Wang was seeking funding and partners to examine whether warm-storage milk undergoes nutritional degradation as it sits on the shelf.

For some time, the Chinese milk industry had been divided into two camps—warm-storage milk producers led by Mengniu and Yili, and pasteurized milk producers led by Bright Dairy and Sanyuan.

Known as a "big cannon" in the industry, Wang has been a steadfast supporter of pasteurized milk since 2003, when he exposed certain milk producers for marketing reconstituted powdered milk as fresh milk.

Mission Uncomplete
Wang said that the research would begin the moment he found funding, adding that he had already been in touch with Sun Yat-sen University and the Guangzhou Administration for Export Commodity Inspection, hoping to entrust the research to the two.

"In theory, if properly stored, warm-storage milk doesn't go bad within its shelf life. But whether or not there's nutritional degradation remains unknown,” Wang said.

The shelf life of warm-storage milk has varied from three to eight or nine months. However, Wang said foreign research has showed a 30% to 40% nutritional loss eight or nine months after the production date, and that the protein in the milk began denaturing after four months. In China, assessments of the milk's nutrition, especially during the end of its shelf life, had yet to be carried out, he added.

Wang said the idea for research came to him three years ago. At that time, he said, the government banned "fresh milk" labels and mandated that all milk produced for students be of the warm-storage kind.

On August 1, 2004, the National Food Industry Standardization Technology Commission issued a series of guidelines on food labeling, requiring that any milk that had undergone processing (either heat treatment or sterilization) should not be labeled or called "fresh milk", which it claimed referred to "raw milk" in Chinese. The ban triggered protests from dairy associations nationwide, and intensified the ongoing battle for market share between the two camps.

At the time the ban was issued, the battle between pasteurized milk and warm-storage milk had come to a head. In 2004, the market share of pasteurized milk dropped below 30%, while that of warm-storage milk hit a record high of 70%.

The debate on whether the word "fresh" should be excluded from milk packages was finally ended by an official notice issued on November 9, 2007. According to this document, pasteurized milk should be labeled as "fresh milk", and UHT (Ultra High Temperature) milk should be labeled as "pure milk".

"Our study would be designed as follows: ten major nutrients will be followed. Every nutrient needs three to four rounds of measurements based on storage time. Each round will cost over 1,000 yuan. So by rough count, we need tens of thousands of yuan, if not more," Wang said.

Wang said he would avoid sponsorship by dairy associations and companies so that an independent result would be ensured and no space for criticism would be left for opponents of the research.

Dairy expert Chen Yu doubted whether the research was technologically feasible. "The technologies we have today, like UHT sterilization and aseptic packaging, are all introduced from abroad. We are capable of common measurement, but it will be difficult for us to observe the subtle changes in nutrients," Chen said, adding that if inaccurate, the statistics could backfire.

Pasteurized Milk Alliance
More was in the pipeline. Wang said he was also considering establishing a pasteurized milk alliance, which would be entrusted to an agency. He prposed this at a pasteurized milk summit in Fujian province in June.

"The goal of the alliance was to cultivate a consumption culture and the concept of pasteurized milk," Wang said, adding that boosting pasteurized milk would require smart use of nutritionists and medical experts.

Wang was excited when he recalled a similar alliance he founded four years ago. "We persisted for one year. It was meaningful, though we didn't manage to carry out our plans."

On August 19, 2004, the first meeting of the pasteurized alliance was held in Shanghai. Attending the meeting were dairy associations in major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu, and milk companies including Sanyuan, Bright Dairy, Yantang Milk, and New Hope Group.

Leading milk producers in the above cities planned to pioneer a unified "fresh milk" label for pasteurized milk, and to register a commission for milk labeling with the government before June 2005.

"The label didn't materialize because of the government's ban [in 2004]," Wang said.

Unlike the alliance four years ago, the new one would not be a real entity, Wang said. To avoid certain risks, the alliance would not engage in label unification like they had done before. "If officially allied, it might be criticized by our opponents as unfair competition. Besides, it would be a tough task with such approval procedures from various authorities," he explained.

Warm-storage milk companies were skeptical of the influence of such an alliance. "Milk sources are the lifeline for a dairy company. Without a good milk source, pasteurized milk wouldn't have the strength to defeat warm-storage milk," said a Yili employee who declined to be named.

Dairy expert Chen Yu agreed that an alliance would be meaningless. "One will always think about Bright and Sanyuan whenever pasteurized milk is mentioned. But they both produce warm-storage milk too," he said.

Apart from these leading pasteurized milk companies, smaller ones also had product lines for warm-storage milk. "warm-storage milk is the best choice for smaller companies to enter more grassroots markets where cold storage can't be ensured," Chen added.