Easy, isn’t it? To imagine chefs in a restaurant just down the street using all their skills to wash, chop and cook everything you’ve just ordered in the shortest possible time. In actual fact, they may have only warmed up something made a month ago. 

Investigative journalism in China has recently revealed the shocking extent to which much takeout food in the nation is not cooked to order, but instead prefabricated, preprepared and just warmed up on demand immediately prior to delivery.

Data released by business analysts, Tianyancha, shows that there are more than 66,000 enterprises in China registered in the field of prefabricated meals. Among them are more than 1,020 which were registered this year, during the 6 months to 30 June, representing a growth rate of 42.7 percent. 

We often wonder how our takeout meals can be so cheap, but it’s an enormous market. In 2021, the scale of China’s prefabricated-meals market exceeded ¥300 billion, while annual growth of 20-30 percent is forecast through 2026.

In February of this year, the Jiangsu Consumer Protection Commission released its “Survey Report on the Consumption of Prefabricated Meals”. The Survey pointed out some of the industry’s many failings, particularly the quality of prefabricated meals, their taste and the identification of ingredients used therein. Among consumers polled for the Survey, 62.32 percent said the taste of prefabricated meals is only average, reports The Paper.

The taste may not be satisfactory, but with their advantages of convenience and speed, prefabricated dishes are becoming more and more popular as canteen lunches for business. Some have even stated publicly that 95 percent of the dishes served in their canteens have been prefabricated.

More shockingly, the issue extends beyond the canteen and delivery markets. Industry insiders have also revealed to journalists that we are often not served freshly-made dishes even when dining out in person.

Chen Yinjiang is Deputy Secretary General of the Consumer Rights & Interest Protection Law Research Association of the Chinese Law Society. Speaking with China News Finance, Chen voiced the belief that consumers have the right to know whether dishes have been cooked on site and/or are appropriately fresh. Infringing on this could constitute a violation of consumers’ right to know and choose. 

Or as one consumer more plainly put it, “If I eat in a restaurant and I know it’s prefabricated, I may not eat it. Maybe it was made a month ago. But if I hadn’t been told, I might have eaten it”.

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