Scientific interpretation of the connotation of prepared dishes

Yang Mingduo

Human diet is from primitive cooking to the gradually formed catering industry, food industry, fast food industry, that is, the food industry, is to meet the needs of human diet in the form of "handmade food", "industrial food" and "fast food
".

There is a very close relationship between the catering industry, the food industry and the fast food industry, and different industries provide people with different processing degrees and different characteristics of food
.
No matter what kind of food, its common characteristics are that it includes three elements: the selection of raw materials, the use of tools, facilities and equipment, and the application of techniques and techniques, so as to cause, adjust and control the interrelationship between people and food; Its different characteristics are the difference in surface ingredients, processing tools, facilities and equipment, and technical techniques, and the difference in the nature of creativity (artistic creation, scientific creation) and the application of knowledge (tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge) to form different traits of food
.
It is precisely because of this difference that people's different levels of dietary needs
can be met.

In addition to the three categories of "industrial food", "handmade food" and "fast food", new types
of prepared dishes have emerged in recent years.
Due to the diversified significance of the development of prepared dishes such as science, economy, society, food safety, nutrition and health, and discipline construction, prepared dishes as a new type of catering food have received extensive attention
from all walks of life.

First, the basic status quo of the development of the prepared vegetable industry

Pre-made dishes first appeared in the United States in the middle of the 20th century, and appeared later
in China.
Since the emergence of the first batch of prefabricated vegetable processing enterprises in China, it has been more than 20 years
.
With the development of cold chain technology and the rise of takeaway, pre-made dishes have been developed to a certain extent
.
Recently, the popularity of prepared dishes has surged, industry participants have increased, consumer groups have expanded, media attention has increased, and the government has also issued corresponding policies to guide
it.
These have provided external conditions
for the development of the prepared vegetable industry.

The development of the prepared vegetable industry has its endogenous driving force
from the demand side.
With the improvement of people's living standards, people's dietary requirements have long been raised from the low level of "eating full" to "eating well", and now they are pursuing "eating healthy" and "eating out of culture", reflecting health and fashion, that is, to meet the needs of people for gourmet life to the greatest extent
.
With its unique advantages, prefabricated dishes allow people to enjoy "delicious" food with balanced nutrition, convenient time and flavor, thus enriching people's eating life and liberating people from family eating and labor
.
Especially in the case that the new crown pneumonia epidemic has not ended, restaurant dine-in is restricted, and people's socialized demand for "outside food" in restaurants has shifted to pre-made dishes, and the consumer market of pre-made dishes C-end (Consumer means consumer, is a product that provides services for individual users, and C-end consumption belongs to final consumption) has become prosperous
。 On the other hand, the B-side (Business refers to enterprises or merchants, which is a service product for enterprises or merchants, and the consumption of the B-side belongs to intermediate consumption), that is, some restaurants, restaurants, hotels, restaurants and other catering enterprises, especially low- and medium-range restaurants, also have broad space
for demand for pre-made dishes.
The introduction of pre-made dishes by catering enterprises can reduce the labor time of chefs, reduce the requirements for the personal technical level of chefs, and greatly shorten the time of serving dishes in takeaway, greatly increasing the scale efficiency of catering enterprises in time and space, and is also an important measure for their transformation and upgrading
.

The development of the prepared vegetable industry has its broad space
from the supply side.
Nationwide, the prefabricated vegetable industry is in full swing under the macro guidance of the government, the participation of industry associations, and the micro-investment of enterprises, not only capital is urgently entering, catering enterprises, food processing enterprises are actively investing, alliances and other platforms are competing to be established
.
At present, there are more than 70,000 prefabricated vegetable related enterprises still operating in China
.
Some institutions predict that in 2023, the turnover of prepared vegetables in China will exceed 500 billion yuan
.
In the next few years, the C-end and B-end of prepared vegetables will be made at the same time, and the pre-made vegetable market will accelerate its development
.

The development of the prepared vegetable industry has increased the government's guidance from the perspective of policy
.
In March 2022, the General Office of the People's Government of Guangdong Province issued the Notice on Ten Measures to Accelerate the High-quality Development of Guangdong's Prepared Vegetable Industry (hereinafter referred to as the "Ten Measures"), proposing a series of innovative highlight measures
.
In April 2022, the Weifang Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government Office of Shandong Province issued the "Three-Year Action Plan for the High-quality Development of Weifang Prefabricated Vegetable Industry (2022-2024)", which is the first strong action guide
launched among prefecture-level cities after Guangdong Province issued the "Ten Measures".
In June 2022, Hunan Province issued Several Measures to Further Promote the Sustainable Recovery of Consumption, and the consumption of prepared vegetables was listed as the number one document
of provincial governments for the first time.
After the release of the document, Guangdong, Shandong, Hunan and even the whole country once again set off a boom in the development of prepared dishes, marking the transformation of the development of prepared dishes from market driven to government intervention, macro guidance and micro promotion
.
The introduction of policies will play a positive guiding role
in the organizational and systematic development of the prepared vegetable industry.
All localities will increase the research and development of prepared dishes, build key laboratories for the research and development of prepared vegetables, engineering technology research and development centers, and research and development platforms for the whole industry chain of prepared vegetables, accelerate the transformation of prepared vegetables and expand the scale
of industrialization.

While the development of pre-made dishes, it is also necessary to see the problems
existing in the development of pre-made dishes.
In terms of product design and production: the product is relatively single, the process is relatively simple, and the degree of automation is low; In terms of warehousing and logistics, the production base is single and the downstream customers are relatively fragmented; In terms of food safety: non-standard production, high salt and fat dishes, unsafe packaging materials, and substandard hygiene; On the consumer side, consumers' recognition and acceptance of pre-made dishes is not high, and even questions are raised about the taste and hygiene of pre-made dishes, and there are difficulties and differences in taste recovery, making it difficult for consumers to choose when facing a wide range of dishes; In terms of operation and management, the relevant industry standards of the prepared vegetable industry are also not perfect, not only lack of national unified standards, but also lack of corresponding evaluation standards and market supervision standards, the applicable norms and standards are confusing, and regulatory problems need to be solved
urgently.
In short, the prepared vegetable industry is in the initial stage
of development with categories without brands and lack of real super brands.
Therefore, the deepening of theoretical research is particularly necessary
.

Second, scientific interpretation of pre-made dishes

The development of an industry is inseparable from theoretical guidance, and scientific interpretation of the connotation of prefabricated dishes is the basis for theoretical research on prefabricated dishes and the basis
for its industrial development.

1.
The concept of prepared dishes: word-based explanations

Here we draw conclusions
in the form of comparative studies.
In the Modern Chinese Dictionary (Sixth Edition), there is no entry for "pre-made dishes", nor are there related words such as "finished dishes" and "semi-finished dishes", indicating that it is a new thing
.
Not only are there no entries for pre-made dishes, but there are not even entries for "pre-made"
.
Here we distinguish from "pre", "make" and "dish"
.
"Pre": Meaning pre-empt, pre-emptive
.
"System": Meaning manufacturing
.
"Cuisine": Defined as a general term for vegetable plants and a general term
for dishes.

Consult the Oxford Dictionary, through understanding the meaning of English words and comparing example sentences, the word corresponding to "pre-made" is "pre-made", and its interpretation is: Prepared or created in advance, "prepared dish" is "pre-made food"
.
At the same time, check out relevant articles and reports, as well as the word "ready-made food" corresponding to "finished dish" and the word "semi-finished food" corresponding to "semi-finished dish", both of which have high usage
.
In countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, prepared dishes are not only commonly found in supermarkets, but also sold in special areas labeled "ready meals" or "prepared food/meal", and there are many websites that offer pre-order delivery services
.

It should be noted that online articles often translate the "prefabricated" of "prefabricated" as "prefabricated"
, which is inappropriate.
Because the English meaning of the word "prefabricated" is: (of a building or piece of furniture) manufactured in sections to enable assembly on site, mostly used to describe buildings or furniture, indicating segmented manufacturing for on-site assembly, and does not accurately correspond to the advance preparation
of dishes.
Here, we hope to attract the attention
of subsequent researchers.

Based on the explanation of words, the basic meaning of the concept of prepared dishes can be summarized as: "pre-made dishes"
.

2.
Categories of prepared dishes: broad and narrow

First, look at its broad and narrow sense
from the concept of "pre-made dishes".
In the process of the development of pre-made dishes, some practitioners and experts and scholars understand the concept of pre-made dishes as "pre-made dishes", which is at least a different
perspective for the understanding of dishes.
Study the authoritative Chinese dictionary, as mentioned above "cuisine" is interpreted here as: the general term
for cuisine.
In the occupations of the social catering industry, the types of work include cooking - the production of dishes (commonly known as red cases), and pastries - the production of staple foods (commonly known as white cases).

We often mention that the four major cuisines and eight major cuisines of Chinese cuisine contain dishes and pastries, which should be understood as "broad cuisine", if it is determined as a dish, we consider it to be a "narrow dish", based on this, pre-made dishes should also have "pre-made dishes in a broad sense" including dishes and pastries, and "narrow pre-made dishes", that is, pre-made dishes that specifically refer to dishes
.

The second is to distinguish its broad and narrow sense
from the means of processing prepared vegetables.
Prepared dishes in a broad sense include prepared dishes that are mainly manual operations in the kitchen and mechanized and large-scale production in factories; If only factory production is limited, it is a pre-made dish
in a narrow sense.
For example, Guangdong "poon choi", which can be processed in hotels or produced in factories, is a pre-made dish
in a broad sense.

The third is from the perspective of the circulation temperature of prepared vegetables after processing, which is broad and narrow.

Prepared dishes in a broad sense include pre-made dishes that are circulated at room temperature and stored at low temperatures and circulated to consumers; If only low-temperature storage and circulation are limited, it is a pre-made dish
in a narrow sense.
Also take Guangdong "poon choi" as an example, it can be circulated at room temperature after processing, or at low temperature after processing; The same is true of the processing, circulation and consumption of Guangdong morning tea pastry
.

In summary, it can be concluded that pre-made dishes are dishes and pastries that are made in the kitchen or factory after the cutting of raw materials, heating, seasoning and other processes, presented in the form of finished or semi-finished products, stored at room temperature or low temperature, circulated to consumers, and eaten after simple heating or cooking treatment
.

3.
The boundary between pre-made dishes and restaurant (family) dishes

Human processing of food by hand has continued to modern and modern times, restaurants and families process "meals", which we define as "artisanal food", which is characterized by the use of tacit knowledge based on artistic creation (see figure on the right).

In people's daily life, in addition to the "eating" of biological people, that is, "fruitful stomach", there are also the aesthetic activities
of social people "health, hunger, pleasure and even art".
While creating food, people also build the psychological structure
of food aesthetics.
For Chinese, the "meal" of people's three meals a day is freshly cooked and mainly hot food
.
"Palatable treasure", this kind of meal is most in line with people's dietary aesthetic habits
.
The dishes and noodles produced by catering enterprises such as hotels are the same as the "dishes and rice" cooked at home, and they are the last stage of people's dietary consumption, that is, terminal foods
.
From the perspective of dietary aesthetics, the subject of dietary aesthetics can best achieve physiological and psychological satisfaction
from the enjoyment of the object of "meal".

From the characteristics of food, pre-made dishes are different from food, such as biscuits, candies and other flour sugar foods, instant food, frozen food, etc.
, some can be eaten directly, but due to different processing means and processing depth, the distance from the terminal food is also different, can not be used as three meals a day food for Chinese people
.
The prepared dish is the closest to the terminal food, it is the "front raw food"
of the "meal".
In the processing, it is seasoned according to people's dietary aesthetic habits, which is in line with people's substantive aesthetics (nutritional hygiene) and sensory aesthetics (taste, touch, smell, color, shape) of "three meals a day"; When eating, it can be easily met by simple heating or cooking processing, and the needs of dietary aesthetic subjects are more easily satisfied
.
The above is a major feature of pre-made dishes, and it is also an important foundation
for the survival and development of pre-made dishes.

4.
The boundary between pre-made dishes and "finished dishes" and "semi-finished dishes"

With the progress of society, the socialization of diet has been put on the agenda, which is characterized by two indicators: "outside food", that is, the cost of eating outside the family and the proportion of finished and semi-finished products eaten daily
.
People can be freed from the heavy housework of making meals and enrich their personal lives through learning, culture, entertainment and other ways, which is also the direction of the development of
the catering industry 。 In the research on "the current situation and development trend of China's catering industry" in the 90s of the 20th century, the concept of "finished dishes" and "semi-finished dishes" was proposed, which can be divided into "providing semi-finished products or finished products for some restaurants, restaurants, hotels, restaurants, etc.
, reducing the simple labor time of skilled cooks", in the current context, that is, the B-end consumption of prefabricated dishes; "Supplying semi-finished or finished products to ordinary households, making them slightly heated (such as microwave heating) or simple cooking (such as cutting some auxiliary materials, heat treatment) and eating", in the current context, that is, the C-end consumption
of prepared dishes.
It can be seen that the "finished dishes" and "semi-finished dishes" at that time are the current "pre-made dishes"
.

5.
The boundary between prepared dishes and "industrial food"

Human beings have continued to process food by hand until modern times and modern times, and in the modern era (early 19th century), there was a combination of large-scale industrial production methods and food processing methods, which revolutionized the original food processing, and gradually derived a new industry from cooking processing - food industry
.
This kind of food produced by mechanization (semi-mechanization) and automation (semi-automation), we call it "industrial food", is characterized by the explicit use
of knowledge based on scientific creation.
These operations are carried out by machines under strict production process parameters, which is significantly different
from "artisanal food" - meals.

The emergence of "industrial food" not only enriches the variety of food, but also facilitates the storage of certain food raw materials (especially seasonal raw materials) in the form of food
.
The types of "industrial food" are classified according to different classification methods, and we divide "industrial food" into different grades
according to their processing depth and proximity to the final meal 。 Primary food is the processing of agricultural products, such as rice milling, oil extraction, slaughtering, etc.
, which provides raw materials for people's diet; Intermediate food is the processing of primary foods, such as baked goods, meat-filled foods, brewed foods, canned foods, some of these foods can be directly eaten by people, and some of them provide raw materials for diet, but this part of the food cannot be used as long-term food; Medium and high-grade foods are closer to people's dietary aesthetic habits, such as quick-frozen dumplings, instant noodles, instant rice, etc.
, such foods mostly belong to the category of "staple food" in convenience foods, which can be eaten
with a little conditioning before eating.
With the development of the times and the improvement of people's living standards, prefabricated dishes close to terminal food in the form of "dishes" have appeared, which belong to the advanced category of "industrial food" and are in the "factory meal", that is, the processing means and product characteristics combine the advantages
of "industrial food" and "handmade food".

6.
The boundary between prepared dishes and modern fast food

The "Outline for the Development of China's Fast Food Industry" defines fast food as follows: "fast food" is a popular catering that provides consumers with services for their daily basic living needs, with the following characteristics: fast production and sales, convenient consumption, quality standards, balanced nutrition, simple service and low
price.
Specifically, fast food refers to the food that can be eaten immediately distributed by commercial organizations (fast food restaurants or large group feeding establishments), and the main feature of such business operations is to provide terminal food for direct consumption with little or no waiting time between ordering and serving, so modern fast food is a commodity
that combines the dual value of food and catering services.
Prepared dishes, on the other hand, cannot be "eaten immediately", and foods that do not provide dietary services are the essential boundary between
modern fast food and prepared dishes.
Prepared dishes and modern fast food have something in common, both of which turn the "manual operation-based cooking process" of the dish to the "mechanical processing-based cooking process", so that the manual operation becomes scientific, and the organic combination of artistic creation, tacit knowledge and scientific creation, and explicit knowledge is realized
.

III.
Conclusion

In the large family of food, the concept of prepared dishes is still new
.
Prepared dishes in a broad sense are non-terminal dishes that are previously processed or mechanically produced; Prepared dishes in the narrow sense are non-terminal dishes that are produced mechanically in advance
.
The latter is characterized by standardization, industrialization (factory), automation, continuity, intelligence, digitalization, scale and combination with packaging, freezing (refrigeration) and other technologies, showing strong vitality, is a category of high-grade industrial food, is generally referred to as a prefabricated dish, and is also the focus of the
current prefabricated vegetable industry development.
As a new thing, it also takes a long time to show its great influence
through continuous interaction with the environment.
The development of the prepared vegetable industry will eventually promote the "kitchen revolution" and "table revolution"
.
This requires more to build an internal theoretical system and practical foundation as soon as possible based on its own food attributes, and straighten out the external upstream and downstream relationships
.
It is believed that prepared dishes, as a new "pole" of the food industry, will play an important role
in promoting the development of the food industry and satisfying people's yearning for a better food life under the active guidance of national policies and the unremitting efforts of all parties in society.

(The author is a master's and doctoral supervisor of tourism management and food science of Harbin University of Commerce and Northeast Forestry University; Consultant of Shunde Vocational and Technical College, academic leader of catering and cooking; Director of Postdoctoral Research Base of Chinese Fast Food Research and Development Center, Harbin University of Commerce)

China Food News(November 11, 2022, Version 08)

(Responsible editor: Wang Jiayi)