Pre-made dishes are gradually entering thousands of households, and problems such as stale ingredients are subject to complaints
How safe are pre-made dishes that are rapidly becoming popular?
● In recent years, the scale of my country's prepared vegetable market has been expanding.
Pre-made dishes have expanded from supplying restaurants to supplying households, gradually entering thousands of households, and ushered in explosive growth during the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger.
The online grocery shopping platform sold 3 million pre-made dishes in 7 days, and the unit price of each purchase doubled year-on-year
● Pre-made dishes are convenient for family life, but problems such as inconsistent pictures and texts, cutting corners, stale ingredients, and poor taste have also caused many consumers to complain.
Some consumers have suggested that in order to save costs, the number of ice packs placed by the merchants is not enough or the ice packs are too small, which affects the freshness of the ingredients.
● Regulatory authorities can strengthen supervision through public notification, risk assessment level, equipment supervision and other methods.
In the long run, the problem of prefabricated dishes is a social co-governance issue, which requires multi-level and multi-level supervision and governance by regulatory authorities, consumer associations, media, and Internet platforms.
□ Our reporter Zhao Li
Pork with plums, beef tenderloin with black pepper, French lamb chops, braised yellow croaker, stewed chicken with mushrooms... Before the Spring Festival this year, Mr. Chen, a Beijing citizen, ordered a batch of pre-made dishes from the app.
On New Year's Eve, it was just a simple process, and a sumptuous New Year's Eve dinner was quickly "made".
"I want to eat New Year's Eve dinner at my own home this year, but I feel that it is too troublesome to cook a large table of dishes. Pre-made dishes have become a good and convenient choice." Mr. Chen said, it is really worry-free and labor-saving.
The so-called pre-made dishes are dishes that are semi-processed in advance of the food raw materials, then packaged and stored in a freezer.
Since last year, affected by the epidemic, the "home economy" has driven the expansion of pre-made dishes from supplying restaurants to supplying households, and gradually entered thousands of households, ushering in an explosive growth in the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger.
Pre-made dishes are convenient for family life, but not all consumers have the same good experience as Mr. Chen. Problems such as inconsistent pictures and texts, cutting corners, stale ingredients, and poor taste have also caused many consumers to complain.
In an interview with a reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" recently, a number of experts suggested that the supervision of the quality and safety of pre-made dishes should be strengthened to ensure the safety of the masses; at the same time, a good and orderly development environment should be provided for relevant enterprises to promote the health of the industry. development, so that the people can better enjoy this convenient life service.
Easy to process and ready to eat
Semi-finished pre-cooked dishes are hot
Public data shows that since the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, the number of searches for "pre-made dishes" in a consumer app has increased by more than 10 times year-on-year, driving the overall search volume of related concepts such as "kuaishou dishes", "semi-finished dishes", and "heating ready-to-eat" to increase by 4 times compared with the same period last year. ; The online grocery shopping platform sold 3 million pre-made dishes in 7 days, and the unit price of each transaction increased by 100% year-on-year.
According to reports from relevant institutions, in recent years, the scale of my country's pre-prepared vegetable market has continued to expand, and it is expected to exceed 830 billion yuan by 2025.
The reporter searched the e-commerce platform for shops that supply pre-made dishes. Among them, there are many restaurants that everyone is familiar with. The dishes include New Year's Eve set menus, as well as single items such as sheep scorpion hot pot, brine pot dishes, Buddha jumps over the wall, etc. The price ranges from 100 yuan to thousands of yuan. The overall sales are also good.
"Pre-made dishes are convenient and fast, save time for preparing dishes, and improve cooking efficiency a lot; the plate layout is also more delicate and beautiful, which is easy to make people appetite; the taste is guaranteed, and it will not be too unpalatable, which is more suitable for people who can't cook. It is friendly and very suitable for people's lifestyle today." The seller of a pre-made vegetable store told reporters that the store's sales have increased significantly this year, and the "post-90s" are the main consumer groups.
According to Sun Juanjuan, a researcher at the Food Safety Governance Collaborative Innovation Center of Renmin University of China, the popularity of pre-made dishes comes from the catering and other industries seeking new business models to promote the industrialization of catering; .
The popularity of festive pre-made dishes such as New Year's Eve is also in line with Chinese food customs such as family dinners.
According to statistics from relevant platforms, consumers prefer "hard dishes" this year. During the 2022 Goods Festival, the turnover of pre-made dishes will increase by 148%. Among them, semi-finished dishes with regional characteristics such as Fish Maw Chicken, Buddha Jumping Over the Wall, and Pork Belly Chicken are especially popular among young consumer groups. favorite.
"Hard dishes such as abalone and Buddha jumping over the wall are very troublesome to handle. Now you can buy pre-made dishes online and put them in the refrigerator in advance." The category of New Year's Eve dinner.
Jia Jia, who works in Beijing, did not return to her hometown in Hangzhou during the Spring Festival this year.
She bought the semi-finished New Year's Eve dinner from the brand chain store online.
"My husband is from the north, so our New Year's Eve dinner needs to take into account the tastes of the north and the south." Jia Jia said that the semi-finished dishes she purchased were transported through the cold chain, the quality was guaranteed, and they were wash-free, cutting-free and seasoning-free, which was really convenient. .
According to Zhu Yi, an associate professor at the School of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, the reason why prefabricated dishes are popular is that a series of cumbersome processes such as washing, cutting, and cooking can be omitted. A table of "hard-core" New Year's Eve dinner with all the colors and flavors; at the same time, eating New Year's Eve dinner at home can not only avoid crowded contacts, but also satisfy family gatherings and continue the traditional custom of having reunion dinner with family members.
Industry competition is becoming increasingly fierce
There are many complaints about "the wrong version"
In the opinion of Ms. Wang, a citizen of Beijing, when it comes to the C dish of the New Year's Eve, it is naturally a whole head and tail of fish, which means more than one year.
But on New Year's Eve this year, she heated the big yellow croaker, a pre-made dish that was popular in the live broadcast room, and poured it into a plate, and found that the dish in front of her was not a fish at all.
This made her very angry, "the live broadcast room showed a complete fish at that time."
Similar experiences have been encountered by many consumers.
Fei Yan, a Beijing citizen, bought a gift package of pre-made vegetables from the Internet. According to the pictures on the Internet, this gift package was very affordable, but after getting it, her heart was half cold. One of the grilled steaks was only half the size of a fist. It does not match the picture promotion.
Ms. Cheng, a Tianjin citizen who loves to try early adopters, invited friends to have dinner at home during the Spring Festival this year, and bought a fish maw chicken and seafood in a certain brand online store.
She looked forward to showing the new things she bought in front of her friends, but she felt cheated. "The portion is small and the taste is poor, so it's not as good as a 30 yuan self-heating small hot pot."
"Post-95" Sun Chu bought a brand named Buddha Jumping Wall, which had been "planted" for a long time, and complained in the circle of friends: "The industrial taste is very heavy, I really dare not eat it. I didn't know what pre-made dishes are, but now they have been blocked. ."
The reporter browsed the prefabricated vegetable sales platform and found that consumers complained a lot about this, some said that the package was damaged, and some said that the ingredients had deteriorated.
For example, the "Tea Mushroom Tripe" of a pre-made dish brand, many consumers complained that "the tripe is hard to find", the dish only introduces the total weight, but does not indicate the net content of meat and vegetarian dishes.
Since pre-made dishes are kept fresh by quick-freezing, the food has high requirements on temperature during transportation, and the temperature cannot be reached, which can easily lead to the deterioration of pre-made dishes.
Many consumers have pointed out that in order to save costs, the number of ice packs placed by the merchants is not enough or the ice packs are too small, which affects the freshness of the ingredients.
The reporter learned from interviews that the reason why consumers complained about prefabricated dishes is that, on the one hand, as a new thing, consumers' understanding of prefabricated dishes is not comprehensive enough. Irregular issues.
According to the company's data, there are 68,100 pre-prepared vegetables-related enterprises in China, and 4,212 new ones will be added in 2021.
The relevant person in charge of Guangdong Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Development Co., Ltd. said in an interview with the media that the pre-made dishes industry has certain thresholds, including brand scale barriers, food quality and safety barriers, channel and customer barriers, R&D and innovation barriers, etc.
Pre-made dishes are still in the early stage of development in China. The business scale is mainly small and medium-sized enterprises. The number is large but the market concentration is low. The regional characteristics are obvious, and the competition is fierce but the pattern is unclear.
According to the "2020-2026 Semi-finished Vegetable Industry Market Survey and Prospect Forecast Report", there are currently many semi-finished vegetables production enterprises with fierce competition, low concentration and few large-scale enterprises.
Although the semi-finished vegetable industry has a large market space, the competition in the industry has become increasingly fierce, and price competition has led to a decline in corporate profit margins.
By establishing a brand image, an enterprise can differentiate itself from competing products, get out of the fierce price competition, establish its own advantages, and enhance the added value of products.
Implement hierarchical and classified management
Keep it safe on the tip of your tongue
Whether pre-made dishes are hygienic and safe is one of the topics that consumers are most concerned about.
In Zhu Yi's view, the hidden dangers of prefabricated dishes mainly come from three aspects: First, the problem of enterprise qualifications. Some prefabricated food merchants are not fully qualified, or even have no qualifications. When processing prefabricated dishes in the back kitchen, the equipment is not up to standard, and the food is not separated from raw and cooked food. The second is storage risk. After consumers receive pre-made dishes, they should quickly classify them into different categories to distinguish between freezing and refrigerating. Third, some pre-made dishes have incomplete information. Label clearly.
"A lot of people pay attention to the safety hazards of pre-made vegetables, but they ignore the source of raw materials for pre-made vegetables. The freshness and safety of pre-made vegetables need to be paid attention to." Zhu Yi said.
Regarding the safety hazards faced by prefabricated dishes, Zhou Qingjie, executive dean of the New Business Economics Research Institute of Beijing Technology and Business University, believes that the first thing to consider is whether the processing process conforms to food safety issues, including the freshness of raw materials, the dosage of food additives during processing; the transportation process. The cold chain link is also crucial, to control the temperature, but also to pay attention to the problem of damage during transportation.
Relevant departments have also paid attention to the safety of pre-made dishes.
On August 6, 2020, the State Administration for Market Regulation publicly solicited opinions from the public on the "Administrative Measures for Food Business Licensing (Draft for Comment)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures").
In the revision of the adjustment of food business items, simple production and sales classification and semi-finished product production and sales items have been added; in view of the relatively low risk of simple production and sales items, the categories of food business items are further refined, and food safety risk classification is implemented. Category management.
The "Measures" clarify that on the basis of hot food, cold food, and raw food business items, simple production and sales categories are added, and the review requirements for simple production and sales items are appropriately simplified.
Increase the production and sale of semi-finished products, clarify the definition of semi-finished products, and stipulate that the production and sale of semi-finished products can only be applied for by the central kitchen.
So, how to supervise specifically, not only to ensure the quality and safety of prefabricated dishes, so that the people can enjoy such convenient life services; but also to allow the healthy development of related enterprises, thereby promoting the healthy development of the industry?
"At present, there is a certain problem of insufficient supervision. The supervision department can strengthen supervision through public notification, risk assessment level, equipment supervision and other methods. Food business enterprises must strictly follow the rules and regulations for production and operation. Supervision of self-management." Zhou Qingjie said that in the long run, the problem of pre-made vegetables belongs to social co-governance, which requires supervision and governance from various aspects such as regulatory authorities, consumer associations, media, and Internet platforms.
"Supervisory departments should guide consumers to consume rationally, such as timely publishing online sales of compliance and violations found in supervision and management, so that consumers can choose safe suppliers of prepared dishes, and remind consumers to keep relevant bills in order to In the event of a dispute, it is used as a proof of rights protection." Sun Juanjuan said.
She believes that the balance of supervision by relevant departments is to provide an inclusive regulatory environment for new business formats, and to prevent and control the risks that may arise from it.
This requires the formulation of responsive regulatory measures according to the risk differences of this format, such as the risk level of the food itself, the risk of processing technology, etc.
In addition, the consumption of pre-made dishes has increased the hidden dangers of food safety in the home kitchen, which also needs to prompt or guide consumers to operate safely in the final link, and take multiple measures to ensure the safety on the tip of the tongue.