The whole process of buying vegetables, washing vegetables, cutting vegetables and frying vegetables takes as little as tens of minutes and as many as several hours — — This is a traditional cooking process.
Tear open the package and put it directly into the pot. It only takes a few minutes at the shortest, and seemingly complicated dishes can be served — — This is a cooking process with "artifact" blessing.
When the fast-paced life meets the exquisite needs of life, it runs out of the "prefabricated dishes". Do it quickly and eat well. Is it reliable?
"Little White" became "Kitchen God" overnight?
The Spring Festival in 2021 is special for Kobayashi. In response to the call of celebrating the New Year on the spot, she joined a few friends for dinner. "It is said that one person has two specialties, and the result is a bunch of takeaways."
But this "takeaway" is not another "takeaway". It is not a steaming finished product that can be eaten upon receipt, but a semi-finished product that still needs to be processed. Some were temporarily called from the takeaway APP before departure, and some were hoarded in major live broadcast rooms a long time ago.
Take lotus leaf chicken, the "final dish" prepared by Kobayashi, as an example, you only need to thaw the materials in advance, poke a few holes in the lotus leaf when cooking, and put it in a pot for 40 minutes, which is a hard dish that is quite handy.
"First of all, it is convenient. Fresh materials and condiments are very troublesome from purchase to treatment; Secondly, it takes a long time to prepare the meat dishes yourself, and the efficiency of semi-finished products is much higher; Finally, the taste of prefabricated dishes is relatively stable. My friends and I rarely fire at ordinary times, and we are not at ease with our own craftsmanship. " Kobayashi said that he and his friends are very satisfied with this "semi-buffet" New Year’s Eve dinner.
Many young people like Kobayashi have made prefabricated dishes a new favorite on the New Year’s Eve dinner table. Among the top ten New Year’s goods data released by Tmall, the sales of prefabricated vegetables increased by 16 times compared with last year. According to JD.COM Big Data, since January 20th, the turnover of semi-finished dishes with small packages for 1-2 people has increased by 3.5 times year-on-year.
The main consumer groups of pre-cooked dishes are young consumers born in 1980s and 1990s. Box Ma Xiansheng’s data shows that the proportion of consumers buying semi-finished dishes after 1995 is twice as high as that after 1965. Let many young people with poor cooking skills step into the ranks of "chefs" in one fell swoop, and the prepared dishes have also been named as "Aauto Quicker dishes" and "lazy dishes".
On April 27th, Weizhixiang, which focuses on the R&D, production and sales of pre-cooked dishes, was successfully listed as the "first stock of pre-cooked dishes". Haidilao’s "Dinner" series products have been launched in major official channels; Boxma Xiansheng upgraded Boxma Workshop to 3R (Ready to Cook, Ready to Heat, Ready to Eat) business department; Every day, Youxian launched the "Famous Cuisine Famous Shop" channel, and the signature dishes of famous shops such as Xibei and Meizhou Dongpo entered strongly; In the category of "Aauto Quicker Cuisine", the crayfish commodity "Boxing Shrimp" went online for one and a half months, achieving sales exceeding 100 million … …
Pre-cooked dishes, which can only be used as the reason why the elders don’t let you eat out in family group chat, have been completely "put on the table"
Behind the scenes to the stage, the controversy is hot.
"The epidemic has brought opportunities to the industry," Mr. Sun, who is engaged in the prefabricated vegetable industry, told Zhongxin.com that his business increased by nearly 300% year-on-year during the epidemic. Braised pork, sweet and sour pork chops, lion’s head and other dishes that require a lot of time and cost, and stews such as chicken soup, sparerib soup and Buddha jumping wall are the best to sell.
Nowadays, the prepared dishes, which have the potential to blossom everywhere, are actually not a new thing. To put it bluntly, it is the "advanced version" of quick-frozen processed products.
The so-called prefabricated dishes and semi-finished dishes refer to dishes that have been washed, cut, matched or even prepared in the factory, and then stored in frozen or vacuum packaging. After consumers buy them, they only need to heat them or simply cook them through the combination of materials in the prefabricated dishes.
"In a broad sense, pre-cooked dishes are very hot compared with previous years ‘ Cooking bag ’ Is exactly the same. Judging from the market situation, it is currently more used in restaurants and hotels and less used in families. " Mr. Sun said.
For example, Mr. Sun said, "For example, when we go to a wedding banquet, so many tables and so many identical dishes are all cooked like the kitchen? That’s definitely not possible. It will take a long time to serve and the experience will be uneven. This kind of occasion basically depends on the prepared prefabricated dishes. "
According to the research report of Guohai Securities, the ratio of B-end to C-end in China prefabricated vegetable market is about 8: 2, and restaurants and other businesses still account for the bulk of the consumption of prefabricated vegetables. Another scene where prefabricated dishes are widely used is take-away.
Put the "chef in crisis"? Actually, that is not the case.
According to Song Xiangqing, a well-known economist and vice president of China Business Economics Association, the emergence of terms and products such as "lazy economy" and "prepared food" means the progress of human beings and the development of society to a certain extent.
"Like prefabricated dishes, it is a market behavior that people pursue high-quality life by using new technologies and new materials and inventing new products and services. In the final analysis, human intelligence and hard work have improved people’s living space and way, reflecting social progress." Song Xiangqing said so.
Then, will the appearance of prefabricated dishes really "lead to the catering revolution" or "put the chef group in crisis" as rumored? Insiders told reporters that this is not the case.
"To make industrial dishes, the first step is for the chef to develop them before mass production." People in the industry told reporters that, not to mention that the current prepared dishes are only in the initial stage, and the taste needs to be further strengthened. From the psychological acceptance of consumers, the traditional catering mode can not be replaced by industrialized prepared dishes now.
What’s the difference between today’s prepared dishes?
Many people’s criticisms of prefabricated dishes focus on the lack of guarantee of their freshness.
The reporter searched for fast food commercial cooking packages on the e-commerce platform, most of which were frozen and preserved, and the shelf life could reach 365 days. It takes a year for the cooked food to "see the light of day". Does it taste like a "zombie dish"?
"At present, the fresh-keeping methods of the prefabricated vegetable industry are scientific packaging and rapid freezing technology (MINUS 18 C), and transportation will also require cold chain logistics throughout. Without the use of preservatives and additives, low temperature is the main way to maximize the preservation of food nutrition and inhibit microbial reproduction. " In this regard, Mr. Sun introduced.
"Now the food industry and restaurant supply chain development to what extent? A live fish is frozen and still alive after thawing. " In Mr. Sun’s view, preservation under the current technology is inseparable from low temperature, but low-temperature technology is also constantly developing.
For example, in the current market, for the transportation of fresh beef omasum, some merchants use 0-5℃ refrigeration instead of freezing to ensure its crisp taste. This requires suppliers to apply liquid nitrogen refrigeration technology more accurately and upgrade their packaging.
In addition, "insecurity" and "lack of nutrition" often make people distrust prepared dishes.
Liu Xiaoling, a doctoral supervisor of Guangxi University and an expert of Guangxi Food Safety Expert Committee, once pointed out that from the perspective of nutrition, the nutritional components of food are related to the source of raw materials and processing methods, and the changing laws of different foods and different nutrients are not consistent, so it cannot be simply said that fried food is more nutritious.
"The traditional way of buying food, cooking and processing food has the problems of high cost and difficult risk control." At the same time, Liu Xiaoling believes that it is a way and trend for producers to adopt the access mode of food production license and market supervision to make meals in the central kitchen and distribute them centrally, which is to realize the standardization of restaurants or canteens, improve product safety and improve efficiency.
"In fact, not only prefabricated dishes, but also categories related to the food industry will have food safety hazards." Regarding the safety of food, Mr. Sun also said that authentic prepared dishes are definitely healthier than most takeaways, but they can’t guarantee the safety of the whole industry by themselves. "As practitioners, my colleagues and I still have to do business with our conscience, and the industry can go further."
Great potential, it is expected that in 2023.
The market size may exceed 500 billion yuan
What is the potential of prefabricated dishes? According to the consulting data of Ai Media, the scale of the prefabricated vegetable industry in China is estimated to be 345.9 billion yuan in 2021, up by 18.1% year-on-year. It is estimated that the prefabricated vegetable market in China will maintain a rapid growth rate of about 20% in the future, and the scale of the prefabricated vegetable market may reach 516.5 billion yuan by 2023.
What kind of consumers like to buy prepared dishes? The data shows that among the consumers of prefabricated vegetables, 45.7% are located in first-tier cities, 19.8% in second-tier cities and 16.4% in third-tier cities.
Among them, consumers aged 22-40 accounted for 81.3%, among which consumers aged 31-40 accounted for 46.4%.
According to the data of Tianyancha, the number of registered enterprises engaged in the business related to pre-cooked vegetables was 1,796 in 2011, exceeded 4,000 for the first time in 2015, and exceeded 8,000 for the first time in 2018. In 2020, the number of registered enterprises reached the highest level in ten years, with a total of 12,500 new registrations, a year-on-year increase of 9%.
At present, the registered capital of pre-cooked food-related enterprises is mainly concentrated within 1 million. Among them, Shandong Province has the largest number of prefabricated vegetable enterprises, with 9,246, followed by Henan, Jiangsu, Guangdong and Anhui.
Ai Media Consulting analysts believe that 80% of consumers have formed the habit of buying prefabricated dishes every week, and consumers’ demand for prefabricated dishes will increase, and the market will further expand.
The development of prefabricated vegetables also faces these challenges.
Prefabricated vegetable market has entered a period of rapid development, with high market demand and challenges.
According to Ai Media Consulting, there are three main challenges in the prefabricated vegetable industry: First, market coverage. China has a large cross-border area between north and south, with many cuisines and complex types. The prefabricated vegetable enterprises have obvious regional labels, so it is difficult for enterprises to cover the national market. The second is the preservation of dishes. Precast dishes need to keep the freshness of dishes, which requires extremely high cold chain transportation. The sales scope can only radiate the area around the central kitchen set up by the enterprise, which limits the further development of the prefabricated vegetable enterprise; The third is taste recovery. The taste of Chinese food is closely related to the cooking process. The factory produces all the conditioning packages of the products and then gives them to customers for processing. Once it comes to cooking, the taste can only be controlled by personal cooking.
"In the future, if prefabricated vegetable enterprises want to develop, they must combine standardization, safety and personalization by improving the safety production capacity of central kitchens and a complete cold chain logistics system, so as to usher in a broader market." Industry analysts told reporters this way.
Will a small step in preparing dishes be a big step to promote young people to "bid farewell to take-out and walk into the kitchen"?
Comprehensive reports from China News Service and Dahe Daily