Abstract: At present, many people's lifestyles are changing. You can order takeout when you eat, and you can also use the app to place an order when you buy food. Many people have a fast pace of life and have no time to cook or are too lazy to cook. Precast dishes also seem to usher in the spring of the industry. Precast dishes may be the next way out for the catering industry. So what's the difference between prepared dishes and catering? What's the difference between preparing dishes and side dishes? First, different forms, second, different processing and production sites, and finally, different customer groups. Let's take a closer look at the related contents of the prepared dishes. First of all, the difference between prefabricated vegetables and food distribution.

1, different forms

What is a prepared dish? That is, meat and vegetables are used as raw materials, supplemented by seasonings, and processed into finished or semi-finished foods. According to the degree of processing, prefabricated dishes can be divided into four categories: ready-to-eat food, hot food, cooked food and cooked food. Food distribution is the distribution of raw materials, involving simple rough machining; The distribution company sorts, processes, divides, packages and assembles the ingredients, and delivers the ingredients to the designated place.

2. Different processing and production sites

After that, prefabricated dishes are mainly produced by central kitchens or food processing enterprises, involving automatic production, mechanized production, large-scale production and industrial production; Different enterprises will also have their own secret components when producing semi-finished products and finished products. The distribution of ingredients mainly involves the sorting of ingredients, and there is no need for a central kitchen or processing production line.

3. Different customer groups

Another difference is that their customers are different. The general service customers of food distribution are enterprises, hospitals, school canteens or hotel chain restaurants, which belong to B-end customers. Pre-cooked dishes used to be dominated by B-end customers, but under the influence of the epidemic, the development of the catering industry was affected, and C-end customers ushered in an accelerated stage.

Second, the difference between prefabricated dishes, instant dishes, semi-finished dishes and clean dishes

1. Prefabricated dishes are developed for the market of banquet dishes and hotel specialties, that is, some chefs analyze the raw materials of dishes through the method of food industry, and then concentrate on production in a modern standardized central kitchen. When freezing, other steps are simplified. If consumers want to eat, they can heat it in a microwave oven.

2. Instant food and semi-finished food are essentially the same, but the names are different. It's a simple version of the prepared dish, and it doesn't need frying and heating. All fresh raw materials are well matched in proportion, plus packaging, which is more suitable for ordinary consumers, because it is cleaner and more hygienic and the price will be more close to the people.

3, washing vegetables is very simple, that is, washing vegetables and cutting vegetables, but because it involves personnel handling, it is definitely more expensive than ordinary dishes. Clean vegetables can be divided into poultry meat, pork, beef, mutton and aquatic products. Only through centralized processing can the physical form of raw materials be changed, such as slicing, dicing, shredding, cutting strips, etc. Without further processing procedures such as seasoning and pickling, it is usually stored in cold storage for a short time. It leaves more preparation and cooking space for processors, and the terminal with higher requirements for uniqueness and differentiation of taste has higher utilization rate of clean vegetables, but the differentiation degree of clean vegetables is low and the added value of products is low.