder and domestic milk powder?
The contrast between Domestic Milk Powder and Imported Milk Powder
1. Comparisons of Milk Sources
One of the selling points of milk powder is the source of milk, the milk powder whose source in the golden milk source belt is better sold than the milk which source is ordinary. The best milk source in the world comes from the golden milk source. As the name implies, the golden milk source is the best pasture concentration area in the world. It is concentrated in the temperate grassland of about 40-50 degrees north-south latitude. The grassland in this area is surrounded by temperate climate all year-round and is internationally recognized as a high-quality dairy cattle breeding belt. Ireland, the Netherlands, Normandy, Germany, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang and so on are the representatives of gold milk sources in the Northern Hemisphere, while Australia and New Zealand are the representatives of the famous gold milk sources in the Southern Hemisphere.
From imported milk powder, most of the milk sources are concentrated in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the Netherlands, and other places. The best-selling imported milk powder sources are in the high-quality pasture of the gold milk source. The pasture is advanced, most of which are large-scale feeding and mechanized management.
The source of domestic milk powder mainly concentrated in Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia grassland, Xinjiang and other places. The domestic dairy cow is not suitable for making milk powder, and imported foreign high-quality dairy Angus cattle for production. Since the melamine incident, domestic dairy sources have been renovated. Every dairy enterprise also pays more attention to the quality of milk sources, and the government is more strict on the detection of milk sources. So from milk sources, there are also high-quality milk sources in China, and milk source bases are equally safe.
2. Nutrition formula comparison
Of all the 1177 registered milk powder formulas, only about one third belongs to imported brands. Is the imported milk powder more advantageous than domestic milk powder in the nutritional formula?
Because each country in the world has different nutritional standards for milk powder due to geographical and environmental factors. For example, the diet of Europeans is mainly steak, cheese and so on. They have sufficient calcium, iron and zinc content. Therefore, the matching of trace elements in European formula milk powder is far from enough compared with Chinese standards. In the United States, iron supplementation is very important, so according to Chinese standards, the iron content of American milk powder is generally high.
The above standards are mainly aimed at milk powder purchased on behalf of overseas purchases, but if the Foreign Milk Powder Enterprises want to enter the Chinese market, they can only meet the Chinese standards by modifying the formula. The commonly used Chinese promotional words such as "imported milk source" and "original import" in the market. Those are the Foreign Milk Powder which has passed the Chinese milk registration standards. So as long as the choice of imported milk powder is not very different from domestic milk powder in formula, milk nutritional facts of domestic milk powder are richer than claim imported milk powder.
3. Processing technology and equipment
For the processing methods of milk powder, there are three kinds of milk powder production processes: wet process, dry process, and dry-wet mixing process. The imported milk powder, because farm-fresh milk is used as raw material, production equipment of the milk company is more advanced, milk powder production is large-scale production and other factors, imported milk powder is mostly produced by the wet process. The wet process is mainly used in the developed countries of the dairy industry because of its high requirements for technology and equipment.
The milk powder produced by the three processing methods conforms to the formula standard of infant formula in China. In reality, in addition to some top brands, most of Chinese domestic milk powder enterprises use a dry process, and many small enterprises are still using the dry process. The main reason is not only limited to milk sources, but also because the dry process is more convenient than the wet process and can adapt to the regulation more quickly, and the cost is lower than the strict wet process. Although the process is different, the final milk powder is in line with the national infant formula standards.
4. Price
One of the reasons why many people buy imported milk powder is that imported milk powder is cheaper than domestic milk powder. Imported milk powder, because of its large scale in dairy cattle breeding, low feeding costs, and automatic production of milk powder production, so the pricing of milk is lower. Domestic milk powder is still in the stage of manual management from pasture management, so the cost of investment is higher. Naturally, domestic milk powder is more expensive than imported milk powder.
In summary, there is not much difference between domestic milk powder and imported milk powder in essence. As long as parents purchase milk powder through regular channels, they are all milk powder of safe quality. When choosing milk powder for babies, parents should also be rational and make reasonable choices according to their baby's situation, instead of being attracted by the marketing methods of milk powder. Whether imported milk powder or domestic milk powder, milk powder should be more suitable for the development of babies.
