How far are fresh-cut vegetables from rapid "growth"

Editor's note: the cold chain processing technology of fresh-cut vegetables is a practical vegetable processing technology which has developed rapidly in the world in recent years, which refers to the processing of fresh vegetable raw materials through slicing, cleaning, sterilization, preservation, packaging and so on. made into fresh vegetable products that can be cooked or eaten directly. Because of its fresh, sanitary, convenient and other characteristics, it has become a new trend of vegetable consumption, but also a breakthrough to extend the vegetable industry chain, the market prospect is promising. However, there are still multiple constraints to be broken through in the aspects of processing equipment and technology, raw materials and production norms, cold chain guarantee and so on.

In Beijing, where Chinese fast food restaurants and Western fast food restaurants abound, eating a hamburger and buying a vegetable shaking cup is a convenient way to eat to many people. Go to the supermarket to buy two boxes of semi-finished vegetables, or order fresh cut vegetables delivered to the door through the mobile phone APP, and stir-fry directly in the pot at home, which has increasingly become the daily life of some office workers. Fresh-cut vegetables not only provide convenience to the life of modern urbanites, but also enrich the processing methods of vegetables and become the "upstart" in the vegetable industry.

Market demand supports the rapid growth of fresh-cut vegetable industry

It is understood that China's fresh-cut vegetables began in the late 1990s, with the entry of McDonald's, KFC and other fast food restaurants, fresh-cut processing factories began to appear. In Beijing, there are more than a dozen fresh-cut fruit and vegetable production enterprises, such as Yunong High-quality Agricultural products planting Company. In recent years, market demand has promoted the rapid growth of the industry.

The development of fresh-cut vegetables is the objective need of the catering industry. Statistics show that there are more than 100000 restaurants in Beijing, and about 20, 000 tons of Chinese cabbage are reprocessed every day, of which nearly 40% are wasted. It takes a lot of manpower and financial resources to reprocess Chinese cabbage in food and beverage stores. In addition, the tradition of raw materials for cooking a dish and how much to use depends on the feeling of the chef also perplexes the standardization of products and services in the catering industry.

As an important part of the promotion of "clean vegetables", fresh-cut vegetables have an unnegligible impact on saving the cost of the catering industry. It is estimated that it takes 714 jin of water to wash 1 jin of vegetables, while the washing process is moved forward to the processing link, using the assembly line to work 1 jin of vegetables only 1 jin of water. After the kitchen should be equipped with special cutting personnel, increase the cost of expenditure, low labor efficiency. If the vegetable cutting process is moved forward to the processing link, a vegetable cutting equipment can cut 10 tons an hour, which is equal to the workload of 50 people. If you put all the links that can concentrate production in the central kitchen, the comprehensive calculation can save 25% and 35% of the cost.

At the same time, the changes in the family structure and life style of Chinese residents are also changing the traditional "buying food and cooking". In the past, a large family used to cook at home with three meals a day; now, simplicity and speed have become a favorite way of life for office workers. In addition, foreigners working in China and "returnees" have formed the consumption habit of ready-to-eat vegetables in the western diet.

In addition, the development of net vegetable production and marketing, including fresh-cut vegetables, also plays an important role in reducing urban garbage and dredging urban functions. According to data, the annual supply of vegetables in Beijing is more than 7.7 million tons, with an average of about three or two taels of garbage per jin of vegetables, and the total amount of garbage in the whole year reaches 2.3 million tons.

The realization of "explosive growth" still needs all-round support.

Compared with foreign developed countries, fresh-cut vegetables have accounted for more than 60% of the vegetable market, China's fresh-cut vegetable industry can only be regarded as a new industry.

"it has been promoted in the first decade, and the next decade will be a period of explosive growth in the fresh-cut vegetable industry." Chang Xiguang, general manager of Beijing Yunong High quality Agricultural products planting Company, said. The company is the only vegetable industry chain enterprise under Beijing Shounong Group, with vegetable sales covering 40 fast food chains and nearly 5000 stores in Beijing.

It is understood that at present, there is no national unified standard for the production of clean vegetables, including fresh-cut vegetables, and there are not many enterprises with net vegetable processing capacity and sales, and the supporting facilities are not complete. According to the data of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Agriculture, there are more than 100 vegetable processing and distribution enterprises in Beijing, with an annual total of about 600000 tons of processed vegetables, accounting for only about 20% of the total vegetable production in the suburbs.

According to the analysis of people in the industry, there is an urgent need to solve the following problems in the development of fresh-cut vegetables in China:

Prolong the shelf life of fresh-cut vegetables. According to Chang Xiguang, take heading lettuce as an example, it was quickly precooled after harvest, and after 40 minutes, the temperature of the heart of the cabbage was reduced to 1: 4 ℃. The shelf life of heading lettuce in the United States can reach 30 days, while the longest in China can only reach 7 days. The reason is that domestic vegetables are generally placed at room temperature after harvest, and the shelf life is greatly shortened, so the source food quality has a great impact on the shelf life of fresh-cut vegetables.

The disinfection of fresh-cut vegetables needs to be improved. In foreign countries, less disinfectant is used in the processing process after vegetable harvest, and the safety factor of vegetables is improved. In China, after harvest, the non-standard disinfection process led to an increase in the amount of disinfectant in the later stage. At the same time, the disinfection process generally uses ozone, electrolytic water and other methods of disinfection, different vegetables which disinfection method, what concentration is the most suitable, which requires expert system research, to get scientific results.

The current situation of dependence on imports of processing equipment needs to be changed. In foreign countries, different vegetables have different cleaning, disinfection and cutting equipment, which can meet the needs of most vegetables in different phases. At this point, our country started relatively late. Especially after cutting vegetables, breathing bags have a great impact on the shelf life of vegetables. At present, the shelf life of fresh-cut vegetables is more than 6 days using imported bags.

Technology research and development needs to be combined. The fresh-cut vegetable industry started late, and domestic enterprises still have not established a database for vegetable variety processing. At present, domestic enterprises only have some data of heading lettuce, and most of the research on vegetable variety processing data is in a blank state. However, it is difficult for enterprises to undertake data research on their own, so the cooperation mode of "enterprises + scientific research institutes" 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 the 13th five-year Plan for the development of Beijing's vegetable industry. In addition, it will continue to promote the construction of clean vegetable handling capacity in vegetable producing areas, and plans to launch a total of 5 million mu and 50 thousand mu villages within five years to support the building of clean vegetable handling capacity in major vegetable producing areas.