Can Semi-Prepared Clean Vegetables Replace Traditional Food Markets?

Professional ingredient preparation in central kitchens, cold-chain transport throughout the process; e-commerce platforms push the “order online, pick up in store” concept

So-called clean vegetables are a recently popular new concept for food ingredients, referring to fresh vegetables and meat, fish, poultry, eggs and other ingredients that have been washed, cut, portioned and packaged, so that consumers can put them straight into the pan after purchase.

A reporter visited major supermarkets in the city and found that the “semi-prepared clean vegetables” business targeting white-collar workers is increasingly booming. The founder of one clean vegetable company said his vision is to eliminate traditional food markets. However, the reporter learned that there are currently no testing standards or measures for this kind of semi-prepared clean vegetable product, and it relies solely on corporate self-discipline.

The reporter visited five supermarket chains in the city one after another and found that in the vegetable areas, some branded clean vegetables already have their own dedicated counters.

At the AEON supermarket in Teemall, the reporter saw clean vegetables in the fruit and vegetable area that had already been washed, cut, drained of water and vacuum-packed. Washed bok choy, green peppers and other vegetables were packed in boxes or bags, while semi-prepared potato slices, radish chunks, taro chunks, coconut, red dates, radish and other ingredients were also neatly arranged in packaging bags.

Compared with prices at food markets, clean vegetables are relatively expensive. For example, a 500-gram lotus root, peanut and carrot soup pack sells for 23.8 yuan, a 600-gram sugarcane, cogongrass rhizome, water chestnut and carrot soup pack sells for 19.8 yuan, and 200 grams of potato slices sell for 3.5 yuan, which is almost the price of one jin of potatoes in a food market. At one company's counter, the reporter saw that the choy sum produced by the company sold for 8 yuan/jin, and a 500-gram box of green pea shoots was more than 10 yuan, while choy sum in a food market sold for only 2.5 yuan/jin, and green pea shoots were only 5 yuan/jin.

Questions:

No unified standard yet?

So how do these clean vegetables ensure the safety and freshness of the ingredients inside the vacuum bags? Are there national and local government standards for testing pesticide residues in clean vegetables? Yesterday, the reporter contacted the heads of several clean vegetable companies one after another.

“We have our own production base. We first take samples in the field, conduct pesticide residue testing on the raw materials, then carry out pre-processing cutting and clean-water washing, after that drain off the water, vacuum-pack, and then transport to offline sales points.” This is shown on the product packaging of Shenzhen Tubaozi Agricultural Products Co., Ltd. As for clean vegetable meal kits that already include ingredients and portions, Runfeng Clean Vegetables said that they use constant-temperature operations in a central kitchen. The kitchen is equipped with professional refrigerators (0 to -4°C) and freezers (-18°C) to store each product separately according to its unique freshness-preservation needs. During delivery, insulated boxes are used, with refrigerant added inside, and the insulation effect can last more than 8 hours.

The reporter learned that the increasingly popular clean vegetables do not have unified national standards or industry standards, and the level of corporate standards is uneven, which has led to a difficult path to market for clean vegetables.

Market: Dozens of companies build e-commerce platforms

Qingnian Caijun, Magic Kitchen, Runfeng Clean Vegetables…… The reporter learned through searches that dozens of companies specialize in the semi-prepared clean vegetable business. Online, these companies have created their own e-commerce platforms; offline, they set up self-pickup points for dishes outside subway stations, in community supermarkets or service points. Users only need to order dishes the night before, pick them up after work the next day at the pickup point closest to home, and then stir-fry them when they get home.

Li Huang, project manager of “Affordable Wash-Free Clean Vegetables,” said that office workers order on their phones one day in advance, pay via WeChat, and pick up the goods at the workplace cafeteria after work. According to the introduction, there are two types of affordable dishes. One is wash-free green vegetables, selling for only 0.99 yuan; the other is a meal kit (equipped with vegetables, meat, seasoning packets and recipes, ready to go straight into the pan after opening the bag), priced at 9.9 yuan. Services have already been launched at 233 units in multiple cities including Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and the next step will be to set up more service points in Guangzhou.

Regulations: Ready-to-eat fruits and vegetables must be tested before leaving the factory

The reporter learned that at the end of December last year, the Beijing Municipal Food and Drug Administration issued the “Detailed Rules for the Review of Production Licenses for Ready-to-Eat Fresh-Cut Fruits and Vegetables (2014 Edition),” requiring that starting from March 1 this year, if an enterprise has not obtained the relevant production license, it may no longer produce and sell ready-to-eat fresh-cut fruit and vegetable products.

The detailed rules require that manufacturers of ready-to-eat fresh-cut fruits and vegetables must have the capacity for pre-factory testing. Before each batch of fruit leaves the factory, they must self-test indicators such as net content, labels, sensory qualities and E. coli. The products are required to have good color, no off-odor and no foreign matter, and at least every month they must conduct sampling tests on products for indicators including heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium and lead, as well as pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus.