Source: Zhongxin Jingwei
The takeaway you spend a few tens of yuan on may be a cooking bag that has been prepared for a long time.
Text | Yan Shuxin Fu Yumei
Edit | Lin Wansi Zhao Jiaran
Review | Sun Qingyang
On November this year, you did not go to see the crowds, but "lay flat" at home. I slept until the afternoon, and then I remembered that I had not eaten. At this time, you pick up your mobile phone and make a big meal for yourself on the takeaway platform. Unexpectedly, after a while, I received a call from the takeaway brother: trouble go downstairs to take the takeaway.
While praising the takeaway brother for his strength, you also wondered: How can it be so fast?
The answer may be in the cooking bag. The sight of the food bag has penetrated into the takeaway we order every day, and the variety is eye-opening. Zhongxin Jingwei saw on a cooking bag procurement platform that from porridge flour rice to soup pot dishes, it can be said that everything is complete, and it can be eaten in 3 minutes by simply heating.
"Cooking bag" takeaway gross profit of up to 70%?
Heat with water for a few minutes, open the package, a steaming back pot meat, fish shredded meat, kung pao chicken... That's it. Then, they become your takeaways.
Recently, Zhongxin Jingwei chatted with several food bag suppliers as a purchaser, and found that you spend dozens of yuan on takeaway, the cost is only less than 10 yuan, and it was done a year ago.
Chen Xin (pseudonym), a supplier in Yibin, Sichuan, told Zhongxin Jingwei that takeaway shops use cooking packages in the industry, which is cheap, time-saving, labor-saving, and can also ensure the standardization of dishes.
There are nearly 70 kinds of cooking bags in Chen Xin's shop, including main dishes, side dishes, next meals, soups, etc., and the price is mostly between 3-10 yuan. Some of these packages can be stored at room temperature with a shelf life of 6 months, while some require freezing at minus 18 degrees Celsius with a shelf life of one year.
"Now takeaway shops are basically using cooking bags, especially those who have dozens of dishes, and when it comes to noon, a chef can't fry at all, and it must be a cooking bag." Yu Xiang (pseudonym), a food bag supplier in Chengdu, also said.
Liu Ming (pseudonym), whose store is in Fuzhou, also mentioned that the application of cooking bags has become very common in the industry, and he has repeatedly emphasized that the use of cooking bags can greatly improve the gross profit of takeaway businesses.
In the promotion list provided by Liu Ming, a Kung Pao chicken diced cooking bun priced at 6.5 yuan, plus brine eggs, vegetables and rice, is a beautiful takeaway package. And all this stuff adds up, the cost is only 8 yuan. If it is sold for 20 yuan, the gross profit is as high as 60%, and if it is sold for 27 yuan, the gross profit is as high as 70%.
Zhongxin Jingwei searched for "Kung Pao Chicken Rice" within the scope of delivery on the takeaway platform, and the price was basically 20 yuan to 27 yuan.
In Liu Ming's store, most of these food bags are priced at only a few yuan, and the cheapest is a vegetarian set of 1.8 yuan, and the shelf life is also 6 months to 1 year, which needs to be frozen. "When you want to use it when you want to freeze it, you can take it out, it won't be broken, and it won't affect the taste."
"Restaurants, takeaways, airports, tea restaurants, Internet cafes, we all have supplies, as long as it is heated in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, you can eat." Yu Xiang said that it can also provide customized services for customers, that is, the so-called "OEM", "from 100 pieces of single products, starting from 5 single products, you can make cooking packages according to the recipe given by customers, without recipes, we can also provide recipes."
On the e-commerce platform, there are also many merchants selling takeaway food bags of various flavors, the price of a single package is usually less than 10 yuan, the shelf life is more than one year, and it only needs to be heated for a few minutes when used.
Zhongxin Jingwei saw in a store that 8 cooking bags are only 40 yuan, and the taste is optional. "The amount of our products is set for the fast food industry's rice bowls, pot rice, and business set menus, and the amount of one main course per package is enough." Customer service said that its products use a stir-frying process, which is the same as the taste of freshly fried.
Screenshot of Taobao on the food bag product on the e-commerce platform
Consumers: Do not oppose the food bag, but to ensure food safety
Can consumers accept the strange food bags in the industry?
Netizens disagree on this. Some people think that "the cooking bag is always much cleaner than the black workshop" "The central kitchen is clean and hygienic" "I don't oppose the cooking bag, but we must ensure food safety"; some people say that it is unacceptable, "I can't stand not being fresh, even if it is a clean and uniform frozen bag, it is a little longer than a year".
Some netizens commented on Weibo screenshots
Ms. Xiong, a white-collar worker in Beijing who often orders takeaways, told Zhongxin Jingwei that under the premise of ensuring cleanliness, hygiene and production standards, she can accept some merchants to use takeaway food bags, but she believes that these merchants should truthfully inform consumers of the use of the use.
In fact, few merchants will actively tell consumers that they are using food bags. Consumers can't tell.
"I ordered a takeaway before, and the delivery distance was not very close, and it was also the peak of the order, but it was delivered quickly. I suspected they were using a food bag, so I called the merchant, but the merchant insisted that it was made. Ms. Li, a Consumer in Beijing, told Zhongxin Jingwei.
Screenshot of Ms. Li's takeaway order tracking
Screenshots of the order show that Ms. Li received the takeaway 14 minutes after placing the order, of which it took only 2 minutes from the merchant to the rider to pick up the meal.
Ms. Luo encountered a similar situation. According to Ms. Luo, she ordered a takeaway some time ago, and the whole process from placing an order to receiving a meal call from the rider was only 5 minutes. Ms. Luo also suspected that the merchant used a cooking bag. Zhongxin Jingwei once consulted the takeaway merchants mentioned by Ms. Luo as a consumer, and the relevant staff said that all of their takeaways were freshly made.
Yu Xiang said that whether the takeaway business has used a cooking bag, consumers can not eat at all, even if it is found by the relevant departments, it does not matter, "we have production qualifications, each product is in line with national standards, there are also test reports, even if it is found, it is not afraid." ”
A shop specializing in selling food bags on an e-commerce platform is also introduced on the product detail page, and its products are "identity, food safety", business license, food production license and other certificates are complete.
An e-commerce platform merchant said that its product certificate is complete Taobao screenshot
Li Min, a senior partner at Shanghai Hansheng Law Firm, told Zhongxin Jingwei that the law does not clearly stipulate the extent to which businesses need to inform consumers under what circumstances. "It can only be said that if consumers ask, then merchants must answer truthfully to ensure that consumers' right to know is not infringed."
In addition, Li Min mentioned that to judge whether the takeaway business has infringed on the consumer's right to know, it mainly depends on the subjective will of the other party, whether it has clearly stated that its product is not a cooking bag, or implied through some behaviors, remarks, etc., and cannot simply believe that the merchant has not taken the initiative to say that it has used the cooking bag.
The report said that the market size can reach trillions
In fact, takeaway food bags are just one type of pre-made dish.
As early as 2000, semi-finished vegetable production enterprises appeared in China. The main customers of semi-finished vegetable enterprises are franchisees in the region, including fresh food stores, farmers' market vendors, supermarkets, etc., and a small number of products are directly sold to restaurants and end consumers.
Under the trend of "lazy house economy", the prefabricated vegetable market has developed rapidly, and some institutions even predict that it will reach a trillion scale in the future. According to the "2021 China Prepared Vegetable Industry Market Prospects and Investment Research Report" recently launched by the China Commercial Industry Research Institute, the current stock of China's prepared vegetable market is about 300 billion yuan, and if it is estimated at a compound growth rate of 20% per year, China's prepared vegetable market can grow into a trillion yuan market in the next 6-7 years.
However, the prefabricated vegetable industry is currently filled with a large number of workshop processors.
Anxin Securities believes: "We are optimistic about the development prospects of the prefabricated vegetable industry for a long time, but we believe that the overall production threshold of the industry is not high, the threshold for research and development is low, and the current prefabricated vegetable professional enterprises are still in the fierce 'flock of deer' stage, and it is urgent to solve the problems of production scale, off-site replication, logistics and transportation, etc., and there is no industry leader." ”
Gao Yang, head of CMO, new retail and retail business department of Xinliangji Food Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., said in an interview with Zhongxin Jingwei that prefabricated ingredients and semi-finished ingredients are still in a stage of gradual development, "in this process, the front-end market and the back-end supply chain need to be further matched." ”
The cover and introduction images are from the public photo library of the official account; the screenshots of Ms. Li's takeaway order tracking were provided by the respondents