With the improvement of living standards and the enhancement of health awareness, consumers' requirements for the quality of milk powder are no longer limited to deliciousness and nutrition, but have also risen to the ultimate pursuit of targeted nutritional supplements for milk powder categories. Camel milk and its products are favored for being rich in nutrients such as high vitamin C, iron content and insulin-like factors. Camel milk powder using raw camel milk as the main raw material is known as the "gold in milk" and has become the new favorite of many middle-aged and elderly consumers. On February 8, 2026, the one-year buffer period of the "National Food Safety Standard Milk Powder and Modulated Milk Powder" (GB 19644-2024), known as the new national standard for milk powder, ended. In order to further understand the current situation of the camel milk market, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily conducted an early investigation of camel milk powder on the e-commerce platform and found that chaos still occurs frequently in the market despite the surge in demand, and the industry urgently needs to strengthen supervision.
The "fourth" number in the ingredient list
Original imported, drinkable desert "gold" exclusively for the Sheikh of Dubai…
On the eve of "March 15", a reporter from Beijing Business Daily searched for "camel milk powder" on an e-commerce platform. The various slogans were dazzling. The investigation found that an e-commerce platform was flooded with a large number of "wrong" camel milk powder, ranging from tens to hundreds of yuan.
In a store called "Tuobao Food Flagship Store", the best-selling "Selenium-rich Probiotic Camel Milk Nutritional Powder" is priced at 88 yuan/can for a 1kg can, and as low as 59 yuan/can for a 3-can pack. At present, the product has sold over 10,000 yuan online, ranking fourth on the best-selling list of camel milk powder. Also at the top of the list is another product in its store, "Calcium Probiotic Camel Milk Nutritional Powder", which has sold more than 30,000 orders.
On the packaging of the "Tuobao" product, there is a pattern of a Bactrian camel printed on it. At first glance, it looks like "Camel Milk Powder", but if you look closely at the small words next to it, you can see that the product category is "Sports Nutritional Food (Energy Supplement)". In the comment area, many consumers bought it as camel milk powder.
"Camel milk nutritional powder", what is the content of camel milk powder? A reporter from Beijing Business Daily learned that the first three ingredients in this product are whey powder, milk-containing base powder, and isomalto-oligosaccharide, and the fourth is full-fat camel milk powder.
According to the "National Food Safety Standard Milk Powder and Modulated Milk Powder" (GB 19644-2024), which was officially implemented on February 8, 2025, "raw cow (goat) milk" in the definition of raw materials was expanded to "raw milk". Milk powder produced by specialty dairy animals such as yak milk, camel milk, donkey milk, and horse milk is also included in the national standard system. It stipulates that the prepared milk powder must use a single variety of raw milk or dairy products as the main raw material, and other added raw materials must not contain other types of dairy products, and the milk solids content from the main raw materials should not be less than 70%. It is questionable whether the proportion of whole-fat camel milk powder in the ingredient list of the above-mentioned "Tuobao" product reaches the standard.
The store selling "Tuobao" calls itself the "Xinjiang Genuine Official Flagship Store." A Beijing Business Daily reporter opened the store's industrial and commercial qualifications and showed that its operator is "Guangzhou Debolai Biotechnology Co., Ltd." Tianyancha shows that the company was established in 2017 and is an enterprise mainly engaged in technology promotion and application services. In fact, a "Xinjiang Desert Tuobao Brand Management Co., Ltd." registered by the controller was canceled in 2025 after the company showed "abnormal operations."
A reporter from Beijing Business Daily also found that the phenomenon of "camel treasure" is not an isolated case and is more common in imported camel milk powder. For example, in the DNG overseas flagship store, a 430g can of "DHA probiotic selenium-enriched full-fat camel milk powder" claimed to be imported from the United States costs 131.94 yuan.
A Beijing Business Daily reporter asked the store’s customer service staff and learned that the main ingredient of the product is full-fat camel milk powder, accounting for 38%, followed by desalted whey powder and concentrated whey protein powder, accounting for 15% and 13% respectively. The above three main ingredients account for 66%. DNG customer service staff said, “Desalted whey powder and concentrated whey protein powder are extracted from milk.” According to the "National Food Safety Standard Milk Powder and Modulated Milk Powder" (GB 19644-2024), camel milk powder must use raw camel milk as a "single milk source" as the main raw material, and other added raw materials must not include other types of dairy products. However, the desalted whey powder and concentrated whey protein powder in the ingredient list of the above products come from cow milk, which is inconsistent with the national standard definition of "single milk source".
According to the official website of DNG (Deanjian), it was founded in Hong Kong, China and is committed to developing into a large-scale modern health brand integrating innovation and scientific research. DNG is a well-known brand in dietary nutritional supplements in the Asia-Pacific region. It has a series of products such as NMN, hirudin, ginsenoside, artemisinin, and human immunoglobulin. In other words, camel milk powder may not be DNG’s strongest area.
Regarding the above issues, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily sent an interview letter to DNG via email, but had not received a reply as of press time.
The universal "niche milk" in the live broadcast room
In recent years, "niche milk" represented by camel milk has become a hot item, with various slogans on various social platforms, e-commerce platforms, and live broadcast platforms, and many consumers have been deceived.
In March 2025, consumers complained about the camel milk of "Gu Zhanggui" on the Black Cat Complaint Platform. "Food is sold as health care products, and health care products are sold as medicines. The efficacy of the products is exaggerated, the ingredients of the products are unknown, and the prices are inflated, misleading consumers."
A reporter from Beijing Business Daily opened Gu Zhanggui's live broadcast room and found that it was suspected of having obvious propaganda effects. It used abbreviations such as "sugar", "pressure" and "fat", and words such as "free of effort" and "insomnia", implying that it is suitable for people with "three highs" and "low immunity". Some products sold in the live broadcast room exceeded 100,000 pieces.
Shopkeeper Gu claimed that “camel milk products have ranked first in sales for three consecutive years,” but a reporter from Beijing Business Daily opened the store’s industrial and commercial qualifications and showed that its company name is “Zhengzhou Tutuge Food Co., Ltd.” Tianyancha shows that the company was established in 2026.
Public information shows that camel milk powder is a dairy product made from camel milk. It is rich in high-quality protein, calcium, iron and a variety of active ingredients, which helps enhance immunity. It also contains unique lactoferrin and lysozyme. Its nutritional value is higher than ordinary milk powder, and it is known as the "gold in milk."
Regarding the claim that camel milk powder can cure the "three highs", Zhong Kai, director of the Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center, believes that camel milk powder only has high content of some ingredients, is easy to absorb, and has no special nutrients.
A senior nutrition industry expert also told a Beijing Business Daily reporter, "The ingredients of camel milk powder will have a lower lactose content, which is more suitable for people who are lactose intolerant and need to control sugar. In addition, its fats are mostly unsaturated fatty acids, which are relatively healthy. But it is just that these nutrients are more suitable for (the above-mentioned people), not that it can be treated."
Some research reports also warn about the consumption of camel milk powder. High protein intake may increase the burden on the kidneys and cause gastrointestinal discomfort such as bloating and diarrhea. In addition, people allergic to camel milk should not consume it.
Low price that cannot withstand scrutiny
As the country strengthens supervision of milk powder and prepared milk powder, the implementation of old national standards such as "GB 19640", the camel milk content in ingredients is less than 70%, or the inclusion of whey protein powder/oat powder as the main ingredient has become a typical camel milk powder marketing chaos. Under the clear requirements of the new national standard, some businesses still choose to take risks.
"Due to the low yield of camel milk, it is almost an open secret in the industry to mix camel milk ingredients with cow milk ingredients, or add whey powder, milk-containing base powder, etc. to pass it off as pure camel milk powder." A Yuan (pseudonym), an industry insider with eight years of experience, hit the nail on the head. There are two types of camel milk powder, one is pure camel milk powder or raw camel milk powder, which means that the ingredient list is 100% organic raw camel milk without adding any other substances, so you can basically buy it with confidence; the other is formula camel milk powder, also called modulated camel milk powder, which is the easiest to confuse.
Song Liang, a senior dairy industry analyst, told a Beijing Business Daily reporter, "In recent years, the camel milk market has been very chaotic and full of fake and shoddy products. Unscrupulous traders use various methods to sell inferior camel milk powder."
In 2022, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations counted that there were about 20 million camels in the world, producing only 5.4 million tons of milk every year, most of which was consumed by young camels. In China, camels are mainly free-range or semi-free-range. The breeding cycle is long, and the market demand is far greater than the number that breeding ranches can supply. The annual and quarterly product sales, amounts and growth rates promoted by some dairy companies are seriously inconsistent with the scale and output of breeding.
Taking domestic adult milk powder as an example, the price of 800g is 70-80 yuan/can, while the price of imported adult milk powder is 100-160 yuan/can. In contrast, Original Gold, which is known as "the number one in camel milk sales in the country", sells a 330g prepared camel milk powder for as high as 338 yuan per can. Camel milk powder costing tens of yuan often comes with consumption traps.
Song Liang did some calculations for a Beijing Business Daily reporter: The cost of camel milk powder includes raw material fees, processing fees, packaging fees, transportation fees, etc. Under normal circumstances, 8kg of fresh camel milk can produce 1kg of camel milk powder. Based on the average price of 1kg of fresh camel milk in 2024 (summer production is high and the price is low, winter production is low and the price is high), the cost of 1kg of camel milk powder is about 304 yuan. The processing fee for camel milk powder is about 6,000-8,000 yuan/ton. Including packaging, transportation and other costs, the cost of a 330g can of camel milk powder is 150-200 yuan.
Another milk powder practitioner also calculated that a 330g can of prepared camel milk powder may cost tens of yuan based on 30% full-fat camel milk powder.
Tu Panyue, a lawyer at Shanghai Guangming (Hefei) Law Firm, said that camel milk powder is essentially an ordinary nutritional dairy product. Its nutritional content can only provide dietary supplements for specific groups of people. It has no role in disease prevention, improvement, or treatment, and cannot be equated to health products or medicines. There is currently no authoritative medical data proving that its nutritional value is significantly different from that of cow or goat milk. Therefore, we should be cautious as to whether it contains ingredients suitable for special groups such as the third-highest level.
Tu Panyue said that according to relevant laws and regulations such as the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China, the Regulations for the Implementation of the Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China, ordinary foods (including prepared camel milk powder) that have not obtained the "Blue Hat" certification of health food must not claim or imply that they have health care functions, let alone disease prevention and treatment effects, nor may they express or imply that the product has disease-improving effects through expressions such as "suitable for people with three highs", "improving osteoporosis", "regulating the spleen and stomach", etc. This is an obvious act of advertising and false propaganda. At the same time, some products confuse the concepts of "modulated camel milk powder" and "pure camel milk powder", exaggerate the ingredient content, fabricate nutritional benefits, and even pass other milk powder as camel milk powder and falsely label the content. This is not only suspected of false propaganda, but also involves product quality fraud, seriously infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
Tu Panyue believes that whether it is traditional cow milk powder or camel milk powder, the core value is to supplement daily nutrition, rather than to be a "magic medicine". The root cause of some market chaos is that some businesses take advantage of consumers' health anxiety to carry out illegal propaganda, which must be strictly supervised. For ordinary consumers, they need to look for the new national standards when purchasing and make rational purchases.
"Before the country issued relevant standards, the chaos in the industry was even more serious. Now, although there are standards, the intensity of supervision is still limited, resulting in frequent chaos. With the continued attention and supervision of all parties, it may accelerate the development of the entire industry towards standardization, specialization, and branding." said Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in China's food industry.
