We analyzed 33,844 SPU items that are both medicinal and edible, as well as 14,038 consumer reviews. We discovered a disturbing fact that has caused concern throughout the industry: 

01

The brands are desperately "adding ingredients", but consumers are voting with their feet for "food". 

After purchasing health-promoting food and medicine products, 86% of consumers did not mention any health benefits. Instead, they talked about taste (48.2%), texture (15.2%), and convenience (13.0%). Among the reasons for repurchasing, "it's delicious and I want to eat it again" was 2.1 times more common than "it helps maintain health over time". 

This is not an isolated phenomenon. This is an ongoing and irreversible shift in consumer mentality. 

02

The Balance of Food and Medicine:

An Equation Explaining the Rise and Fall of All Categories 

We have named this phenomenon as "the food-medicine balance". 

On the left side of the scale is "medicine" - its ingredients, effects, and concepts. It generates a price premium of 1.4 to 2.6 times, but it cannot drive repeat purchases. On the right side is "food" - its taste, form, and context. It drives 2.1 times the repeat purchases compared to the medicine side, but limits the premium. 

The commercial success of food and medicine sharing the same origin = Pharmaceutical innovation premium × Food innovation repeat purchase. 

The more crucial discovery is: 

There is an "unbreakable ceiling" in the drug market - when the drug concentration exceeds 4 to 5, the repeat purchase rate drops sharply from the peak of 23.9% to 15.4%. 

The sales volume has no upper limit at all - the median sales figure has steadily increased from 18 units to 98 units, with no turning point. 

What does this mean? 90% of the brands are increasing their efforts in the wrong direction. 

03

Growth rate difference of 180%:

Choosing the right path is more important than making a good product. 

The phrase "food and medicine share the same origin" when applied to different product categories yields vastly different commercial values. 

The growth rate of snack foods has soared by as much as +180% - while the overall category has seen almost no growth (+1%), the products derived from both food and medicine have skyrocketed by +181%. 

The growth rate difference in Chinese-style maintenance is only +7%, while SPU has shrunk by 47%. The concept dividend has already been exhausted. 

Meanwhile, the share of the secondary categories within the three major categories is undergoing a structural revolution: 

Among snack foods, the sales share of traditional pastries has soared from 16% in 2023 to 50% in 2025, overtaking biscuit and puffed snacks (73% → 41%) to become the largest secondary category. 

In the process of beverage preparation, the proportion of packaged beverages increased from 17% to 24%, thereby reducing the share of ready-to-drink beverages (78% → 66%). 

In the category of grain and oil quick meals, convenience meals have risen from 5% to 27% and have replaced dried food (83% → 22%) to become the new growth point. 

The common logic is only one: consumers want healthier, more convenient and more standardized food and medicine products derived from the same source. 

04

The dosage is the life-and-death line:

The dosage of the best-selling products is almost the same as that of the slow-moving ones. 

This is the most counterintuitive finding of the entire report. 

After we sorted out 5,716 products that are both medicinal and edible, we classified them according to their medicinal and edible concentrations. 

By conducting a "full-dimensional scan" of the top 30 best-selling SPU products and the bottom 20 underperforming products in terms of sales in 2025, we found that: the median drug concentration of the best-selling products was 3, while that of the underperforming ones was 4 - there was almost no difference. However, for food concentrations: the best-selling ones were 4, while the underperforming ones were 2. 

A difference of two levels in food concentration = a difference in fate. 

The handmade茯苓糕 by Tao Dajun is the best evidence. The medicinal concentration is 6.4 (which is actually not low， with a large number of ingredients and concepts included in the name)， but the consumer efficacy perception is only 5%. The factor driving repeat purchases is the 87% positive rating and the 42% food-driven factor - consumers repeatedly purchase the Baozhen Cake as a "delicious snack"， and the concept of "food and medicine being the same" is merely "psychological comfort". 

05

46% of the SPU are making the same mistake. 

46% of the food and medicine equivalents of SPU products have no independent food selling points. Their names are filled with ingredients and effects, but not a single word is left for "delicious", "convenient", or "zero sugar". 

The median sales volume of these SPU items is 24 units. The SPU items with food selling points have a sales volume of 44 units. The difference is 45%. 

What is the cost of the repair? It can be considered negligible. 

This is the single action with the lowest cost, the highest return, and it can be carried out right now. 

06

The correct sequence is: scene → carrier → component → pricing 

90% of the new entrants got the sequence wrong. 

They started from the premise of "what ingredients do I have" - I have the supply chain for coix seeds, so I made a coix seed powder, added the function of nourishing the stomach, and priced it at 98 yuan. They then placed an advertisement in the breakfast segment. However, consumers didn't buy it. 

The correct approach is to work backward from the demand side: In what scenarios do consumers consume snacks? Which form of carrier is the most suitable? Pastries. What ingredients are suitable for pastries? Poria cocos. Where should the balance be set? Medication 4 to 5, food 4 or more. What price should it be set at? 25 to 35 yuan. 

This path has been verified by Tao Daxiaobin - with a positive review rate of 81% and a repeat purchase rate of 37%. 

Final 

The penetration rate of "food and medicine sharing the same origin" in the 6 major primary categories is less than 0.1%, with extremely high ceilings, but the window period is only 1 to 2 years - Tao Dajiaozhu's form innovation has been followed up by Mr. Yang, while the traffic benefits of Aege and Longzao may disappear at any time.