The franchise retailer HotMaxx offers snacks at bargain-basement prices, asking shoppers to pay 30 percent to 50 percent of the market price to enjoy big-brand food.[Photo provided to China Daily]
One night in February Liao Wenyu went on a shopping spree.
The 26-year-old from Beijing placed a dozen of orders on a livestreaming channel on Alibaba's e-commerce platform Taobao.
"Rather than splurging, I'm saving money by buying stuff at a bargain price,"Liao says.
One of her favorite livestreamers was hosting a special sale of near-expired items, all of whose prices were at least two thirds off.
Apparently, to Liao those items looked cheap and cheerful.
She bought imported fruit jams, hair products, tea and nutrition drinks and wine for both herself and her parents staying in her hometown in Jiangxi province.
"Most of these goods are just halfway over their shelf life, and the rest has at least three months left," Liao says.
"It's long enough for me to make good use of them."
Liao is among the expanding regiment of bargain hunters.
"I used to joke about my mother, whose favorite thing is to go to the supermarket and snatch up the discounted bread and milk that is about to reach its use-by date," she says.
"But when things are to my taste, it turns out I'm not that different."
Liao says the online channel from which she bought her goods deemed products halfway through their shelf life to be near-expired items.
On Douban, one of the country's most popular online review aggregators, a group using the hashtag "I love near-expired food" founded 18 months ago now has more than 90,000 members.
About 2.1 million people have dug into their pockets to buy near-expired food on the e-commerce platform Taobao, according to a report published in April 2021 by Taobao and the science portal website of China Science Communication.
Those products usually still have 20-50 percent of their shelf life left and their taste is uncompromised, which means they sell well.
The boom in expiring food retailing is partly a result of an increase in the country's food production capacity and a huge inventory backlog.[Photo by Yan Daming/For China Daily]
Potato chips, instant noodles, drinks and biscuits topped the shopping list of bargaining hunters, the report said.
The data analysis agency iiMedia Research conducted a survey last year among Chinese consumers, according to which 80 percent of them had bought food approaching its expiry date.
Young people who like high-quality consumption but cannot afford it have become the main sales targets for expiring food, the agency says.
About 91 percent of internet users who responded to the survey said they believed that buying near-expired food helps protect the environment.
More than half said they had bought such goods because of the allure of big discounts, and more than 40 percent said they made the choice to help reduce food waste. More than 30 percent said they made such purchases to cut living expenses, iiMedia Research says.
On one hand, the purchase of near-expired food could help reduce the pressure of overstocked inventory on manufacturers, which reflects the rise of consumers' awareness of environmental protection, the agency says.
On the other hand, buying those cost-effective goods shows rational consumption and anti-consumerism among the modern Chinese shoppers, it says.
The market consultancy iResearch says the total output value of China's snack food industry exceeded 3 trillion yuan ($464 billion) in 2020.
Even if only 1 percent was regarded as overstock, the size of the market for near-expired food would exceed 30 billion yuan.
The market potential has drawn in capital investment and new players.
A total of 20 companies dealing in such foodstuffs were registered in the country in the first half of last year, an 82 percent increase from the same period of the previous year, iiMedia Research says.
By last year 94 businesses were dealing specifically in nearly expired food.
Such sellers can be found on e-commerce platforms including Taobao, Suning and JD.com, as well as social e-commerce channels such as WeChat Group and Mini Programs.
There are also specialty stores for these foods.
The franchise retailer HotMaxx offers snacks at bargain-basement prices, asking shoppers to pay 30 percent to 50 percent of the market price to enjoy big-brand food.
It has opened more than 200 outlets in China, including more than 60 now operating in Beijing, most sitting amid office buildings and business areas downtown, as shown by Dianping, the Chinese version of Yelp.
Many supermarkets have special stalls for near-expired items, all of which are priced at 50-70 percent off.[Photo by Yan Daming/For China Daily]
Another near-expired goods provider, Shihuibang, founded in Tianjin, completed an angel round of funding of tens of millions of yuan in March last year. The Nanjing-based Little Elephant Life, which mainly sells expiring goods, completed a 10 million yuan angel round of funding the following month.
The boom in expiring food retailing is partly a result of an increase in the country's food production capacity and a huge inventory backlog, says Zhang Yi, chief executive and chief analyst of iiMedia Research.
Expiring food has a big market, but it used to be mostly hidden in the corners of large supermarkets, Zhang says.
Goods were overstocked at producers in the wake of the pandemic, and vendors snapped them up cheaply.
The trend has also been seen in the light of the country's adoption of an anti-food waste law a little more than a year ago.
Chinese cities waste about 18 billion kilograms of food every year, a report from a research team from the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress said in December 2020.
The law calls on supermarkets and shopping malls to strengthen food inspections and display near-expired items with special marks.
Experts say how to strengthen the supervision of near-expired goods, ensure food safety and promote standardized operations will be the key to the sustainable development of the niche market.
"It's important to be clear about the meaning of shelf life when discussing near-expired food," says Ruan Guangfeng, an expert with the China Food Information Center.
Shelf life is related to storage and package conditions, Ruan says.
Consumers need to store food as required, including those in refrigerators or places out of the sun.
"Near-expired food can be enjoyed, rest assured, in standard storage conditions and intact package, otherwise, they might go bad within the shelf life," Ruan says.
Ruan suggests consumers make appropriate arrangements to use goods before they reach their use-by date and business people take stock of their inventory regularly to clear or put those near-expired goods on sales in time.
Gao Bowen, a food-testing expert, cautioned shoppers to make rational purchases and not to stock too much that may lead to some goods eventually becoming expired.
"It is ideal to make certain how much you can consume, and multiple small purchases are recommended."
Gao suggests consumers shop at well-known and big-scale retailers, which are more likely to offer quality goods.
Grease-rich goods, such as biscuits, potato chips and nuts will lose any good taste they have if they are stored badly, he says.
Many supermarkets have special stalls for near-expired items, all of which are priced at 50-70 percent off.
Liao approves this approach and says business owners should fulfill their obligations to inform shoppers.
"To buy, or not to buy, it's completely up to you."
