This year's CCTV 315 evening party exposed "Bad Meat in Plum Vegetable Button Meat", and the topic of prefabricated dishes has aroused heated discussions many times, once again deepening consumers' stereotypes of unhealthy and unsafe prefabricated food industry.

In the prefabricated food turmoil, Lao Xiang Chicken, as the head brand in the fast food industry, has been mentioned many times by netizens "Are you pre-made dishes".

On April 8, Lao Xiang Chicken released the "Lao Xiang Chicken Food Safety Open Letter to Consumers", and released a 200,000-word internal traceability report, completely "open source" to respond to the question of whether Lao Xiang Chicken is a prefabricated dish.

Author丨Miao Jian Research Institute

Lao Xiang Chicken released a 200,000-word dish traceability report, completely "open source", do you still dare to eat after reading it?

According to the monitoring data of Miao Jian Information, from 08:00 on April 8, 2024 to 08:00 on April 18, 2024, a total of 9,463 relevant data have been disseminated across the network, and the heat index MJBI is 32.86. #老乡鸡20万字菜品溯源报告# #老乡鸡公开188道菜品制作方式# #老乡鸡餐厅公示菜品加工等级#等相关话题登上微博, Baidu and other platforms have been on the list for a total of 8 times, and the cumulative time on the list is 12 hours.

Miao Jian's information analysis found

In crisis management, a sincere attitude proves to be one of the key factors in dealing with a PR crisis. When companies face challenges, they take the feelings of consumers as the starting point and adopt a transparent and honest communication strategy can often effectively build and maintain public trust. In the face of the crisis of public opinion, Lao Xiang Chicken adopted a sincere and responsible way of communication. By publicly responding to the problem and actively solving it, it not only successfully saved the brand image, but also won wide recognition and positive public opinion response from consumers.
Lao Xiang Chicken's Traceability Report Aims to Respond to Public Concerns: After the 315 Gala was exposed, the prefabricated food industry faced widespread public doubts, and Lao Xiang Chicken, as a well-known brand in the industry, made the public traceability report in order to actively respond to the market's doubts, so as to rebuild consumer confidence.
For example, it may encourage other catering companies to follow suit and strengthen internal management, thereby improving the food safety and quality standards of the entire industry. It is a good start for the catering and prefabricated food industry.
Why public opinion is basically good for the practice of hometown chicken, mainly because the following points have been achieved:

Proactive and transparent: provide complete "right to know" and "right to choose" to consumers. In the face of a crisis of public opinion, Lao Xiang Chicken has chosen a proactive and transparent strategy rather than passive defense, which is often seen as an honest and responsible behavior in the eyes of the public.
Enhance responsibility: The disclosure of a large number of details and data shows the responsibility of Lao Xiang Chicken for public health, and this behavior increases the positive image of the brand. Lao Xiang Chicken's approach seems too honest in the industry, but it has gained more trust from consumers.
Enhance the interactive experience: Real-time monitoring of the opening of live broadcast rooms allows consumers to view the food handling process in real time, a transparent and interactive way that can improve consumer satisfaction and trust.

What did the countryman say in this wave of active responses?

On April 8, the official website, WeChat, and Weibo simultaneously released an open letter, proposing the following three decisions

The original text discloses the internal traceability report of Lao Xiang Chicken: the report has 677 pages with a total of 200,000 words, including 202 supplier details and 484 three-card traceability files (188 traceability cards for restaurant dishes, 136 traceability cards for central kitchen ingredients, and 160 traceability cards for externally sourced raw materials).
Two real-time monitoring live broadcast rooms of [Lao Xiang Chicken Central Kitchen] and [Lao Xiang Chicken Restaurant Back Kitchen] were opened to facilitate the public cloud supervision.
The restaurant will publicize the classification of the processing method of the main meal dishes, and use color as a distinction between freshly made, prefabricated and semi-prepared dishes.

From April 8th to April 9th, the official Weibo continued to publish 7 blog posts detailing the content of the dismantling report and the main actions

The first round: the classification of dishes is revealed
Part 2: Introducing the details of the traceability report
The third round: The preparation method of 188 dishes is revealed
The fourth bullet: the central kitchen is open
The fifth round: 202 suppliers were made public
Sixth: The classification of restaurant dishes is revealed
The seventh bullet: the live broadcast monitoring of the restaurant is public

How does the hometown chicken answer whether it is a pre-made dish?

Lao Xiang Chicken responded with clear data that 70.6% of the dishes were freshly made in the restaurant and were not pre-made dishes.

On March 21, the State Administration for Market Regulation and other six departments jointly issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Food Safety Supervision of Prefabricated Dishes and Promoting the High-quality Development of the Industry", which clearly mentioned that "considering the wide application of the central kitchen model by chain catering enterprises, the clean vegetables, semi-finished products and finished dishes produced by themselves and distributed to their own stores shall comply with the laws, regulations and standards of catering food safety." Dishes prepared in the central kitchen are not included in the scope of pre-made dishes. "Judging from the standards announced by the regulatory authorities, the dishes of Lao Xiang Chicken do not belong to the scope of pre-made dishes.

Why did the hometown chicken send a traceability report in response?

Miao Jian Information crawled the comment text about the content of "prefabricated dishes" before the response of Lao Xiang Chicken on March 1 for analysis, and used it as a sample to complete the word frequency statistics to generate a keyword word cloud, and the results are as follows:

Judging from the monitoring data, prefabricated dishes maintain a certain degree of discussion heat in the public opinion field, bringing certain "food safety risks, consumer rights risks and public opinion cognitive risks" to prefabricated food products, and the core of the current public opinion controversy is still the issue of product safety and quality and the issue of consumers' right to know the choice.

"catering", "right to know", "right to choose", "raw materials", "food", "trough meat", "publicity", "guarantee" and "food safety" hot words can see the actual needs of the majority of the public, and it is hoped that catering enterprises can publicize the production process, the source of raw materials, ensure food safety, and give consumers the right to know and choose. When the countryman responded, he did the facts, prove himself, and respond to public concerns, so that he became a winner in this wave of responses and won the trust of the public.

What are the concerns of all parties in public opinion?

(1) Mainstream media

Chinese entrepreneur

Open source is not to show others, but to establish a new way of interacting with the outside world through true humility and awe. The hometown chicken seems to be too sincere, but it has gained more trust from consumers.

Triple Life Weekly

Such an attempt, on the one hand, means that Lao Xiang Chicken has become the industry's priority "bright brand" prefabricated food catering brand, and on the other hand, it also gives Lao Xiang Chicken an opportunity to get closer to consumers and enhance mutual trust.

Hangzhou Daily

"Lao Xiang Chicken" has done a big thing, released 200,000 words of traceability information on its official account, directly disclosed the source of raw materials, processing, distribution and technology of the dishes, and showed that more than 70% of the dishes are freshly made in the restaurant, only the braised pork rice and bamboo shoots roast pork are reheated prefabricated dishes, to explain to you very clearly, a catering brand can do such a degree is also commendable!

Zhenghe Island

The country's chicken this time is more serious, not so much to walk behind closed doors, but to open the door themselves, but also in line with their consistent corporate values: sincere and honest, and stand with consumers.

(2) Self-media

AMCC Meat Consumption

As the leader of the domestic Chinese food chain, Lao Xiang Chicken chooses to communicate frankly and take the lead in entering the era of catering transparency. This frankness and courage have won the trust of consumers to a greater extent. Such a public dispelling of customers' concerns about the pre-made dishes of chain restaurants not only did not make the hometown chicken "lose its powder", but instead attracted a large wave of goodwill. It is reasonable to impress consumers with empathy and sincerity, really lean over to listen to the voice of consumers, and finally realize "two-way running".

Notesman

In a sense, the open source of the country's chicken this time is a manifestation of altruism and goodness. The goal of Lao Xiang Chicken Open Source is to solve the needs of users and force themselves to do better. The problem is the starting point of the whole thing, not how much money the countryman will make, nor how to deal with the problem, but how to improve their own management, and then better serve users.

TopMarketing

From the perspective of brand promotion, isn't the transparency of Lao Xiang Chicken's catering a marketing? This kind of social marketing is also what Lao Xiang Chicken is good at. The social media platform has become the main front of brand marketing, and the hometown chicken has quickly and accurately found its own "personality".

(3) Professionals

Wang Peng, researcher of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences and dean of the Institute of Digital Economy of Nanchang Institute of Technology

The proportion of prefabricated dishes made by Lao Xiang Chicken can be regarded as a positive start for the industry's explicit prefabricated dishes. Lao Xiang Chicken's move could spark other catering businesses to follow suit, increasing transparency across the industry.

(4) Netizens

Lao Xiang Chicken's "open source" move has been commented by a large number of netizens, and the comment area of "Lao Xiang Chicken's Food Safety Open Letter to Consumers" Weibo is dominated by positive tendencies, but some consumers also give feedback in the comment area on food hygiene, insufficient dishes and other problems.

Examples of positive views:

Don't look at it, I place an order directly
It's a bit long not to watch, I believe you
Downloaded and named "Hometown Chicken Recipe"
I didn't expect such a detailed report to come out so soon, and I was relieved.
Cloud overseer, that's good
With this attitude, it is worthy of the trust of consumers
If you don't treat me as an outsider, I'll support you Like!
Lao Xiang Chicken is open and transparent about the cooking method of its own ingredients, and consumers' right to know is well protected and supported!

Positive implications for the restaurant industry

In today's consumer market, corporate culture in the F&B industry is increasingly being valued, with transparency and accountability being particularly key. These elements should be seen as part of the company's core values, not just as a contingency in crisis management. Implementing this strategy means that every decision and action in daily operations needs to reflect the company's openness and commitment to social responsibility.
Innovative disclosure and classification standards can greatly increase consumer trust in food safety and quality. For example, by disclosing detailed information about the origin, processing and nutrition of ingredients, companies can not only improve consumer satisfaction, but also establish a competitive advantage in the marketplace. In addition, this transparency strategy also helps companies to manage internally, through standardized processes, enhance synergies between departments, and optimize product quality control and supply chain management.
Communication between food companies and consumers should be a two-way street. Companies need to focus not only on producing high-quality products, but also on how to effectively communicate these efforts to consumers. This includes leveraging social media platforms, customer service, and transparent marketing strategies to build an ongoing dialogue with consumers. In this way, consumers can more intuitively understand the value of the product, which in turn strengthens brand loyalty and market share.

A review of classic cases in the history of crisis response

In 2023, Fat Donglai "8-page investigation report" incident

At 21:10 on June 19, 2023, the user "Feiyan Walking on the Wall" posted a Douyin video, the content of which was "The first time I saw the person who made a noise from Fat Donglai" According to the description of the Fat Donglai investigation report, the length of the video is 54 seconds, and the content shows that it is at the weighing table of Times Supermarket, and the customer loudly scolds a male employee throughout the whole process, with fierce words, including hurtful words and hand pointing movements. During this period, the employee replied with a brief speech and was dissuaded by the shift leader, but he bowed his head and did not make a sound, and several other employees next to him dissuaded him. The video is currently invisible.

Fat Donglai: When there was no sign of the spread of the incident, Fat Donglai chose to take the initiative to release the investigation report of the incident. In addition to being responsible for customers and employees, the 8-page survey report puts service first on paper.

In 2022, 315 exposed "soil pit sauerkraut", and Taier sauerkraut fish responded

On the evening of March 15, the 2022 "3.15" party exposed the "soil pit" sauerkraut without any food safety guarantee: if you eat the sauerkraut in your mouth, it is likely to be "soil pit" sauerkraut that is not cleaned at all, trampled by workers with their feet, mixed with cigarette butts, and even additives such as preservatives that exceed the standard by 2 to 10 times.

The catering brand Taier Sauerkraut Fish released its own food quality inspection report for the first time, taking advantage of the crisis of the upstream industrial chain and quickly getting out of the circle. Taier's move has driven at least a dozen related companies to release test reports, boosting the confidence of target consumers and promoting the brand.

The 2017 Haidilao rat gate incident

On August 25, 2017, Haidilao was exposed by an undercover reporter from the Legal Evening News to a series of food safety problems such as rats running around in the back kitchens of Beijing Jinsong store and Taiyanggong store, mixing cleaning dustpans and tableware in the same pool, digging out the sewer with a hot pot colander used by customers, and then putting it in a pot containing tableware to be cleaned together, which aroused widespread concern in the society. At 2 p.m. on the same day, Haidilao's official Weibo issued a letter of apology for the "rat incident", admitting that the problem was true, apologizing and deciding to rectify it; On August 27, Haidilao issued a statement on actively implementing rectification and actively accepting social supervision.

It was a successful crisis PR. Haidilao's two statements minimized the damage and were even praised for its swift and responsible handling.

Lao Xiang Chicken released a 200,000-word dish traceability report, completely "open source", do you still dare to eat after reading it?

In 2023, Fat Donglai "8-page investigation report" incident