Live fish freshly grilled "activates" the grilled fish track

Since the consumption boom in 2013, grilled fish has been the "seed player"
of the catering track for 10 years.
According to the data, as of 2021, the market size of China's grilled fish industry will reach 110.
45 billion yuan, an increase of 13.
8% over 2020, and it is expected to maintain a growth of about 12% in the future.

Due to the increasingly fierce market competition, major brands began to seek a way out, innovation and quality have become the breakthrough of the grilled fish market, and the pursuit of tender taste has made many grilled fish brands turn to the "live fish camp"
.

From live fish to chilled fish

In fact, the traditional grilled fish mode is to use live fish, and the use of chilled fish and frozen fish as raw materials for grilled fish is a model
developed in recent years with the maturity of domestic technology.

Early grilled fish was not as popular as it is today, and the form was more casual and less
standardized.
Today's grilled fish shops are generally specialized, while earlier grilled fish shops not only sold grilled fish, but also sold boiled fish, stone pot fish, and some stores also operated Sichuan cuisine stir-fry, and even operated chicken clay pots and spicy hot
.

In the late 90s of the 20th century, some grilled fish stores with defective kitchens could only place grilled fish racks outside the store, but this made the store unexpectedly popular
.
Because of the outdoor grilled fish, the freshness of the fish is completely transparent, and the aroma wafting from the grilled fish has also become a sharp tool for the store, and consumers are easily attracted to the store
when they smell the fragrance.

In the 21st century, some stores that grill fish in the back kitchen also put the grilled fish rack outside the door, and because customers found that customers were more concerned about whether the fish they ate was alive, some clever bosses directly wrote the grilled fish on the
signboard.

Streetside grilled live fish has become popular, directly from a dish in the restaurant to a star item in the streets and food stalls, and some food streets will even appear four or five grilled live fish shops within 20 meters, and the waiters of two adjacent grilled live fish shops standing on the side of the road to grab customers are the
norm.
At this time, some grilled live fish restaurants with good business began to be consulted by diners whether they could join, and some Chinese food training venues also added grilled fish dishes
.

At this time, grilled fish was completely popular in various food streets, and grilling live fish on the street became a common action
of grilled fish shops.

However, the challenges and pain points of this model of live fish grilling are obvious, and behind the stable supply of live fish in stores is a test
of the brand supply chain.

For example, live chickens, ducks and geese can be transported by oxygen, but the transportation of live fish requires water and oxygen, water temperature, pH value, oxygen content, transportation time, road conditions, etc.
will affect the transportation
of live fish.
The breeding of chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, cattle and sheep has also been standardized for a long time, and there are certain standards for slaughter rates, but the standardization of fish is very difficult, and it is even more difficult to standardize
in depth.
In addition, food safety is also a pain point in the fish supply chain, such as grass carp, sea bass, Qingjiang fish, blackfish, etc.
commonly used in grilled fish restaurants have been exposed to excessive veterinary drug residues such as enrofloxacin and malachite
.

Since restaurants must use live fish, and live fish is difficult to transport over long distances, most grilled fish stores are accustomed to going to the surrounding markets to pick up goods, which also leads to the same grilled fish brand often using different fish in different regions, covering Mekong, sea bass, Qingjiang fish, river group fish, grass carp, black fish, crucian carp and other species
.

As a result, the variety of fish that is difficult to standardize and the standardized restaurant taste results in the taste and texture of grilled fish not being the same even within the same
store.

In order to solve this difficulty, some chilled fish began to enter grilled fish stores, and no emphasis was placed on grilled live fish
.
Longmen grilled fish, born in Guangzhou, generously told customers that he used chilled fish, and the boss believed that chilled fish technology has long been widely used in Japan, Europe and the United States, and grilled fish with chilled fish is also conducive to food safety
.
Some catering people pointed out that from the perspective of more space-saving, perhaps chilled fish will be more suitable for shopping malls
.

Chilled fish uses "liquid nitrogen quick-freezing technology", and some practitioners point out that the freshness of chilled fish after freezing lasts about
a week.
However, chilled fish is still limited by many factors, such as once the fish is slaughtered for more than 4 hours, the tender taste plummets, if the fish is not cleaned in place before freezing or the chilling efficiency is not high, the quality of chilled fish will drop several grades
.
In addition, the marketization of chilled fish is not mature in China, but it is difficult to meet the cost and quality needs
of grilled fish well.

"Grilled live fish" became a marketing gimmick

In the past 10 years that grilled fish has been popular in China, the rapid development of many chain grilled fish brands has been born, and product homogenization and unstable supply chain have become common pain points
faced by many grilled fish brands.
At the same time, with the spread of the epidemic in various parts of the country, it has a great impact on
the normal operation of many terminal catering enterprises.

In order to seize the market, a number of grilled fish brands have restarted to sell "live fish freshly grilled" to create differentiated competitive advantages
.
Walking into these grilled fish shops, you can often see huge glass aquatic tanks, stacked in the most conspicuous places in the store, and a tail of fish cruising
back and forth in the tanks.
In some stores, customers can even go to the aquatic product box under the guidance of the clerk to personally select fish, and the selected fish are first placed on the weighing pan and weighed to meet the customer's requirements before being sent to the back kitchen for slaughtering and processing
.

In August last year, the Jiumaojiu Group, which hatched Taier sauerkraut fish, launched Lai Meimeishan vine pepper grilled fish, which focuses on "live fish freshly grilled", and a special live fish pond is displayed in the store, and a bright-stall kitchen
is also adopted.

In addition to new brands, some brands that have been using frozen fish and chilled fish have also begun to add labels such as "fresh" and "freshly grilled" to the menu as marketing gimmicks
.

A number of brands that have been using live fish have begun to accelerate the capture of consumers' minds, such as fish cool live fish grilled fish, which has been insisting on live fish "selected and grilled to order" for nearly 17 years, and has continued to hold "live fish festivals"
in recent years.
The person in charge outside the riverside city said that live fish will be higher than chilled fish in terms of taste and nutritional value, and the quality will be better
.

Some insiders said that the use of live fish in grilled fish shops can enhance the taste on the one hand, and it is also relatively in line with consumer expectations
under consumption upgrades.
On the other hand, in the era of stock competition, products need to add more value
if they want to win the favor of consumers.
Compared with chilled fish, live fish products are more competitive, and the brand's use of live fish may increase the unit price to a certain extent, which is conducive to the sustainable development
of the brand.

In addition, the cost of live fish is higher than that of chilled fish, and consumers often equate the use of live fish with quality products and powerful brands, and for brands, the use of live fish has become a powerful publicity that helps to shape a distinct brand personality
.

Some store experience scenarios designed around live fish grilled can also enhance the brand's differentiated image in the minds of consumers, such as Ling Huchong Kiln grilled live fish set up a huge copper furnace in the store, so that customers can see the roasting process; Yuku transformed the store's fish tank into a "space capsule", full of technology
.

Strengthen source control to help the category create brilliance again

In 2016, the grilled fish category began a major reshuffle, the popularity of the category declined, and after a lively scene, the entire grilled fish category calmed down
.

Data show that in 2015, the Baidu index of grilled fish keywords reached the highest point so far; From 2016 to 2017, the index fell below the average of 1500 points; In 2018 and 2019, the index fluctuated greatly, but the value also fell below 1500 points several times; In 2020, the index fell to 1047 points, recently flat at around 1100 points, and its value has hardly fluctuated
significantly since 2020.

Some industry insiders pointed out that perhaps it is the supply chain restrictions of live fish and chilled fish, and the grilled fish category has not yet developed a brand
with more than 1,000 stores.
In addition to the above problems, low turnover rate, slow production, lunch failure, low branding rate, etc.
are also related factors
for the slow development of the grilled fish category.

Zhou Gang, director of brand operations outside the riverside city, said that as far as grilled fish is concerned, the core raw material is fish, and fish sales account for more than 50% of total sales, and the quality and food safety of fish should be put at the core
.
Cooperation with large, formal source farms can ensure the food safety of raw materials and make the supply chain more stable
.
In addition, this cooperation is also a traceability mode of raw materials, which can make each batch of fish traceable, which can better ensure the quality and safety
of fish.
Cutting from the source plate can also control the potential risks of the aquaculture plate such as drug residues, and strict acceptance standards and sampling procedures can reduce food safety risks and ensure the quality and safety
of raw material supply.

(Wang Jiayi, comprehensive arrangement)

China Food News(November 08, 2022 Version 06)

(Editor: Wang Jiayi)