Pre-made dishes add flavor to consumers' healthy eating

"A table in 30 minutes" "Everyone can easily become a chef".
.
.
During the National Day holiday, many catering companies cooperated with e-commerce platforms to develop pre-made dishes for sale
.
Open an e-commerce app at random, enter pre-made dishes or convenience dishes, quick dishes, and a large number of dish information will pop up: shredded fish flavored meat, plum chop meat, cumin lamb chops, vegetable spring rolls.
.
.
Attractive pictures with prices ranging from a dozen to dozens of dollars, 100,000+ reviews under the link, and web pages of different brands one after
another.
So, can pre-made dishes have both "appearance" and meet people's needs for nutrition?

Whether it's delicious or not, taste it to know

According to the standards issued by the China Cuisine Association, pre-made dishes are made by pre-processing (such as slitting, stirring, pickling, tumbling, forming, seasoning, etc.
) and/or pre-cooking (such as stir-frying, frying, roasting, boiling, steaming, etc.
) using one or more agricultural products as the main raw materials, using standardized assembly operations, and pre-packaged finished or semi-finished dishes
.

It is understood that many factors such as production process, freezing technology and reheating methods will affect the taste
of pre-made dishes.
Some institutions have conducted sensory evaluation on more than 50 kinds of products from different manufacturers from aroma, taste, comparison before and after cooking, etc.
, and the results show that under the condition of different taste reduction of different dishes, the taste reduction of meat dishes is higher than that of fish and shrimp, and the taste reduction of boiled products is higher than that of fried
.

"More salt and oil" is also a problem
that consumers have reported more.
In this regard, Yang Xiaoguang, vice president of the Chinese Nutrition Society, pointed out that this is a market behavior
.
"The market is to meet demand, the taste of salt and oil is often more attractive to consumers, if the company produces less oil and less salt, the sales volume is low, and it cannot make money
.
" So the most important thing is to cultivate consumer preferences
.
”

Professor Fan Zhihong of the College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering of China Agricultural University reminded that a day's meals are composed of a variety of foods, and one food cannot determine the quality of
the meal.
Problems such as less ready-to-eat ready-to-heat pre-made vegetables and more salt and oil can be solved
by matching foods with less oil and less salt.

Loss of nutrients does not mean that there are no nutrients

Are there still nutrients in prepared dishes? Is it healthy to eat prepared dishes? This is a topic
that many consumers care about.
"After the heat processing of prepared dishes, the nutrients lost are mainly vitamins and a small amount of minerals in vegetables, and dietary fiber is not greatly lost
.
As long as meat products are fresh and of good quality, there is not much
protein loss after heating.
Xu Yingxia, deputy chief physician of the Department of Clinical Nutrition of Beijing Tiantan Hospital, said
.

"In fact, whether it is home cooking or factory processing, it will cause the loss
of nutrients.
Heating will make vitamin C lose, stir-fry will generally lose 20%-30% or even less, if the stew is very rotten loss will be more than half
.
Frying, breaking will have oxidation loss, vegetable cells are destroyed, air is directly in contact with nutrients in the cells, will cause the loss
of carotene, anthocyanins and other nutrients.
Fan Zhihong introduced that in theory, compared with food reasonably prepared on site with high-quality fresh natural ingredients and consumed immediately, the nutritional value of food stored at room temperature or frozen for several months after preparation will be reduced
.
And after it is done, it should cause more nutrient loss
than a single heating.

But it cannot be generalized
.
Fan Zhihong introduced: "If done well, pre-made dishes can also have a high nutrient preservation rate; If it is not done well, even if it is processed on site, it will cause a high rate
of nutrient loss.
Pre-processed ingredients do not necessarily have no nutritional value
.
Fan Zhihong explained that research data from various countries prove that reasonable frozen ingredients can still preserve most of the nutrients
.
Therefore, in the European and American dietary guidelines, frozen vegetables and fresh vegetables are classified together, and consumers are also encouraged to eat
.
Such as frozen tender peas, tender beans, carrots, sweet corn kernels, etc.
, have become part of
the daily cooking ingredients.
Ingredients such as canned tomatoes, canned mushrooms, and canned corn shoots are also often found in
various restaurant dishes.
"Those quick-frozen shredded meat, fish fillets, shrimps, etc.
that have been processed and can be put into the pot after opening the bag, are no more
nutrient loss than buying frozen frozen fish and cooking it at home.
" Fan Zhihong said
.

The "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents (2022)" recommends that people have vegetables in their meals and ensure that they consume no less than 300 grams of fresh vegetables
every day.
Obviously, this is difficult to achieve
with only eating pre-made dishes.
Fan Zhihong suggested, "You can mix some vegetables while eating pre-made dishes, and you can eat tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, etc.

raw without cooking conditions.
" At home, you can also steam pumpkin, greens, etc.
with the help of simple cooking tools, and you can eat fresh vegetables
in just a few minutes.

(Li Qi)

China Food News (October 13, 2022, Edition 06).

(Editor: Zhu Meiqiao)