Have you ever eaten a pre-made meal?
Do you like pre-made dishes?
According to the "2023 Blue Book on the Development of China's Prefabricated Food Industry", the scale of the mainland prefabricated food market has reached 516.5 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 23.1%, and is expected to exceed 1,072 billion yuan by 2026.
However, consumer attitudes towards pre-made dishes are mixed
Some people love how easy it is
Some people dislike it for its lack of "pot gas"
Others are concerned about its food safety
In the stage of rapid development
Pre-made dishes do have a generalization of the product range
The technology is not up to standard, the production standards are not uniform and other chaos
On March 18, 2024, the State Administration for Market Regulation, together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and other six ministries and commissions, jointly issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Food Safety Supervision of Prefabricated Dishes and Promoting the High-quality Development of the Industry", which clarified that prefabricated dishes should be developed with high quality, because it has positive significance in promoting the deep processing of agricultural products, the transformation of the food industry, consumption upgrading, entrepreneurship and employment, etc., and at the same time, it is more clear that preservatives are not allowed to be added to prefabricated dishes, and the whole chain from production to consumption should strictly meet the requirements of freezing and refrigeration to ensure food safety.
That is to say, in the future, if pre-made dishes without preservatives want to enter the people's table, they will be inseparable from the "escort" of the cold chain, and the cold chain will become the "guardian knight" of the prefabricated dishes from the "field" and "processing workshop" to the "people's table".
Stay safe
Prefabricated food has extremely high requirements for temperature, because it is extremely rich in protein, fat and other nutrients, requiring fresh raw materials from the field to the workshop, prefabricated vegetables from the factory to the consumer to achieve "no broken chain" cold chain guarantee.
The problem of "broken chain" and "decooling" occurs in any link in the middle, such as the cold chain temperature is not low enough, the refrigeration equipment is intermittently shut down during the transportation process, and the transportation transition is too long, which not only causes the loss of nutrients and the deformation of the appearance of the dish, but also breeds bacteria, affects food safety, and reduces consumer confidence.
Schematic diagram of the whole cold chain of prefabricated dishes
The whole cold chain of prefabricated dishes requires that the pre-cooling of fresh agricultural products start from the production area, and all kinds of refrigeration and freezing facilities and equipment are used as the basis to ensure that all links cooperate closely to ensure the integrity of the cold chain, and the cold chain keeps the safety of prefabricated dishes.
Lock in umami and quality
Whether the prefabricated dishes can restore the deliciousness of the original dishes is the biggest test question faced by prefabricated food companies, and it is also the ultimate test question for consumers to accept the prefabricated dishes. At this time, the cold chain can also help to help the pre-made dishes lock in the umami and quality.
For example, in the freezing process of prefabricated dishes, liquid nitrogen quick-freezing technology can be used to lock freshness. Liquid nitrogen is an ultra-low temperature refrigerant, non-toxic and harmless, vaporized after contact with food, which can reduce the core temperature of food to -18 °C faster and complete quick freezing.
More importantly, when the temperature drops rapidly, the water molecules inside and outside the food cell will form countless evenly distributed fine crystals, which will not puncture the food cell membrane, maintain the integrity of the food microstructure, and cause minimal loss of food cell fluid after thawing, which can retain the original taste, taste, and nutrients of the food to the greatest extent [1]. In addition, in the future, the exploration of new technologies such as magnetic oscillation rapid freezing technology, low temperature and high humidity electrostatic thawing technology, and condensation control technology [2] will further achieve the goal of restoring the flavor of prefabricated food ingredients.
Another example is that under the efficient and intelligent cold chain logistics system, through the use of blockchain, Internet of Things and other information technologies, the shortest link and optimal configuration from production to consumption can be realized, and the prefabricated dishes will be guaranteed to remain fresh when they are delivered to customers.
Improve utilization efficiency
The "Guardian Knight" cold chain has done so much for pre-made dishes, so what can pre-made dishes do for the cold chain?
Pre-made dishes may help break the cold chain dilemma of traditional produce. Compared with developed countries, the construction of cold chain logistics infrastructure for agricultural products in mainland China has always been weak, and cold chain resources are unevenly distributed in time and space.
At the same time, the diversity of agricultural products and seasonality have different requirements and standards for cold chain pre-cooling, packaging, warehousing and transportation operations, resulting in low utilization rate of cold chain facilities in the mainland, high cold chain costs, and it is difficult for agricultural products to maintain the whole cold chain, which makes the loss of fresh agricultural products of fruits and vegetables serious, and the loss of about 12 million tons of fruits and 130 million tons of vegetables has been caused by the problem of cold chain "broken chain" in the mainland every year.
After fresh agricultural products are made into prefabricated dishes, the standardization will be greatly improved, and the regular packaging is conducive to batch packaging, forklift loading and unloading, storage and transportation, as well as digital management such as tracking and traceability, which will help improve the operational efficiency of the cold chain and further promote the standardization of cold chain operations and management of food in the mainland.
Written by: Wang Xinyi, student member of Beijing Refrigeration Society, master student of College of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chinese University