prefabricated dishes should not be a flash in the pan.
as the name implies, prefabricated dishes are prepared in advance with the vegetables and materials to be prepared, and packaged in food-grade packaging bags or boxes by quick freezing or vacuum packaging technology. Consumers can serve them simply by stir-frying or heating, so prefabricated dishes are also called semi-finished dishes.
prepared dishes can be divided into four categories: ready-to-eat food, instant hot food, instant cooked food and ready-made food that needs to be seasoned by itself.
In recent years, with the changes in the consumer market brought by "homebody culture" and "cooking white" and the influence of COVID-19 epidemic, prefabricated dishes came into being and gradually became popular.
At present, there is no unified national standard for prefabricated dishes, and the definition is not clear enough. Therefore, it is understandable that many consumers are still unclear about prefabricated dishes. Some people think that prefabricated dishes are cooked, others think that they are clean vegetables and clean meat, and others think that this is a personalized solution with packaged ingredients. Of course, more importantly, everyone has different demand standards for prefabricated dishes, which also makes prefabricated dishes temporarily unable to become the main force on the family table.
to put it bluntly, the lack of unified standards and a sound industrial system is the crux of the current development of prefabricated vegetable market. In particular, the problems of taste, quality and hygiene standards have made many prefabricated dishes a one-time "impulse consumption" for many people.
However, it is certain that the emergence of prefabricated dishes will make it possible for the Chinese food industry with different standards and inexpressible chef skills to build a "Chinese McDonald's" with unified standards and little deviation in taste, which can rewrite the industrial status quo that Chinese food products are different and it is difficult to sail out to sea to achieve internationalization.
It is worth noting that on April 6th this year, the China Prefabricated Vegetable Industry Alliance was formally established, becoming the first self-regulatory organization of the national prefabricated vegetable industry. Not long ago, Guangdong also issued the notice of "Ten Measures to Accelerate the High-quality Development of Guangdong Prefabricated Vegetable Industry", which is also the first provincial-level prefabricated vegetable industry policy in China. However, whether it is the establishment of industrial alliance or the measures promoted by local government, the spearhead is directed at the prefabricated vegetable industry with mixed fish and dragons and different standards.
However, the establishment of China Prefabricated Vegetable Industry Alliance is only the first step for the standardized development of the prefabricated vegetable industry. There is no unified standard in the prefabricated vegetable industry, even if there is an industry standard, it is not a national standard, and it is not unique and mandatory. It cannot fundamentally solve various problems caused by different industry standards, and food safety and product quality are frequently hidden.
On the one hand, the entry threshold of the pre-cooked vegetable industry is low, from catering giants to seasoning factories, from fresh e-commerce to more "supernumerary" enterprises, aiming at industrial outlets, there are many "swarming into the market", and the size of enterprises is different, and the good and the bad are mixed. Even, some chain convenience stores and fresh supermarkets also set up pre-cooked food areas to invite brands to settle in. On the other hand, due to the lack of standards, the lack of standardization in the market, and the high pricing, the consumer's recognition and acceptance of prefabricated dishes are not high as a whole.
as far as the market is concerned, the current price of a semi-finished clean dish of prefabricated dishes ranges from 8 yuan to 21 yuan, the price of a single frozen prefabricated dish ranges from 21 yuan to 51 yuan, and the price of large dishes and hard menus is around 111 yuan, even more than 111 yuan. The price of pre-cooked dishes that were originally thought to be lower than the cost of in-house food and take-away food is only about 11% to 21% lower than that of in-house food. The key point is that they need to be operated by themselves, and the final taste and taste of the finished products are not comparable to those produced in canteens.