Financial Alliance News|New Consumption Daily, November 19th (Researcher Liang Youyun), with the release of an official announcement by the Market Supervision Administration of Dongxihu District, wuhan, the widely discussed incident of "suspected false ingredients in bestore co.,ltd. products" finally has a preliminary result.

According to the official situation report, the bestore co.,ltd. "Osmanthus Fragrance Nut Lotus Root Powder," was reported and tested by the Anhui Provincial Quality Supervision Inspection Research Institute, and it showed that the batch products and raw materials involved did not contain cassava components outside of the ingredient list. Similarly, the sweet and sour powder also showed the sweet potato components on the ingredient list after testing by the Food and Salt Testing Technology Research Institute in Henan Province.

This means that the components found in bestore co.,ltd. Osmanthus Fragrance Nut Lotus Root Powder and sweet and sour powder are consistent with the ingredient list, and multiple claims made by the anti-counterfeiting blogger are unfounded. Whether it’s the claim that "lotus root powder contains cheap cassava powder" or "there is no powder in the powder cake," it seems to have become a farce.

On November 19th, at the opening, the stock price of bestore co.,ltd. welcomed a high opening and continued to rise after experiencing a turbulent decline for seven trading days. By the close, the stock price of bestore co.,ltd. had increased by 3.29% for the day, with a total market value of 4.916 billion yuan.

bestore co.,ltd.: Evidence has been secured and a lawsuit has been filed.

On the evening of November 18th, with the release of the official notice from the Market Administration Bureau, bestore co.,ltd. quickly issued a statement saying that after preliminary investigation, the relevant products in the company and producer's multiple batches sent for inspection this year have all met the indicators. The income of the relevant products for the period from January to September 2024 accounts for a small proportion of the company's revenue. The company has always placed a high priority on food safety issues, respects and protects consumer rights, and will also legally maintain the company's legitimate rights.

On the official weibo of bestore co.,ltd., they further explained the sequence of events. According to bestore co.,ltd., as of November 15th, the company and its producers and raw material suppliers have submitted a total of 12 and 13 inspection reports for the "Osmanthus Fragrance Nut Lotus Root Powder" (210 grams) and "sweet and sour powder" (138 grams) products respectively, including the raw material batches prior to the complaint in July (batches from March 10th, June 20th, and August 13th). The conclusions verified by professional testing institutions showed that the products qualified, and no cassava components were detected in the lotus root powder, while sweet potato components were detected in the sweet and sour powder.

At the same time, bestore co.,ltd. believes that the whistleblowers "Song Ge Da Hu" and "Bounty Hunter Hui Jin" along with three others broke into the bestore co.,ltd. headquarters office building to "fabricate claims for rights protection," and during the investigation by market regulatory authorities, they widely spread false information. Bestore co.,ltd. stated that this not only severely damaged its reputation and business but also subjected frontline employees to tremendous online violence, and impacted the livelihoods of tens of thousands of practitioners in the supply chain.

Bestore co.,ltd. stated that the rumors spread by two whistleblowers through videos, such as "there is no powder in the sour and spicy noodles," severely undermined consumer trust in the food industry, causing social panic and having an extremely adverse impact. Bestore co.,ltd. has collected and secured relevant evidence and will report to the public security authorities while also filing a lawsuit against the two individuals to hold them legally accountable.

As of now, bestore co.,ltd. has re-listed "Osmanthus Nut Lotus Powder (210 grams)" and "Sour and Spicy Noodles (138 grams/120 grams)." On the Tmall official flagship store, the product display page of lotus powder has added a statement confirming there are no quality issues, and in the past week, over 200 people have placed orders, with a historical cumulative sales exceeding 0.03 million copies. The sour and spicy noodles product saw over 100 purchases within 24 hours, with 374 repeat customers, totaling over 8000 units sold.

The anti-counterfeiting blogger refuses to accept it: continues to expose and publicly seeks clues.

The two bloggers who initiated the anti-counterfeiting action promptly released a response video after receiving the official reply announcement and the lawsuit notice from bestore co.,ltd. In the video, the two bloggers still expressed doubts regarding the submitted samples and details of the test reports.

According to the blogger "Song Ge Da Hu," the official announcement did not verify any relevant records of cassava purchases, entry into the factory, or production, which does not imply that it has actually not concealed any additions. Meanwhile, it did not clearly verify in the official announcement whether the product batches sent for testing by bestore co.,ltd. or the manufacturers were from before the reported products in July. The blogger "Hui Jin" also believes that the authorities should respond regarding the authenticity of the testing results submitted on site, otherwise it cannot persuade him.

In addition, the two bloggers proposed that after receiving the report, the verification process should not conclude solely based on the products and testing reports provided by manufacturers but should publicly solicit and purchase the suspected problematic batches for testing, comparing results from multiple sources to provide a final conclusion. Therefore, in the near future, they plan to send hundreds of retained samples for testing and call on laboratories that can detect product authenticity to contact them for participation in testing.

Two anti-counterfeiting bloggers have also called for consumers who still have related products from before July 1 of this year to contact them, as they will buy the product for testing.

In the video, the two bloggers stated that they are mentally prepared to face the possibility of being convicted of defaming companies and fabricating evidence, ultimately ending up in prison, but first they must confirm the truth of the incident.

On the afternoon of November 19, the two released another video detailing how they remotely purchased samples for testing and how the lotus powder products from the June batch were confirmed to contain cassava. According to "Song Ge Da Hu," through this method, they successfully reported adulteration of products from rural lifestyle blogger "Northeast Yu Jie" and the well-known lotus powder brand "Zhou's".

In that video, blogger "Ashes" further revealed that bestore co.,ltd.'s subcontractor, Anhui Yanzhi Fang Food Co., Ltd., proposed to give a reward after receiving his report and negotiated to withdraw the complaint and report.

On his personal account, "Ashes" stated in a video that he noticed in April this year that the subcontractor Yanzhi Fang was suspected of adulterating kudzu root powder with cassava powder, confirmed this through testing, and reported it to the local market supervision administration in June, successfully filing a case in July. After completing the report, the blogger found that the manufacturer's product batches after July had completed rectification and no longer tested positive for cassava powder adulteration. This became the core reason for the two who reported bestore co.,ltd. to persistently focus on product batches.

According to "Ashes," recordings of the call negotiations with the subcontractor regarding the receipt of reward money and the withdrawal of the report will be released soon. However, as of the time of writing, he has not disclosed new recording evidence of the latest revelations.

In addition, New Consumption Daily noticed that the two bloggers primarily responded to the reports of lotus powder products suspected of being adulterated with cassava powder after the official announcement was released, while they did not directly mention the results of tests on sweet potato flour pancakes, which were also certified by the officials as normal.