Visit the "map" of traditional Chinese food: north and south, delicious upgrade

Delicious Upgrades (Visit the "Map" of Traditional Chinese Foods (Part II))

During holiday travel, more and more people regard food tasting as an important purpose of travel. Zibo barbecue, Wuhan hot dry noodles, Chaoshan beef meatballs, Anhui stinky mandarin fish... In the land of China, almost everywhere you go, there are special foods waiting for you.

These delicacy are expected to be upgraded. Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other eleven departments issued the "Guiding Opinions on Cultivating Traditional Advantageous Food Production Areas and Local Specialty Food Industries" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), clearly creating a number of nationally renowned local characteristic food product brands. The north and south of the river, there will be more "eating" heads!

"Product-Origin-Brand", the outline of the national food map emerged

For many people, the "radar" of gastronomy is often closely linked to geography.

For example, coming to Jiangsu, Huai'an and Yangzhou, the two "world gourmet capitals", are unbearable to miss, and delicious foods such as lobster, Gaoyou duck egg products, Zhenjiang balsamic vinegar, Huangqiao baked cake, and Suzhou Biluochun are also mouthwatering; Arriving in Guangdong, not only Cantonese cuisine, Chaoshan cuisine and Hakka cuisine are very famous, but also Cantonese-style wax flavor, Cantonese cold fruit, Yingde black tea, Chaoshan beef balls and other special foods are also well-known at home and abroad. Friends at home and abroad often say: "After eating local characteristics, this trip is considered a success." ”

In the eyes of diners, food is a good taste and a good experience. In the local area, local specialty foods are also an industry and an economy.

Chen Wei, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of Jiangnan University, believes that local specialty food refers to food that has more than 30 years of traditional eating habits in some regions and is produced using local unique food raw materials and traditional techniques, and is a large industry that spreads traditional Chinese food culture and helps the effective transformation of traditional agricultural resources.

"China's vast territory, rich resource endowments, and long history have given birth to many food industries with local characteristics, forming a distinct 'product-production area-brand' mapping relationship, showing a blooming industrial development pattern." Liu Wenqiang, vice president of the China Electronics Information Industry Development Research Institute, said. In 2022, the food industry completed 5.1% of operating income and 7.1% of total profit with 8.1% of the assets of the entire industry.

Liu Wenqiang believes that in recent years, with the rapid development of industrialization and informatization, a number of specialty foods such as Guangxi snail powder and Yunnan flower cake have taken the lead in entering the field of vision of national and even global consumers, but there are still a large number of local specialty food resources that need to be tapped, cultivated and expanded.

The Opinions provide an opportunity for the construction of more characteristic industrial clusters. According to the distribution of seven major regions, including Northeast China, North China, Central China, South China, East China, Northwest China and Southwest China, the Opinions announced the list of key local specialty food industry clusters. For example, in central China, there are Hubei Xiaogan rice wine, Huangshi health wine, Wuhan hot dry noodle products, duck products and leisure food, Qianjiang crayfish industrial cluster, Hunan Anhua black tea industrial cluster, Henan Luohe meat products, convenience food, red jujube products, Nanyang yellow wine, Daokou roast chicken, Xinyang Maojian, Changge bee products industrial cluster, Jiangxi sauce duck industrial cluster, etc.

Following this list, a map of national gastronomy has emerged.

Industrial characteristics, characteristic industrialization

"The people take food as the sky, and food takes taste first." Condiments may seem inconspicuous in the food landscape, but they have a history of thousands of years of development, and there are many characteristic industrial clusters behind them.

"There are many types of condiments, and consumption and production have strong regional attributes, forming many condiment characteristic industrial clusters." The relevant person in charge of the China Condiment Association said.

Some of these condiment industry clusters have been formed due to historical development, such as the Leling industrial cluster; Others are formed by regional products, such as Pixian Douban, Qingxu vinegar and other industrial clusters; Some are driven by local large-scale brand enterprises, such as Haitian and Tatole industrial clusters, and the annual output value of some condiment industry clusters has exceeded 40 billion yuan. According to data from the China Condiment Association, at present, there are more than <>,<> production, distribution, and R&D enterprises related to the condiment industry, with an industry scale of hundreds of billions of yuan.

From the perspective of the food industry, the formation path of characteristic industrial clusters is different, but industrial characteristics and characteristic industrialization are the key words.

"The key to industrial characteristics is to fully tap the uniqueness of resource endowments, upgrade existing products, highlight differentiation, form comparative advantages, solve the problems of homogenization and overcapacity, and achieve sustainable development." The key to the industrialization of characteristic products is to transform local agricultural product resources and local snacks into modern food, and create a special food industry chain covering primary, secondary and tertiary industries. Shen Chi, executive vice president of the China Food Industry Association, said.

In recent years, around the "industrial characteristics" and "characteristic industrialization", a large number of characteristic food industry clusters have emerged, such as Hainan coconut products, Ningxia Helan Mountain East Foothill wine, etc., all of which have developed their unique geographical environment, ingredients, craftsmanship, etc. into industrial characteristics, opening up a broad market space.

"Many local specialties have been included in the representative lists of intangible cultural heritage at all levels, which contain a complete set of knowledge and practices related to food selection, ingredient processing, dish preparation and gourmet consumption, and are an important part of social activities such as interpersonal communication, etiquette and festivals." The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that strengthening the cultivation of local specialty food industry brands and promoting new formats and models is conducive to promoting the integrated development of three industries and upgrading the value chain of the food industry.

New technologies and methods add "flavor" to traditional specialty foods

In people's impression, traditional local specialty foods have good flavor and unique taste, but there are also hidden worries about standards and quality from time to time. How to crack?

"China's local specialty foods have a long history of consumption, the production process and environmental conditions are relatively complex, and the product quality mainly depends on the accumulation of long-term experience." Chen Wei believes that it is necessary to use new technologies and methods such as modern food manufacturing technology, big data, omics technology, intelligent perception, etc., to increase the development of new food resources, master the basic theory of sensory and nutritional changes in the processing process of traditional products, and consolidate the foundation of scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement in the local specialty food industry.

Shen Chi also noted that for a long time, local specialty foods generally lack standardized production management systems and modern process equipment, and quality and safety assurance capabilities need to be improved. Lean manufacturing and digitalization can improve the efficiency and quality of the traditional food industry, and modern food testing technology and information management system can help enterprises provide safer and healthier food.

The "Opinions" make it clear that it is necessary to improve the level of technology, equipment and design. For example, with the help of scientific and technological resources such as the National Key R&D Program, carry out research on the interpretation of the mechanism of local characteristic foods such as nutritional components, and accelerate the research and development of common key technologies such as targeted nutrition design and flavor quality modification.

Taking meat products as an example, Zhao Yan, director of the China Meat Food Comprehensive Research Center, introduced that at present, a series of green, low-carbon, intelligent and safe technology research and development such as the mining and identification technology of characteristic flavor components of characteristic meat products, directional flavor control technology, low-salt bacon flavor control technology, and rapid maturity technology of industrial processing of meat products have been gradually carried out.

For example, Jinzi Ham Co., Ltd. is building a digital intelligent industrial base for meat products with an annual output of 5,<> tons, covering traditional ham, characteristic traditional meat products intelligent production lines, including meat online trading platforms, meat industry online celebrity live broadcast bases, etc. Tang Renshen Group Co., Ltd. standardizes, equips and intelligentizes the key processes of traditional cured meat processing, and connects upstream suppliers, downstream distributors and supermarkets through big data to realize digital quality tracking from raw materials to tables.

"The implementation of the Opinions is of great significance to expanding the types of research and development of traditional local characteristic meat products, improving the level of intelligent and digital processing of traditional local characteristic meat products, and helping the transformation and upgrading of the industry, improving quality and efficiency, and innovative development." Zhao Yan said. It is foreseeable that with the continuous improvement of the level of research, more new technologies and new methods will add unique "flavor" to traditional specialty foods.

(People's Daily Overseas Edition, Li Jie)