Source: Chief Business Review
A few days ago, Simba appeared in the Kuaishou live broadcast room, and when introducing a "Half Chicken Original Noodle Soup" product, Simba admitted that he was selling pre-made dishes, and said: "Pre-made dishes can be eaten, and they are better for people."
He also mentioned that "pre-made dishes should be eaten by children the most", "it is okay for children to eat a good pre-made food, it is healthier and more hygienic", etc., and then the live broadcast clip was uploaded to the Internet, which immediately sparked heated discussions.
On January 21, in response to the heated discussion on the Internet, Simba responded to the remarks on prefabricated dishes in the live broadcast room, saying that he was taken out of context, saying that everyone should eat good things, not let them eat garbage or bad things, and said that Lao Gan Ma and milk powder are all prefabricated dishes, these are national brands with the spirit of craftsmen, and prefabricated dishes are just a matter of implementing standards.
As a result, the old godmother quit and said that she was a seasoning.
Actually, I'm thinking, is it possible that the pre-made dishes that everyone thinks of are not the same thing?
And I asked a few friends, and everyone's understanding of pre-made food seems to be different, and there are too many pre-made foods in life.
For example, is braised and cooked vegetables a pre-made dish? Is luncheon meat, ham sausage, and sausage a pre-made dish?
So today we're going to talk seriously about pre-made dishes.
Is there a national standard for pre-made dishes?
I quickly went to check what a pre-made dish is? Is there a standard?
According to the replies of Wenxin Yiyan and Tongyi Qianwen, as well as the reports of the media on the Internet, I found that in fact, there is a definition of prefabricated dishes, but no national standard has been officially promulgated. This may be the source of many people's debate.
However, the national standard for pre-made dishes has been submitted to the relevant departments at the end of 2023, and some people predict that there should be results within half a year.
According to media reports, the group standard of "Prefabricated Dishes", which was drafted by the China Cuisine Association and a number of units, is currently the most recognized and widely used standard in the industry. According to the standard, pre-prepared dishes are "finished or semi-finished dishes made with one or more agricultural products as the main raw materials, using standardized assembly operations, pre-processing (such as cutting, stirring, pickling, tumbling, molding, seasoning, etc.) and/or pre-cooking (such as stir-frying, frying, roasting, boiling, steaming, etc.), and pre-packaging".
According to this definition, the industry divides pre-made dishes into four categories: ready-to-eat (e.g. eight-treasure porridge and ready-to-eat canned food), ready-to-heat (e.g. quick-frozen glutinous rice balls, self-heating hot pot), ready-to-cook (semi-finished dishes that need to be heated and cooked), and ready-to-serve (e.g. clean vegetables that are not washed and cut).
In this way, if there are official definitions and standards, there will be a unified standard for everyone to discuss.
Because the cooking of Chinese food is relatively much more complicated, and the tastes and cooking methods are not the same in different places, so how long the ingredients and seasonings can last in the prefabrication process may not be generalized, depending on the specific food. Whether it is healthy or not, everyone may have different opinions, and it depends on the ingredients and how to eat.
The good news is that the national standard is said to require prefabricated dishes to be free of preservatives, look at the follow-up implementation, but for some foods with a short shelf life, no preservatives means that the sales period is short, which may affect the production and sales of some ready-to-eat foods. After all, not all food ingredients can get from the field to the table in just one day.
In fact, it's not that we can't eat convenience food, mainly to see whether it meets safety standards, and also to see the frequency of eating. If they are all according to national standards, then they really don't have the time or conditions to cook their own dishes, and you can rest assured that you can eat pre-made dishes. If it is a ready-to-serve clean dish, it can also be convenient for many office workers to go home and cook it fresh by themselves.
When it comes to pre-made dishes, there are two more points that you need to choose
First, should I give it to my child?
My understanding is that in the main meal distributed by the school, it should be as much as possible to meet the freshly roasted food on the same day, and the taste should not be too heavy, otherwise even if it is fresh, it may not be healthy.
However, please also ask parents who shout not to give their children pre-made dishes, and provide safe, healthy and nutritious food for their children at home, don't eat instant noodles and quick-frozen food + spicy strips every day.
Other pre-made dishes that meet the national standard depend on personal preferences and needs.
Second, should restaurants, takeaways, be marked as coming from pre-made dishes?
Many consumers strongly demand the right to know and can eat pre-made dishes, but they need to know in advance and at a reasonable price.
I think back to some of the small restaurants I have eaten, and the oil and salt of the dishes are very heavy, and I basically don't eat them now.
In other restaurants, the price is not cheap, but many consumers are not satisfied with the pre-made dishes.
After all, when you go to a restaurant, you can eat a good taste, and a lot of good Chinese food needs to be stir-fried.
Anyway, whether they are labeled or not, I eat something that I don't think is fresh enough and the price is expensive, so I won't think about it anymore, I believe everyone's tongue is also very sensitive.
Or if I can see the open kitchen and see the chef freshly burning, then I will also give extra points, so it is no wonder that many delicious small shops are becoming more and more popular, while those cookie-cutter big restaurants are not booming.
In short, although it is inevitable to eat pre-made dishes in life, it does not prevent us from looking for some freshly fried Chinese food.