How far is the fresh-cut vegetable industry from rapid development
Editor's note: The cold-chain processing technology for fresh-cut vegetables is a practical vegetable processing technique that has developed rapidly internationally in recent years. It refers to fresh vegetable raw materials that are processed through cutting, washing, sterilization, preservation, packaging and other steps to produce fresh vegetable products that can be directly cooked or eaten directly. Because of its fresh, hygienic and convenient characteristics, it has become a new trend in vegetable consumption and a breakthrough point for extending the vegetable industry chain, and its market prospects are viewed favorably. However, there are still multiple constraints to be overcome in processing equipment and technology, raw materials and production standards, and full cold-chain assurance.
In Beijing, where Chinese-style fast-food restaurants and Western-style fast-food restaurants are everywhere, eating a hamburger and buying a vegetable shake cup is, for many people, a convenient way to eat. Going into a supermarket to buy two boxes of semi-prepared vegetables, or ordering fresh-cut vegetables delivered to the door through a mobile phone APP and then stir-frying them directly at home, has also increasingly become part of daily life for some office workers. While fresh-cut vegetables provide convenience for modern urban life, they are also enriching vegetable processing methods and becoming the "new elite" of the vegetable industry.
Market demand supports the rapid growth of the fresh-cut vegetable industry
It is understood that fresh-cut vegetables in China began in the late 1990s. With the entry of fast-food restaurants such as McDonald's and KFC, fresh-cut processing factories began to appear. In Beijing, there are more than ten fresh-cut fruit and vegetable production enterprises, including Yunong Quality Agricultural Products Planting Company. In recent years, market demand has driven the rapid growth of this industry.
Developing fresh-cut vegetables is an objective need of the catering industry. Statistics show that Beijing has more than 100,000 catering outlets, and about 20,000 tons of unprocessed vegetables are reprocessed every day, of which nearly 40% is wasted. Reprocessing unprocessed vegetables in catering outlets consumes a large amount of manpower and financial resources. In addition, the tradition of deciding the ingredients and amounts used for a dish entirely by the chef's feel also troubles the standardization of products and services in the catering industry.
As an important part of promoting "clean vegetables," fresh-cut vegetables have an impact on saving costs in the catering industry that cannot be ignored. According to estimates, washing 1 jin of vegetables requires 7-14 jin of water, while moving the washing process forward to the processing stage and using assembly-line operations uses only 1 jin of water for 1 jin of vegetables. The back kitchen must be equipped with dedicated vegetable-cutting personnel, increasing expenditure costs, and labor efficiency is low. If the vegetable-cutting process is moved forward to the processing stage, one vegetable-cutting device can cut 10 tons per hour, equal to the workload of 50 people. Putting all the links that can be centrally produced in a central kitchen can save 25%-35% of costs in comprehensive calculation.
At the same time, changes in the family structure and lifestyle of Chinese residents are also changing the traditional "buy vegetables and cook." In the past, a whole extended family cooked three meals a day at home; now, simplicity and speed have become the lifestyle favored by office workers. In addition, foreigners working in China, "returnees" and others have already formed the consumption habit of ready-to-eat vegetables in Western diets.
In addition, developing the production and sale of clean vegetables, including fresh-cut vegetables, also plays an important role in reducing urban waste and relieving urban functions. Data show that Beijing's annual vegetable supply is about more than 7.7 million tons, and each jin of vegetables produces on average about 3 liang of waste, with the total annual waste reaching 2.3 million tons.
Achieving "explosive growth" still requires all-round supporting measures
Compared with foreign developed countries, where fresh-cut vegetables already account for more than 60% of the vegetable market, China's fresh-cut vegetable industry can only be regarded as an emerging industry.
"The past ten years have been all about promotion; the next ten years will be the period of explosive growth for the fresh-cut vegetable industry." said Chang Xiguang, general manager of Beijing Yunong Quality Agricultural Products Planting Company. The company is the only enterprise in the entire vegetable industry chain under Beijing Shounong Group, and its vegetable sales cover 40 chain fast-food restaurants and nearly 5,000 stores in Beijing.
It is understood that at present there is no unified national standard for the production of clean vegetables, including fresh-cut vegetables, and there are not many enterprises with clean vegetable processing capacity and sales, nor are supporting facilities complete. According to data from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Agriculture, Beijing currently has more than 100 vegetable processing and distribution enterprises, with an annual total vegetable processing volume of about 600,000 tons, accounting for only about 20% of the total vegetable production in the suburbs.
Industry insiders analyze that China's fresh-cut vegetables urgently need to solve the following problems in their development:
Extend the shelf life of fresh-cut vegetables. According to Chang Xiguang, taking iceberg lettuce as an example, after harvest it is rapidly pre-cooled, and after 40 minutes the core temperature of the vegetable is lowered to 1-4°C. The shelf life of iceberg lettuce in the United States can reach 30 days, while domestically it can reach only 7 days at most. The reason is that domestically, vegetables are generally placed in a normal-temperature environment after harvest, greatly shortening the shelf life. Therefore, the quality of the source food has a very large impact on the shelf life of fresh-cut vegetables.
The disinfection stage of fresh-cut vegetables needs improvement. Abroad, less disinfectant is used in the processing after vegetable harvest, improving the safety factor of vegetables. Domestically, after harvest, non-standard disinfection procedures lead to an increase in the amount of disinfectant used later. At the same time, disinfection procedures generally use methods such as ozone and electrolyzed water. Which disinfection method is used for different vegetables and what concentration is most suitable require systematic research by experts to obtain scientific results.
The current situation of reliance on imported processing equipment urgently needs to be changed. Abroad, different vegetables have different washing, disinfection and cutting equipment, which can meet the needs of most vegetables with different appearances. On this point, China started relatively late. In particular, after vegetables are cut, breathing bags have a huge impact on the shelf life of vegetables. At present, all fresh-cut vegetables with a shelf life of more than 6 days use imported packaging bags.
Technical research and development need collaboration. The fresh-cut vegetable industry started late, and domestic enterprises still have not established a database for processing vegetable varieties. At present, domestic enterprises only have some data on iceberg lettuce, and research on processing data for most vegetable varieties is in a blank state. Data research is relatively difficult for enterprises to undertake on their own, so a "enterprise + research institutes" cooperation method should be adopted to improve the conversion rate of scientific and technological achievements.
The reporter learned that the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Agriculture has incorporated the development of the clean vegetable industry into Beijing's "13th Five-Year Plan" for vegetable industry development. In addition, it will continue to advance the construction of clean vegetable processing capacity at vegetable production areas, and plans to launch a total of 5 ten-thousand-mu and 50 one-thousand-mu village projects within 5 years to support the construction of clean vegetable processing capacity in major vegetable production areas.