What are the popular “pre-prepared meals” like?

The COVID-19 pandemic has made pre-prepared meals the only choice for many people. In fact, pre-prepared meals are a dietary concept that dates back to the industrial era of the last century. Are pre-prepared meals healthy? What should you pay attention to when choosing and eating pre-prepared meals?

Written by reporter Duan Ran, Photo and text editor Chen Yongjie

Interview experts:

Fan Zhihong (Associate Professor, Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, College of Food Science and Engineering, China Agricultural University)

"Where should I go for dinner after get off work?" This simple question often hits the pain point of office workers. After a busy day, where can I go to comfort myself when I am hungry? I am tired of the small restaurants on the roadside, but when I get home, I really don't feel like cooking, and takeout seems too perfunctory. Therefore, many people start to choose "pre-prepared meals".

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Hot sales: the only choice during the epidemic

Since the outbreak, the work and life rhythms of many people have been disrupted. The tight supply chain caused by the outbreak, coupled with the panic in society, has led to a food hoarding war in supermarkets. It was then that people suddenly realized that daily meals had become so troublesome - communities were under lockdown, dine-in was prohibited, takeout was no longer convenient, and there was no time and energy to cook by themselves. So in this awkward May, the concept of "pre-prepared meals" quickly became popular and became the only choice for office workers to satisfy their appetite.

In fact, in my country, pre-prepared meals are nothing new. In recent years, pre-prepared meals have become the main feature of many families' New Year's Eve dinner tables. Compared with waiting in long lines at restaurants or sweating in the kitchen, pre-prepared meals only require one-click ordering, and after they arrive, they can be quickly served by heating them in a microwave or on the stove. This not only greatly saves time and energy, but also preserves the precious "wok flavor" that is often lost in takeout meals.

Under the combined influence of the epidemic, pre-prepared meals are not only a benefit for lazy people, but also a must-have item for many families to stock up. Many companies that focus on pre-prepared meal products have also rushed to the forefront when the catering industry is in a slump, gaining both fame and fortune. Industry giants such as Weizhixiang and Qianwei Yangchu have even landed on the A-share market in one fell swoop, which makes people sigh at how fast the times are changing.

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Originated from 3R: Dietary Concept in the Industrial Age

The concept of pre-prepared meals can be traced back to the 3R catering concept proposed in the United States in the 1940s, namely "instant cooking", "instant heating" and "instant consumption".

At that time, the progress of the food industry gradually improved the food supply chain and preservation technology, and the post-war economic boom led to the development of the catering industry, making 3R catering possible. The hot sales of 3R food gradually liberated the working class from heavy kitchen labor. This trend soon spread to Japan, and Japanese companies followed suit and launched various fast food products. The instant noodles and frozen foods we are familiar with today are actually products of the 3R concept.

In fact, 3R food has already become a regular in the catering industry long before it entered ordinary households. At that time, the fast-growing fast food restaurants entrusted the pre-processing of food to upstream or midstream enterprises, and the restaurants only needed to cook the processed semi-finished products before serving them. "Many restaurants pre-prepare a large amount of ingredients in the central store, and then distribute them in large quantities to various stores, and then simply process them before serving them, such as diced and frozen meat or potato strips. This method is very common in foreign restaurants." Fan Zhihong, associate professor of the School of Food Science and Engineering at China Agricultural University, introduced to reporters. The biggest advantage of doing this is that consumers do not need to wait too long to enjoy it, shortening the dining time. At the same time, it also unifies the taste of dishes in various branches of the restaurant.

However, the final transformation of 3R Food into today's pre-prepared meals was completed in my country. There is no unified industry definition for pre-prepared meals in my country. The "2021 China Pre-prepared Meals Industry Market Prospects and Investment Research Report" released by the China Business Industry Research Institute defines pre-prepared meals quite broadly, namely "finished or semi-finished foods made from agricultural, livestock, poultry, and aquatic products, supplemented with various auxiliary materials, and pre-processed by cutting, mixing, pickling, etc."

In this way, the ham, instant noodles and canned food that we are familiar with can also be included in the category of pre-prepared meals. During the epidemic, many people actually bought canned food and stewed it with other things.

"In a sense, this is also a kind of pre-prepared food," said Fan Zhihong. The report also subdivided pre-prepared food into "ready-to-eat food (food that can be eaten without additional processing, such as canned food)", "ready-to-heat food (food that can be eaten only after heating, such as instant noodles)", "ready-to-cook food (food that needs to be cooked in a pot and then seasoned and cooked before it can be eaten, such as quick-frozen dumplings)" and "ready-to-prepare food (food that needs to be prepared, seasoned, and cooked by yourself)". On the basis of the previous 3R food, the "ready-to-prepare food" category has been added, which means that the process of seasoning and adding ingredients before the food is put into the pot is also left to the diners.

Currently, the hot-selling products on the market with the concept of "pre-prepared meals" are basically "ready-to-heat", "ready-to-cook" and "ready-to-prepare" foods. With these foods, consumers no longer need to go to the supermarket to purchase raw materials, bend over the stove to cut vegetables and meat, and other complicated cooking procedures. They only need to complete the last few steps of heating, steaming and frying to enjoy a delicious meal. It is indeed an additional choice besides ordering takeout, eating out and cooking by themselves.

However, since pre-prepared dishes are basically semi-finished products that are prepared in advance, there is a considerable time gap between the completion of production, the listing and the second preparation and serving. Many consumers are also worried before spending money to buy them: Can the taste and quality of pre-prepared dishes be guaranteed? Will there be excessive food additives in the production process? Will eating too much have adverse effects on the body?

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Industrialized production ensures quality

Fan Zhihong believes that there is indeed a certain loss of nutrition in pre-prepared dishes. "Compared with freshly cooked dishes, pre-prepared dishes will definitely have nutritional differences, such as less vitamins, but the specific extent of nutrient loss depends on its specific processing technology." As for the taste of pre-prepared dishes, Fan Zhihong said: "The taste of dishes is a problem that is difficult to satisfy everyone, but as long as the quality of pre-prepared dishes is up to standard, at least they can be delicious."

However, contrary to the public's past perceptions of "abuse of preservatives and food additives" and "poor food quality" in fast foods such as canned foods and instant noodles, pre-prepared meals actually have more advantages in controlling the quality of dishes. Pre-prepared meals are essentially the product of the modern food industry. The entire production process is completed in the central kitchen of large central enterprises. It has to go through various complex processes such as material selection, cutting, mixing, and steaming. Because it is a large-scale industrial production, in order to ensure the consistency of the product, each process has a corresponding quantitative standard, and most importantly, these production processes that were originally hidden in the relatively private space of the restaurant kitchen are placed in public in the factory, which is more convenient for quality monitoring. "It is equivalent to the entire production process being put on the surface, which is relatively easy to trace." Fan Zhihong explained to reporters.

Talking about food quality issues, Fan Zhihong further pointed out to reporters: "Many years ago, I discovered through research that many restaurants excessively use additives such as flavors, pigments, and nitrites in the kitchen. Some chefs even treat these as a secret recipe." At that time, many restaurant chefs did not have the most basic knowledge of chemistry. Although many food seasoning manufacturers clearly stipulated the dosage, most chefs still used them based on subjective experience, which ultimately led to excessive use of additives.

In the central kitchen where pre-prepared meals are produced, the production process is carried out according to the quantitative quantity, eliminating the influence of the chef's personal experience and subjective assumptions, which greatly restricts the abuse of additives in pre-prepared meals and guarantees the food quality to the greatest extent - of course, these ultimately rely on perfect laws, standards and management systems. "As a new thing, the management of pre-prepared meals must keep up. It is necessary to clarify who will manage it, how to manage it and what the management standards are, so as to help the industry develop more healthily." Fan Zhihong told reporters.

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Choosing pre-prepared meals: nutritional balance is the key

In theory, pre-prepared meals do not have problems such as excessive additives and poor quality, but as ordinary consumers, you still need to keep your eyes open during the purchase process and pay special attention to whether the important information on the pre-prepared meal packaging (including food processing and production units, addresses, contact information, production dates, etc.) is compliant. You must choose pre-prepared meal products produced by regular companies with a guaranteed reputation. Of course, on the basis of careful selection, when we cook and enjoy pre-prepared meals, we must also make reasonable nutritional dietary combinations based on the characteristics of different products.

"The most important thing is not to let the pre-prepared food you choose interfere with your nutritional balance." Fan Zhihong emphasized to the reporter. She believes that the biggest shortcoming of pre-prepared food is the lack of vegetables! Compared with processed meat and fish, ordinary vegetables cannot be preserved for a long time, and they cannot withstand the "baptism" of multiple processes in industrial manufacturing. Therefore, the pre-prepared food on the market currently has more meat and less vegetables.

If consumers just blindly pursue simplicity and speed and simply cook according to the instructions on the package as the whole meal, it will definitely be detrimental to their personal dietary health in the long run.

Although the emergence of pre-prepared meals has greatly saved our time and energy spent on cooking and improved dining efficiency, we should not blindly pursue speed in everything. Pre-prepared meals only provide us with another option to solve the problem of eating besides take-out, cooking and eating out. The correct way to use pre-prepared meals is to make reasonable combinations based on pre-prepared meals and enrich your diet to the greatest extent within a limited time.

Fan Zhihong suggested that consumers should try to ensure that their meals are diversified: "For example, if you buy a pre-prepared dish of braised beef, you can add some potatoes or carrots when cooking, and then make some blanched lettuce or vegetable salad as a side dish, so that the meal will be richer."