New regulations were introduced to strengthen standardized supervision - to make prepared dishes more comfortable to eat
No preservatives should be added to the prepared dishes, and the use of prepared dishes should be made clear - recently, the State Administration of Market Supervision and other six departments jointly issued the Notice on Strengthening the Supervision of Food Safety of Prepared Vegetables to Promote the High Quality Development of the Industry (hereinafter referred to as the Notice), which for the first time clarified the definition and scope of prepared dishes and strengthened the supervision of prepared dishes. What do consumers think about this? How to adjust restaurants and supermarkets? How will it affect the industry?
Define the scope of prepared dishes
——Prefabricated dishes should have both the characteristics of prefabrication and dishes, and can be eaten after heating or cooking
March 23 is the first weekend after the introduction of the new rules for prefabricated dishes. The reporter visited several restaurants in Beijing. Both consumers and businesses said they knew that there was a new standard for prefabricated dishes. However, many restaurants mentioned that they had not received specific notice at present. Some restaurants clearly would not use prefabricated dishes, and some restaurants responded that if there were unqualified prefabricated dishes in their stores, New management measures such as the publicity of menu prefabrication dishes will be studied and issued in time.
In the "soup shop" in the Beijing World Financial Center, various ingredients such as sausages, scallops, seafood sauce, vinegar and other spices are neatly stacked in the refrigerator. "We don't use prefabricated dishes, the main thing is transparency and openness." The clerk said to the reporter, "All kinds of food materials are transported to Beijing by air from their origin, stored in the freezer in the hall and marked with the date for consumer supervision." After careful observation, the reporter saw the label with the detailed production date written on the food packaging bag.
During the interview, the reporter found that many restaurants take "not using prefabricated dishes" as an important element to attract customers, and highlight the publicity in the store.
"The dishes in our store are cooked and stir fried, but the store will prepare the prepared material bags in advance to improve the efficiency of dish delivery." At the Hilton store in Beijing, Tang Palace, the clerk said to the reporter, "The material bags are all ready to use on the same day, made by the central kitchen in a unified way, and there is no case of adding preservatives." However, the clerk still has doubts about the scope of prefabricated dishes: cut clean vegetables Are the pastries made in batch counted as prepared dishes?
"Prefabricated dishes should have both the characteristics of prefabrication and dishes." The relevant person in charge of the State Administration of Market Supervision explained that according to the new rules, dishes produced by the central kitchen are not included in the scope of prefabricated dishes. Prefabricated dishes should highlight the characteristics of dishes. Clean dishes that are simply processed and not cooked, such as cleaning, peeling, and slicing, belong to edible agricultural products, not prefabricated dishes. The staple food products such as quick-frozen noodles and rice food, convenience food, boxed rice, covered rice, steamed bread, pastries, meat buns, bread, hamburgers, sandwiches, pizza, etc. are not pre prepared dishes.
In addition, the definition of prepared dishes emphasizes heating or cooking before eating. Heating refers to the process of heating food to edible state, that is, simple reheating of pre processed products before consumption. Cooking refers to the process of cooking food through frying, frying, roasting, boiling, steaming, etc., that is, the food is not fully cooked in the pre processing stage, and can be eaten only after it is thoroughly cooked. Ready to eat food that is not heated or cooked, and cold dishes such as vegetable (fruit) salad that can be eaten directly are also not pre prepared dishes. This means that the mode of "central kitchen", which is commonly used by chain restaurants to produce dishes and then distribute them to each branch, does not belong to the pre prepared dishes defined in the new regulations.
In the offline store of Hema fresh food, semi-finished dishes such as sweet and sour pork tenderloin, beef with peas, and three delicacies stewed with fish and bean curd are popular with consumers. In the ingredient list, the reporter did not see potassium sorbate, nisin and other commonly used food preservatives. "The fresh-keeping time of these semi-finished vegetables is within 5 days, so no preservatives need to be added." The clerk said, "Our semi-finished vegetables are not simply processed clean vegetables. Most of the ingredients are pickled, and the proportion of ingredients is uniform. Consumers can buy them and fry them according to the steps, so the sales volume is high."
"Previously, the threshold of prefabricated dishes was relatively low, and some enterprises thought that frozen dishes could be called prefabricated dishes." Cheng Li, vice president of the School of Food, Jiangnan University, said, "Because the process is simple and replicable, everyone can do it, which is easy to form non-standard competition, and some good enterprises are difficult to survive." Cheng Li told reporters, It has always been the industry's expectation to establish a unified standard and conduct strong supervision for the prefabricated vegetable industry. "Why is it difficult to supervise and establish standards for prepared dishes? Because the raw materials are too complex, one prepared dish may involve multiple food raw materials and condiments, so it is difficult to supervise. We have always expected to introduce scientific and unified regulatory policies and standard rules at the national level, so that this industry can develop more healthily. The issuance of the notice points out the direction for the industry, which can be described as "timely rain". " Cheng Li said.
Express the promotion of prefabricated dishes
——Ensure consumers' right to know and choice, and meet the requirements of large-scale, standardized, clean and standardized
Consumers have different views on prepared dishes. Some consumers talk about "pre" color change, while others think "taste first".
Prefabricated dishes can be roughly divided into three categories: frozen products that can be eaten after simple reheating, fried foods that need certain cooking tools such as air fryers, and semi-finished dishes that have certain requirements for consumer cooking technology. "The manufacturing difficulty of these three kinds of prefabricated dishes increases in turn, and the convenience decreases in turn." Industry insiders told reporters that, from the taste, semi-finished dishes are the most "pot like" and the best to eat, followed by fried foods, and frozen products have the lowest degree of recovery to the taste.
"I don't have deep concerns about prepared dishes." Jia Xiyuan, a post-95 girl who lives in Shanghai, said, "I am too busy at work and seldom cook by myself, but I like to study air frying pan food. I have stocked up a lot of crispy meat, chicken nuggets, grilled chicken wings, etc. When I want to eat, I don't need to defrost them. It is very convenient to cook with air frying pan. As long as it is delicious and the additives meet the national food safety standards, I don't care whether it is a prepared dish or not. " However, Jia Xiyuan believed that the proportion of prefabricated dishes in some small restaurants on the takeaway platform was quite high, and the taste of Kung Pao chicken, beef covered rice and other dishes was almost the same. "When I ordered takeout before, I asked the merchants if they were prepared dishes, but the merchants denied it. I hope that the introduction of the new rules will enable the merchants to publicize which dishes are prepared in the menu as soon as possible, and I can eat them with confidence," she said.
Promoting the use of prefabricated dishes in catering is an important measure to protect consumers' right to know and choose and respond to social concerns. The relevant person in charge of the State Administration of Market Supervision said that Article 8 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Consumers' Rights and Interests stipulates that consumers have the right to know the true situation of the goods they have purchased or used or the services they have received. At present, consumers are generally concerned about the use of prefabricated dishes in the catering link, and expect catering merchants to publicize the use of prefabricated dishes.
Chen Yuan, a young man from Beijing, keeps all the prepared dishes at a distance. "I think the biggest feature of Chinese food is that it has' pot gas'. The prefabricated dishes that can be eaten after simple reheating have a uniform taste and no 'pot gas', so they are not as delicious as the ones cooked and stir fried now." Chen Yuan said, "In addition, I am also worried about whether the raw materials of the prefabricated dishes are healthy and safe, and whether the additives meet the national standards. I don't want to turn diversified Chinese food into industrial products and lose the 'soul' of food. "
In response to consumers' concerns about the food safety of prepared dishes, the relevant person in charge of the State Administration of Market Supervision said that prepared dishes should have and meet the characteristics and requirements of large-scale, standardized, clean and standardized food production and processing, so as to give better play to the advantages of food industrialization. "Enterprises producing prefabricated dishes should obtain food production licenses according to law, comply with relevant requirements of national laws, regulations and standards on prepackaged food, and strengthen risk control in the whole process of purchase inspection, process control, factory inspection, storage and transportation, sales and use." The person in charge said, "Considering that the central kitchen mode is widely used by chain catering enterprises, the clean dishes, semi-finished products and finished dishes produced by them and distributed to their own stores should meet the requirements of laws, regulations and standards on food safety."
Study and formulate unified national standards
——Overall formulate rigorous and unified standards covering the production and processing of prefabricated vegetables, refrigeration and freezing, cold chain logistics and other links, and define and standardize the food safety requirements for prefabricated vegetables
Consumers pay great attention to the use of preservatives in prepared dishes while pursuing fast, convenient and delicious food.
The relevant person in charge of the State Administration of Market Supervision said that although the prefabricated dishes have been industrially prefabricated, they still belong to the category of dishes. Consumers generally do not add preservatives in the cooking process of dishes. It is more in line with consumers' expectations that no preservatives are added to the prepared dishes.
"This is also an approach that takes into account the actual situation of the industry, and helps lead the prefabricated vegetable industry to high-quality development." Cheng Li said that the "unnecessary addition" of food additives and "reducing the use of food additives in food as much as possible under the premise of achieving the desired effect" have gradually become the consensus of the industry. There is no need to use preservatives for prepared dishes through storage conditions such as freezing and cold storage and post sterilization processes. "Food safety and the addition of preservatives are not 'one out of two'. Other existing food processes are enough to protect the safety of prefabricated dishes, such as quick freezing, whole process cold chain and the upgrading and iteration of packaging technology." Cheng Li said, "In the process of production, storage, transportation and sales of prefabricated dishes, there are high requirements for environment, temperature, humidity, light, etc., and the whole chain food safety risk management and control should be strengthened. Different types of prefabricated dishes should strictly meet the corresponding requirements for refrigeration and other conditions to ensure food safety."
According to the Blue Book on the Development of China's Precast Vegetable Industry in 2023 released at the second China International Precast Vegetable Industry Conference held recently, the market size of China's prefabricated vegetable industry in 2023 will be 516.5 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 23.1%, and it is expected to exceed 1072 billion yuan by 2026.
The prefabricated vegetable market is huge, but there is still a lack of unified national standards. The reporter learned in the interview that at present, the relevant standards of the domestic prefabricated vegetable industry are mainly group standards and local standards, and the unified national standards need to be supplemented. Wang Yunyang, vice president of the School of Food, Northwest A&F University of Science and Technology, told reporters that China's traditional cuisine is huge, its cooking technology is complex and depends on the skills of chefs, so the overall standardization of Chinese food has been relatively low. "This also shows that the domestic market for prefabricated dishes has a great room for development. Today's hot market has also driven the development of domestic food science and technology into a fast lane, and the rational application of food science and technology will promote the better development of prefabricated dishes." Wang Yunyang said.
The Notice specifies that it is necessary to study and formulate national standards for food safety of prepared vegetables. We will formulate rigorous and unified standards covering the production and processing of prefabricated dishes, cold storage and freezing, cold chain logistics and other links, and define and standardize the food safety requirements for prefabricated dishes. Industry insiders believe that the national standards provide the regulatory authority with the basis for supervision and law enforcement, set a red line for operators to comply with production and operation, and also provide a strong guarantee for consumers to safeguard their rights according to law. In the past, the concept of prefabricated dishes was not clear enough, and it was also difficult to formulate a unified national standard. With the improvement of relevant rules and systems, the concept and scope of prefabricated dishes became more and more clear, which provided an opportunity to formulate national standards for prefabricated dishes and promote high-quality development of the industry.
Kong Dechen People's Daily Overseas Edition
