China's Mooncake Makers Shift to Low-Sugar, Low-GI Products Ahead of Mid-Autumn 2026

With the 2026 Mid-Autumn Festival holiday approaching, mooncake displays at several supermarkets in Beijing have changed. Stacks of mooncakes featuring luxury packaging in previous years have visibly shrunk, and elaborate packaging is no longer a selling point. Health concepts such as low sugar, low GI and medicinal-food ingredients are now printed on mooncake gift boxes. A supermarket employee said 2026 mooncake sales were somewhat worse than in previous years. Traditional major brands such as Daoxiangcun and Wufangzhai sold relatively well, while small and medium-sized brands and loose mooncakes performed poorly, with consumers more willing to choose low-sugar, low-oil products. The ingredient list of a well-selling low-sugar traditional-flavor mooncake states that sucrose content is only 1.9 grams per 100 grams, while a traditional mooncake of the same flavor contains as much as 29.1 grams of sugar per 100 grams, with calories also reduced by about one-tenth.

An industry report shows that 73% of consumers give priority to low-sugar, zero-additive and medicinal-food products. In 2026, mainstream mooncake brands including Daoxiangcun, Yuanzu Food and Guangzhou Restaurant launched mooncake products with health and wellness concepts. Zhou Liyuan, president of Suzhou Daoxiangcun Group, said Suzhou Daoxiangcun launched more than 50 mooncake gift boxes in 2026, with products systematically upgraded around low GI, clean labels and medicinal-food ingredients. Yuanzu said its snow mooncakes remain a core product, and its 2026 mooncake innovation directions include optimizing recipes, improving taste, increasing fresh milk content, and focusing on savory flavors, reduced sugar and oil, and medicinal-food ingredients, achieving health-oriented changes through crust innovation, upgraded natural ingredients and moderate sugar reduction.

Data from an e-commerce platform show that in 2026 it listed more than 50 SKUs of mooncake products, launching low-sugar series including low-sugar tangerine peel red bean paste mooncakes, low-sugar five-kernel mooncakes and low-sugar matcha custard mooncakes, with sugar reduced by as much as 87%. Among them, low-sugar custard mooncakes had 70% less sugar, and their recent sales surged twofold. Some channel distributors said 2026 mooncake sales fell short of previous years, and mooncakes in some channels began to be promoted at a discount as soon as they hit the market. A business manager at a star-rated hotel in Tai'an, Shandong, said the hotel still launches Mid-Autumn gift boxes and mooncakes as planned each year, but mooncake sales have continued to decline in recent years, with corporate group buying, employee benefits and visit demand lower than in previous years. During the Mid-Autumn Festival there are still customer visit arrangements, but accompanying gifts are no longer limited to traditional mooncakes, and choices have become more diverse.

Data show that 55.9% of consumers buy mooncakes to share with family, 50.4% buy them for their own consumption, and 42.5% buy them as gifts. A "low-sugar blessing gift" box from Suzhou Daoxiangcun keeps sugar content within 5% and has sold well for three consecutive years. Suzhou Daoxiangcun is advancing research and development to comprehensively reduce sugar in traditional pastries, shifting Chinese pastries from heavy oil and meat toward low sugar, low fat, low GI and medicinal-food ingredients.