Hot chain can be understood as "take-away", which refers to meals that are cooked and insulated, packaged in the kitchen, and then distributed to the sales place through constant temperature logistics, and can be eaten directly without heating.

Cold chain box lunch is packaged and sealed after unified treatment in the kitchen. Box lunch is refrigerated by equipment, and then distributed to the sales place through cold chain logistics. You need to heat it in a microwave oven to eat it.

Second, the storage time and temperature requirements are different.

The shelf life of hot chain shall not exceed 3 hours; The shelf life of cold chain box lunch is 72 hours, and the storage and transportation temperature ranges from 0℃ to 10℃. Unsold lunch boxes that exceed the shelf life should be collected and processed in a unified way.

Third, the production cost is different.

Due to the different requirements of production technology, product packaging, storage and distribution temperature, the production costs of hot-chain box lunch and cold-chain box lunch are naturally different.

Fourth, facing different consumer groups.

For example, in Taiwan Province Province, because Taiwan Province Province is small and the distance between stations is short, you don't need to eat on the train most of the time unless you catch up with the meal. Unlike the mainland, the dining car shuttles back and forth in the carriage, and the box lunch is usually sold at the station or platform, which is easy to miss.

Comparatively speaking, Chinese mainland has a large place, a long distance from the railway station and many passengers, so there are more passengers who need to eat on the train, especially on popular and long-distance lines such as Beijing-Guangzhou and Beijing-Shanghai.

Chinese mainland's high-speed trains and existing trains are catering to consumers, including students without income, hardworking and simple migrant workers, ordinary working-class people and lavish businessmen. So its structure is far more complicated than that of Taiwan Province Railway.

Different consumers have different choices about the category and price of bento. For example, the box lunch provided by Shanghai Railway Bureau has the grades of 15 yuan, 30 yuan, 40 yuan and 60 yuan. There are many migrant workers on passenger trains from Shanghai to Sichuan, so the proportion of 15 yuan lunch boxes in dining cars is over 45%. There are many business people from Shanghai to Beijing and Wenzhou, so the proportion of 15 yuan box lunch is only about 25%.