How powerful is a single letter? Oishi tells you

How powerful is a single letter?

Oishi (China) Co., Ltd. knows this better than anyone: if the matter is pursued strictly, the company may face "big trouble".

This is no joke.

In Zhengzhou, Henan Province, because the first letter of "Energy" in the "Nutrition Facts" table on its packaging was not written as the lowercase "energy", Li Peiming, Executive Vice President of Oishi, has suffered headaches for more than two years, and the trouble brought by this single letter has still not been resolved.

"Changing the packaging alone has added more than RMB 3 million in costs to the company," Li Peiming said. "The replacement of the rollers used for plate making alone costs more than RMB 1 million, not to mention the losses from scrapping the original packaging, removing products from the market, and the labor for replacement."

One letter brings a fine of RMB 39,000

In 2015, following a report by professional anti-fake complainants, an investigation by the Guancheng Branch of the Zhengzhou Administration for Industry and Commerce found that the first letter of "Energy" in the "Nutrition Facts" tables on the packaging of 13 Oishi products was capitalized as "E", which did not conform to the format for labels with foreign text under Appendix B.2.3 of GB28050-2011, and an administrative penalty of RMB 39,000 was therefore imposed.

Oishi did not accept the above administrative penalty and filed a lawsuit with the Zhongmou County Court of Zhengzhou on October 26, 2015; the case is still under trial.

Packaging change costs no less than RMB 3 million

"If the court upholds the penalty decision of the industry and commerce authorities, all Oishi products will be removed from shelves and destroyed nationwide, and together with the consequences of reports or direct lawsuits filed by professional anti-fake claimants across the country, this could very likely bring huge negative impact and losses to Oishi," Li Peiming said with concern. At present, on the "Nutrition Facts" tables on the packaging of dozens of product categories of the company, all English translations have been removed, leaving only Chinese labels — a choice made out of helplessness.

Li Peiming disclosed that changing the labels is painful for Oishi: first, it is a "major project", because Oishi has a great many product categories, and changing all the packaging takes time and effort and costs a lot. He told the reporter that this overall packaging change directly cost the company no less than RMB 3 million.

Second, as a Philippine-funded food enterprise, its packaging should originally carry both Chinese and English labels; now that the English translations have been removed, consumers will find it highly uncomfortable, and this has greatly affected the company's development and revenue.

According to current national food safety standards such as GB7718-2011 General Rules for the Labeling of Prepackaged Foods and GB13432-2013 General Rules for the Labeling of Prepackaged Foods for Special Dietary Uses, labeling issues are food safety issues. (Source: International Finance News, reporter Pan Jie)