【Epoch Times December 22, 2025 Report】On December 20, the Southern Black Sesame Group Co., Ltd. (Southern Black Sesame Paste) stated that the black sesame paste it produces contains 18.5%, fully meeting national standards. However, the formula for "Southern Black Sesame Paste" has sparked controversy among netizens. According to a Jingshi Live report, on December 17, a netizen posted that the ingredient list on the packaging of Southern Black Sesame Paste listed cereal coarse grain flour as the first ingredient, followed by edible glucose and maltodextrin, with black sesame ranking only fourth. The netizen joked: This product has a higher content of coarse grain flour and sugar than black sesame; it should be renamed "Southern Rice Paste." On December 20, a company representative responded to the 21st Century Economic Report, a mainland media outlet, stating that the netizen's post showed the old packaging of the product. In the new packaging, cereal coarse grain flour is the first ingredient, with black sesame ranking second. The 600g package of black sesame paste contains 18.5% black sesame, fully meeting the relevant national standards. After this news was released, it attracted a lot of attention from netizens, with over a thousand comments posted on Tencent. Many netizens complained that the proportion of black sesame was too low. "Feng Qingyang" said: "Black sesame content of 18.5% meets the national standard, do you think this standard is reasonable?" Some netizens said that as long as there is sesame in it, it's fine. This topic also stirred up many netizens' memories of eating sesame paste when they were children. "I'm here" said: "The black sesame paste from when I was a child was truly fragrant, now it's hard to describe, it just barely meets the national standard. The national standard is the lowest standard, the country should raise the food safety standards. Now companies have no conscience, they say it meets the national standard even when problems are found. Hurry up and raise the food quality standards, oh." Tencent user_6dvt37 also said: "The taste from when I was a child is long gone. I remember it was thick with the fragrance of sesame, now it's all sweet and technological flavors." "Fu Man Yi Sheng" said: "Before, I felt a strong sesame fragrance when drinking it, but a few years ago it was just clear soup with little water, and then I didn't want to drink it anymore." Public records show that the "Quality Standards for Black Sesame Paste" was jointly issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Standardization Administration of the People's Republic of China on July 24, 2024, as a recommended national standard, which came into effect on August 1, 2025. Editor-in-charge: Liu Yi#