Knorr originated from Germany, mainly engaged in concentrated condiments, with a brand history of more than 100 years, was acquired by Unilever in 2000, with annual sales of 3 billion euros, is Unilever's highest sales brand. Knorr entered the Chinese market in 1993 and launched Knorr Chicken Powder products, which has now become the leading brand of chicken powder in China with the largest market share.
 
Knorr started with concentrated soup jelly products, catering to the industrialization of Germany at that time, and meeting the needs of workers to cook quickly. The essence of soup jelly and thick soup treasure products is the same as that of chicken essence, with sodium glutamate and flavor nucleotides as the core, supplemented by flavor substances to enhance fragrance, all of which belong to compound umami condiments, but there are differences in form, one is semi-liquid and the other is powdery. MSG and chicken essence are not used in Chinese food, and foreigners don't seem to eat MSG, but this is not the case, but the product "vest" they use is different.
 
Totole has created the chicken essence industry, which has formed a market size of more than 10 billion yuan, and Knorr has expanded the chicken powder market in China and become the first brand of chicken powder. The two companies have been competing with each other in their development, and in 1997 Knorr sued Totole Chicken Essence, then known as Shanghai Knorr, for renaming and forcing him to change his name. However, Knorr is not as good as Totole in product promotion, most people can't tell the difference between chicken essence and chicken powder, and the national chicken powder market capacity is much smaller than chicken powder.
 
70% of Knorr's chicken powder is digested through catering channels, and the retail part does not account for the majority, and most ordinary consumers still use chicken essence. Chicken powder and essence of chicken are essentially the same type of products and can be used interchangeably. The difference between them is that there are fewer monosodium glutamate components in chicken powder, only more than 10%, while the proportion of monosodium glutamate in chicken powder is not less than 35%, and the content of chicken components in chicken powder is higher, so chicken powder is more expensive than chicken essence, and the price of Knorr 270g chicken powder is 20.6 yuan, which is twice the price of ordinary chicken essence of the same weight. Compared with Totole Essence of Chicken, the pure umami of Knorr Chicken Powder is lower, but the chicken flavor is more obvious, and the taste focus of the two products is different.
 
The homogenization of products such as chicken essence and chicken powder is very serious, the type is simple, and the actual taste of each brand product is not much different. According to the consumption trend, Knorr has launched a low-sodium chicken essence product, which is thin and salty, with a sodium content 11% lower than Knorr's conventional chicken essence and a higher content of umami ingredients. However, the basic sodium content in chicken essence is very high, if you often use chicken essence and want to reduce sodium intake, reducing 11% is actually meaningless, and controlling total sodium intake is more effective. When cooking, salt and chicken essence are used at the same time to add umami, and if chicken essence is used, the salt can be halved.