During the National Day, prefabricated dishes have once again become a hot topic of consumption. Some people who go out to eat have found that some restaurants have used "fried now" as a selling point. After on-the-spot visits and expert interviews, we found out four core problems, hoping to uncover the true face of prefabricated dishes.
Question: Is there a definition of prepared food?
Ready-to-eat, hot, cooked and prepared.
During the festival, supermarkets and wholesale markets are crowded. Meat, fruits and vegetables, aquatic products, cooked food … The counter is crowded with consumers.
In some freezers, the reporter saw prefabricated dishes. There are sweet and sour tenderloin, boiled pork slices and fish-flavored shredded pork, and there are also more complicated ones, such as Maoxuewang and fish head with chopped pepper. In addition, there are more upscale "clubhouse only" Buddha jumping wall and pepper chicken. These prefabricated dishes are priced from a dozen yuan to five or six hundred yuan.
In addition to these products clearly marked with prefabricated dishes, what other products belong to prefabricated dishes?
According to the group standard "Product Specification for Precast Vegetables" jointly drafted by a number of catering enterprises and research institutes under the leadership of China Cuisine Association, prefabricated vegetables refer to ready-to-eat, that is, hot, instant-cooking and instant-cooking, which is made by washing, cutting, matching and cooking with one or more ingredients as the main raw materials, with or without auxiliary materials and condiments (including food additives).
It can be seen that the dishes or staple foods covered by prefabricated dishes are very rich, and some dishes that we used to eat often can also be classified as prefabricated dishes.
Celebrity chef Zhang Yanjun told reporters that Chinese food has long had the technique of pre-cooking. The steamed buns, steamed buns and fried forks that we will steam in advance during the Chinese New Year can all be included in the category of pre-cooking. But these prefabricated dishes are familiar to consumers. What consumers don’t understand, often discuss, and are easy to question are all kinds of prefabricated food packages.
Second question: Did you tell me about the prepared dishes?
The right to know has not been implemented yet.
In shopping malls, the dining floor is always the hottest business. The waiter stood in front of the store, holding a menu to sell to consumers. The reporter read it once and asked again, and found that no restaurant would take the initiative to mark the prepared dishes on the menu. Some restaurant waiters directly deny the use of prefabricated dishes, but their brand of prefabricated dishes are sold online, and even emphasize that "it is the same as the store".
There is a dumpling shop, and jiaozi in the shop is all packaged now, but some soup-pot dishes can’t be spicy, because they are prepared and delivered by the central kitchen. A Hunan restaurant said that most of the dishes in the store are freshly fried, and only a small number of noodles are prefabricated dishes. Some Thai restaurants have specially emphasized that the time for serving dishes is a little slow, because all of them are fried now. There are also restaurants that directly put "fresh speculation" on advertisements in conspicuous positions.
The consumer’s right to know has not been implemented yet. If the restaurant clearly marks the prepared dishes, consumers can choose according to their needs.
"Consumers into the hotel, is for the sake of what? If it is to pursue delicious food and the charm of Chinese food, it is inevitable that the taste cannot be ignored. I don’t object to prefabricated dishes, but using prefabricated dishes and on-site production is a different experience for taste buds. " Zhang Yanjun said that in real business, many restaurants have to use prefabricated dishes because of factors such as cost and kitchen standards. A kung pao chicken, the production of prefabricated vegetables is stable and lacks characteristics; Stir-fried is a fresh and jumping taste. "I think the market will give a choice in the end. Consumers who don’t mind prefabricated dishes and consumers who want to taste freshly fried dishes will walk into different stores. "
Third question: Is there a standard for pre-cooked dishes?
One diced chicken has three faces.
In a large supermarket, nearly 20 kinds of prefabricated dishes are placed on the shelves in the semi-finished food area specially set up, and many of them have been sold out. Publicity slogans such as "one dish in five minutes" and "one table in five minutes" highlight the convenience and quickness of prefabricated dishes. Different kinds of dishes are placed in the prefabricated dish area, but the implementation standards of dishes also have their own characteristics.
Even for the same kind of prefabricated dishes, the production execution standards used are different. Take kung pao chicken, a home-cooked dish, as an example. On a supermarket shelf, the product standard number is SB/T10648；; On the package of pre-cooked vegetables promoted by another supermarket, the implementation standard is QB/T 5471; On a shopping platform, the product standard number of a brand kung pao chicken is SB/T10379. After inquiry, it was found that "SB/T10648" was the industry standard of frozen prepared food, "QB/T5471" was the industry standard of instant dishes, and "SB/T10379" was the industry standard of quick-frozen prepared food. In other words, one kung pao chicken has three "faces".
In fact, the industry standard is only one of the standards currently adopted in the field of prefabricated dishes. According to statistics, as of May this year, there are about 120 standards of prepared dishes in various places, including local standards, group standards and enterprise standards, but there is still a lack of national standards.
Yi Zhu, an associate professor at the College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering of China Agricultural University, believes that there are countless production execution standards for prefabricated vegetables in the market at present. However, most of these standards are "turning around in the same place with another name, without going any further." High standards can give birth to high-quality prefabricated dishes. She believes that the state should introduce some mandatory standards for pre-cooked dishes, but in the current situation of mixed markets, it is imperative to encourage enterprises, industries and places to demand themselves with higher standards.
Four questions: Is the prepared dish nutritious?
The market needs "three good" prepared dishes
"It’s convenient to buy prefabricated dishes, but I didn’t think too much about others." A citizen who often buys prefabricated vegetables said that he certainly hopes that prefabricated vegetables can be safe and nutritious, but the reality is that many times the packaging information can’t be understood. At the same time, some citizens believe that the additives used in prefabricated dishes should be more standardized first. "How much each kind has added should be written out."
Compared with some labels of prefabricated vegetables, the reporter saw that information such as ingredient list, nutritional components, shelf life, implementation standards, etc. are usually marked on the packaging of prefabricated vegetables, and some products are also marked with allergen information.
For example, in a kung pao chicken, food additives, compound water retention agents, compound acidity regulators and food spices are marked in the meat package. Among them, acetylated starch adipate, sodium tripolyphosphate, sodium hexametaphosphate and sodium alginate are difficult for consumers to understand.
Yi Zhu said that the public and the market need "three good" prepared dishes that are delicious, easy to cook and nutritious. At present, the public is most worried about the issue of food additives. Pre-cooked vegetable enterprises and industries should understand that additives should be added carefully, "if you can’t add them, don’t add them, if you can add less, you will never add more." At the same time, the current ingredient list of prefabricated dishes is too complicated to be understood by consumers. For example, what are the specific contents of raw materials, energy, protein, fat, dietary fiber, etc. in a prefabricated dish? "It is recommended to label it as a unit, not how much it contains per 100 grams."
Yi Zhu suggested that consumers should carefully read the ingredient list and other information when purchasing pre-cooked dishes. In pursuit of safety and nutrition, they can mainly refer to the sodium ion content. "The lower the sodium ion content, the more they choose it", and they should "vote with their feet" on commodities and enterprises. In order to standardize the healthy and orderly development of the prefabricated dish industry and truly achieve the "three good", we should gradually establish an effective supervision mechanism such as a unified standard system, certification system and traceability system for prefabricated dishes on the basis of establishing and introducing higher standards in the future.