Sino-Singapore Jingwei Client, May 27th (Yan Shuxin intern Sun Danning) The braised pork rice that you spend nearly 30 yuan on the takeaway platform may be simply heated by a cooking bag that costs less than 5 yuan, and this The cooking package may have been prepared a year ago.
Do you still find it fragrant?
Recently, a survey by the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client found that some take-out merchants chose to use semi-finished cooking packages instead of frying and cooking in order to save time and costs.
These dishes are rich in packaged dishes, and the price of each package ranges from 3-10 yuan.
A food package supplier told the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client that the use of food packages has become a common phenomenon in the takeaway industry, and consumers simply cannot eat them, even if they are found by the relevant authorities.
The takeaway you ordered may be made with a cooking bag
"Nowadays, take-out shops basically use cooking bags, especially those with dozens of dishes. At noon, a chef can't fry them at all. It must be a semi-finished cooking bag." A Sichuan take-out cooking bag. The supplier told the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client.
The product quotation provided by the supplier shows that it can supply nearly 70 kinds of cooking packages with different dishes, including main dishes, side dishes, meals, soups, etc., and the unit price is mostly between 3-10 yuan.
“We all have food and beverage outlets, takeaways, airports, tea restaurants, and Internet cafes. As long as they are heated in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, they can eat.”
According to the aforementioned suppliers, some of these cooking bags can be stored at room temperature with a shelf life of 6 months; some need to be frozen at minus 18 degrees and have a shelf life of one year.
"Our products are sterilized by high temperature, and then packaged in aluminum foil bags, so they can be stored at room temperature for half a year." The above-mentioned supplier said.
The supplier can also provide customers with customized services, that is, the so-called "OEM", "a single product starts at 100 pieces, and 5 single products can be ordered. The cooking package can be made according to the recipe given by the customer. If there is no recipe, we can also Can provide recipes."
The Sino-Singapore Jingwei client noticed that on the e-commerce platform, there are also many merchants selling take-out food packages of various flavors. The price of a single package is usually less than 10 yuan, and the shelf life is more than one year, and some are as long as one and a half years. .
Source: Screenshot of e-commerce platform
The Sino-Singapore Jingwei client saw in a store that 8 food packages are only 40 yuan, and the taste is optional.
"Our product size is set for the fast food industry's rice bowl, claypot rice, business set meal, one package of one main dish is enough." The customer service said that its products use the frying technology, follow the current situation The fried taste is the same.
According to the aforementioned suppliers, the use of food packages has become very common in the take-out industry, and consumers cannot eat them at all. It does not matter if they are found by relevant departments. "We have production qualifications, and every product meets national standards. There are test reports, even if you find them, you are not afraid."
A shop on an e-commerce platform that specializes in selling food packages is also introduced on the product details page. The factory qualifications, inspection reports, food licenses and other food qualifications are complete, and all tests are in line with food safety standards.
Test report provided by e-commerce platform merchants.
Xu Xiongjun, a strategic positioning expert and founder of Jiude positioning consulting company, believes that convenience and safety are necessary conditions for semi-finished food materials. At present, consumer demand is louder, and the problem that catering companies need to improve is how to achieve standardization, Combine personalization.
"Enterprises should find a balance between semi-finished ingredients and standardized set meals, which can be divided into signature dishes, home-cooked dishes, or personalized customization in form." Xu Xiongjun said.
Is the merchant obligated to inform if the cooking package is used?
So, can consumers accept this kind of takeaway?
Some netizens think that "cooking bags are always cleaner than black workshops" and "you should eat them within the shelf life, and there should be no problem"; some people say they can't accept them, "can't bear to be stale, even a clean and uniform freezer bag is a bit long for a year." Up".
Beijing white-collar Ms. Xiong, who often orders takeout, said in an interview with the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client that she can accept some businesses to use take-out cooking packages under the premise of ensuring cleanliness, hygiene, and production standards. However, she believes that these businesses should Tell consumers truthfully about usage.
In this regard, Li Min, a senior partner of Shanghai Hansheng Law Firm, said that the law does not clearly stipulate under what circumstances a business needs to be notified to consumers to what extent.
"It can only be said that if consumers ask, then businesses must answer truthfully to ensure that consumers' right to know is not violated."
In addition, Li Min mentioned that judging whether a takeaway business has violated consumers’ right to know depends mainly on the subjective wishes of the other party, whether they have clearly stated that their products are not cooking packages, or have hinted through some behaviors, remarks, etc., rather than simply The merchant did not take the initiative to say that he had used the cooking bag and found it infringed the consumer's right to know.
Takeaway package information map.
Photo by Fu Yumei, Sino-Singapore Jingwei
A company earns 125 million a year and goes public
In fact, take-out cooking packages are just one type of semi-finished dishes (also called pre-made dishes).
As early as around 2000, semi-finished vegetable production enterprises appeared one after another in China.
The main customers of semi-finished vegetable enterprises are franchisees in the region, including fresh food stores, farmers' market vendors, supermarkets, etc. A small number of products are directly sold to restaurants and end consumers.
There are a large number of semi-finished vegetable producers across the country, and most of them still stay in the workshop-style production and processing mode, and there are few enterprises that have reached the level of production above the scale.
Workshop-type processors only supply a small number of customers, the products are single, the degree of standardization is low, and food safety and quality are difficult to guarantee.
At present, some companies have begun to purchase automation equipment to achieve large-scale production, and have a certain regional reputation.
For example, Weizhixiang, which was listed on the A-share market not long ago.
Public information shows that Weizhixiang has two major brands, "Weizhixiang" and "Dianyu". In 2020, the company will achieve revenue of 622 million yuan and net profit of 125 million yuan.
On April 27 this year, Weizhixiang was officially listed on the A-share main board, becoming the "first share of pre-made vegetables."
Pacific Securities mentioned in the research report that there are currently more than 20,000 upstream prefabricated vegetable companies, with an average annual sales of 15 million yuan, and the scale of the prefabricated vegetable market is about 300 billion yuan.
"Driven by the epidemic, the semi-finished vegetable industry has achieved rapid development since 2020. From the perspective of development trends, in the future semi-finished vegetables will inevitably become a new sub-category and competition track." China Food Industry Analyst Zhu Danpengxiang Sino-Singapore Jingwei client said.
In an interview with Sino-Singapore Jingwei Client, Gao Yang, CMO, head of new retail and retail business department of Xinliangji Food Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. mentioned that, overall, pre-made and semi-finished foods are still in a gradual development stage. In this process, the front-end market and the back-end supply chain need to be further matched.
Sino-Singapore Jingwei Client noticed that traditional food companies have begun to enter this field.
Recently, when answering questions from investors, Yasui Foods mentioned that pre-made dishes are showing strong demand and rapid growth in both catering channels and household consumption scenarios.
Following the trend, the company positioned the concept of a central kitchen in the catering market, and integrated the upstream small and medium-sized food manufacturers with a light-asset operation model to OEM production of its holding subsidiary "Mr. Frozen Foods".
At present, semi-finished dishes, finished dishes, chef dishes series and prepared meat slice series have been launched one after another.
However, some consumers have reported to the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client that the taste of semi-finished dishes is not as good as in the advertisement.
“It takes a long time for the dishes to be thawed one by one. A New Year’s Eve dinner takes at least 3 hours from thawing to serving, and it is all thawed twice. The seafood dishes are not fresh anymore. The overall taste is average and the amount of dishes is small. It's not enough to eat at all." Ms. Zhao from Beijing never wanted to try any semi-finished dishes after experiencing a semi-finished New Year's Eve dinner during the Spring Festival last year.
Zhu Danpeng pointed out that taste issues and price issues are currently the two major issues that restrict the development of the semi-finished vegetable industry. In the future, as the entire industry enters the stage of large-scale development, the industrial chain will become more and more perfect, and the cost and other issues will also be effectively improved.
(Zhongxin Jingwei APP)
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