"Definitely not as tasty or hygienic as freshly made!" This is the common response from many consumers when it comes to Chinese pre-made meals.
However, a recent "new regulation" stating "no preservatives added" and "strict control over the use of food additives" has sparked widespread attention. At the 2024 China Local Specialty Pre-made Meal Symposium and the 2nd Huaiyang Flavored Industrialized Development Conference held at Yangzhou University, almost every speaker mentioned this "new regulation".
This refers to the "Notice on Strengthening the Supervision of Pre-made Meal Food Safety to Promote the High-Quality Development of the Industry," jointly issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation and five other departments on March 21 this year.
In recent years, pre-made meals have become the new sensation in the catering industry, known for their convenience and deliciousness. While the market continues to heat up, it has also become the subject of much scrutiny regarding food safety.
Researchers are conducting tests on the sodium chloride content of cured meat samples. Image courtesy of Yangzhou University.
One end connected to the fields, the other to the dining tables of the market. How can the pre-fabricated vegetable industry regulate its healthy development and sustain innovation? Industry experts and scholars from universities jointly explored the theme of "high-quality development of the pre-fabricated vegetable industry," aiming to chart a blueprint for the industry's long-term development.
National Standards Issued: A New Definition for Pre-fabricated Vegetables
In fact, the seemingly modern concept of pre-fabricated vegetables has a history of over 2,000 years. Zhang Chunhui, chief scientist of the innovative team at the Institute of Agricultural Products Processing of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, told China Science Daily that traditional food processing methods such as curing and air-drying are the embryonic forms of pre-fabricated vegetable processing. However, limited by the technology and equipment of the time, these pre-fabrication methods could not achieve large-scale industrial production.
With the advancement of the industrial revolution, food processing technology has been innovated and improved. Frozen food, as the earliest form of pre-fabricated food, gradually emerged. In the 1960s, the United States witnessed the industrial pre-fabrication of traditional foods, collectively referred to as "pre-fabricated food," such as hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, French fries, and fried chicken.
Internationally, the pre-fabricated food industry is well-developed with high market acceptance, typical representatives including McDonald's, KFC, Japan Cold, and SYSCO. Today, China's pre-fabricated vegetable industry is also experiencing rapid development. Reports show that during the 2023 Double Festival period, the national sales of pre-fabricated vegetables reached approximately 130.7 billion CNY, a year-on-year increase of about 43.6%, accounting for 20% of the annual sales.
Meng Xiangren, director of the Chinese Cuisine Prosperity Base at Yangzhou University and deputy dean of the School of Tourism and Culinary Arts, told China Science Daily that while the market continues to heat up, the pre-fabricated vegetable industry has also exposed some problems, such as incomplete product standards, inadequate regulatory mechanisms, and inconsistent social awareness, which hinder further healthy development of the pre-fabricated vegetable industry.
"Pre-fabricated vegetables have always been questioned and controversial due to their label of 'industrialized production.' At the same time, due to the lack of unified definitions in various regions, especially after being hyped in the capital market, their scope has become even more ambiguous," said Meng Xiangren.
Zhang Chunhui pointed out, "The standardized development of pre-fabricated vegetable standards is crucial for raising the 'entry threshold' for production enterprises. It not only regulates the development of the industry but also dispels market doubts, implements the main responsibility of pre-fabricated vegetable enterprises for food safety, strengthens production license management, and creates a good environment for the industry's development."
Tenderness Detection of Meat Dishes. Image provided by Yangzhou University.
The recently released "Notice" for the first time clearly defines the definition and scope of prefabricated dishes at the national level, providing more complete and clear guidance for the prefabricated dish industry. Zhang Chunhui said that the requirement of "no preservatives allowed in the production process" imposes stricter quality supervision requirements on prefabricated dish production enterprises. The quality and safety standards of prefabricated dishes should be higher than those of other ordinary foods, which positively responds to market demands and is of great significance for improving the safety of prefabricated dishes. The requirement of "requiring heating or cooking before consumption" delineates the boundaries between prefabricated dishes and net vegetables, central kitchens, and other industries, which helps promote the restructuring of the prefabricated dish industry.
Long-lasting Fragrance: Prefabricated Dishes Can Also Be Flavorful
"For consumers, the industrialization of prefabricated dishes is influenced by various factors," said Meng Xiangren. These factors include not only consumers' understanding of prefabricated dishes but also their comprehensive cognition of food quality, health attributes, convenience, and value.
"Traditional Chinese culinary arts pursue the harmony of color, fragrance, taste, shape, and utensils," Meng Xiangren said. Chinese-style prefabricated dishes still face some challenges in terms of technology and quality if they want to be accepted by the public. "From initial processing to heating, packaging, storage, transportation, and other links, technology support and equipment renewal are needed. There is still a lot of room for innovation in the production technology and equipment of Chinese-style prefabricated dishes." The prefabricated dish industry faces important challenges such as how to overcome the transformation of traditional characteristic dishes, maintain the original flavor during reheating, and evaluate nutrition, promoting the continuous improvement of prefabricated dish processing technology becomes particularly crucial.
Zhang Yuhao, a professor at the School of Food Science at Southwest University, pointed out at the meeting that the production of Chinese-style dishes originates from traditional culinary techniques, while modern food processing technology is mainly based on Western technical systems. Due to different quality requirements between Chinese and Western dishes, some Chinese-style prefabricated dish products have poor authenticity and additive issues that concern consumers.
He believes that the technological problems to be solved for the industrialized prefabrication of high-quality Chinese dishes include the construction of a quality evaluation system, the common principles of Chinese dish quality formation, the selection and optimization of industrial processing technology, the development of nutritionally healthy products guided by principles, and research on the adaptability of raw materials processing.
"By changing the efficiency of material transfer through the ultrasonic cavitation effect, achieving uniform heating of materials in the pot, and promoting flavor penetration and diffusion, can we better ensure the production quality of soy sauce-marinated meat products..." At the conference, Meng Xiangren showcased innovative products such as the "ultrasonic marinating equipment" and "central kitchen processing equipment" independently developed by his team. These innovative devices ingeniously combine modern technology with traditional craftsmanship, significantly improving the freshness and quality retention of food, and ensuring a dual improvement in taste and nutrition.
Under the new regulations, to ensure the long-lasting fragrance of prefabricated dishes, besides improving quality and nutritional value, it is also necessary to maintain food safety bottom lines and enhance high-quality standards. Wang Wei, director of the Sichuan Meat Industry Technology Research Institute at Chengdu University, believes that the key to the development of prefabricated dishes lies in green ecologicalization. Therefore, it is necessary to further strengthen the research and application of advanced and clean ecological technologies, such as efficient cold chain technology, natural preservation technology, and harmless high-temperature treatment technology, to achieve a higher level of technology and assist prefabricated dishes in achieving true "deliciousness" and safety.
Cross-fusion Empowers Industry to "Bear Fruit"
Prefabricated dishes have achieved deep integration of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. How to make the prefabricated dish industry "sing all the way" on the track of high-quality development? Professor Hu Xiaosong, director of the National Fruit and Vegetable Processing Engineering Technology Research Center, believes that promoting the development of the "whole industry chain" is the key.
In Hu Xiaosong's view, prefabricated dishes are a product of the deep integration of multiple disciplines such as culinary science and skills, food science and engineering, nutrition science and safety, equipment manufacturing and numerical control, logistics technology and materials, big data analysis, and AI. "The prefabricated dish industry needs continuous promotion of interdisciplinary systems integration, deep integration of multiple industries, and extensive exchanges of science and technology culture, relying on innovation to achieve healthy and sustainable high-quality development of the industry."
"Standardized and large-scale production is the trend of prefabricated food industry development, which integrates modern food processing, testing, information, control, and other cutting-edge technologies," said Professor Zeng Xin'an, vice president of Foshan University of Science and Technology. He also proposed a "breakthrough" approach for the future of the prefabricated dish industry, emphasizing continuous investment and efforts in the five major areas of "intelligence," "wisdom," "digitization," "visualization," and "integration" to enhance the efficiency, quality, and transparency of the prefabricated dish industry, thereby leading the healthy development of the entire industry chain.
Meng Xiangren stated that it is necessary to integrate factors such as talent cultivation and the development of the whole industry chain to achieve the integration of culinary and food science and promote the industrialization of Chinese-style dishes. This poses a challenge to the training of related professionals. In the spring semester of 2023, the School of Tourism and Culinary Arts at Yangzhou University launched the first "Prefabricated Dish Dietary Engineering" micro-degree in the country. Through the provision of professional teaching staff, strengthening cooperation between schools and enterprises, and carefully designing courses and other talent training methods, it provides talent support for improving the quality and efficiency of the prefabricated dish industry and promoting high-quality development.
Zhang Chunhui emphasized the importance of adopting a collaborative model of "entrepreneurs posing questions - scientists answering questions - market judging" and the integration of the "three chains" for collaborative innovation. Only by innovating traditional processes of prefabricated dishes on the innovation chain, achieving industrial transformation on the industrial chain, and completing industrial applications on the value chain, can the industrialization of prefabricated dishes be realized.
