Nation develops appetite for pre-made food(3)

Niche market

In addition to spring bamboo shoots, balloonfish, which is usually found only in high-end restaurants, is being delivered to customers nationwide by Freshippo.

This fish, which is well known in areas alongside the Yangtze River, is now transported to other parts of China, and has become relatively popular in the north and southwest of the country.

To make cooking the fish easier, a seasoning bag made from balloonfish soup is added to each pre-cooked product.

Chen Huifang, who is responsible for Freshippo's pre-cooked food business, said that from mid-February to this month, the platform launched about 40 pre-cooked products for spring, and each dish, such as yan du xian, is fast-produced.

In the past five years, Freshippo has established 300 supply chains for fresh food products, Chen said. In August, supply chain centers started operating in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, and Wuhan, the Hubei provincial capital, as well as a special kitchen for the platform's ready-to-cook, ready-to-heat and ready-to-eat offerings, known as 3R products.

A regional research and development center was also set up in the main kitchen in Chengdu to create new pre-cooked products with regional features. This kitchen has shortened the launch time for a new product to three days, compared with two weeks previously.

Tian Xin, general manager of Freshippo's 3R product center, said that in 2019, the platform brought roasted fish, a dish only found in restaurants, to its cold storage shelves. The dish has been a success since it launched.

"Roasted fish is not easy for customers to cook at home, so we thought that if we could turn it into a pre-cooked product that largely retained the flavor found in a restaurant, it may gain market recognition," Tian said.

He added that pre-cooked roasted fish, which is now available in five flavors, brings Freshippo an annual income of more than 25 million yuan.

Tian thinks that in addition to the appealing flavor of dishes, convenience is a key factor. "If a pre-cooked dish cannot be heated by a microwave or air fryer, it won't attract customers," he said.

Full industrial chain

To meet growing demand for quick and convenient meals during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dingdong Maicai established a pre-made food department in June 2020, which now operates more than 40 factories. Last year, its pepper pork belly and chicken soup products generated sales of 80 million yuan.

Ou Houxi, who is responsible for the platform's pre-made food, said there has been growing demand.

In February, Dingdong Maicai said it was making an offer worth 5 billion yuan to recruit partners across all links of the industrial chain to improve its pre-made food products.

As more than 20 percent of its customers are 30 or younger, the platform is developing more Chinese cuisine pre-made products to meet demand for food with a low oil and salt content. "This year, we are taking a healthier path," Ou said.

Zhu He, food scientist at Dingdong Maicai, has developed a drunken chicken pot product, for which each ingredient and seasoning, including salt, is measured precisely to the gram.

An executive chef at a five-star hotel before switching to food research and development, one problem for Zhu in his new career is how to turn a chef's version of a dish into a pre-cooked product.

"If I boil 2 kilograms of water for two hours in a kitchen, half of it will evaporate, while in the factory only about 20 to 30 kilograms of water per hour will vaporize in a 400-kilogram pot," Zhu said.

"As a chef, I use a whole chicken to make one portion of soup, which is fine. But I needed to think about ways to produce a full portion in each pre-cooked soup product. Finally, we separated the chicken wings and legs, before steaming them. When we package the soup, each part is added in succession.

"In industrial production, each dish is separated in different steps, with each worker only responsible for a single step before all the parts are packaged."

Zhu said the faster a product is frozen, the better it retains its original flavor.

"Working in a hotel, you might only serve certain people, while for pre-made dishes, you cater to all customers. Each day, we are creating new things, and I enjoy experimenting with new dishes," he added.