Self-heating instant hot pot is popular. Experts suggest setting standards and strengthening management.
Self-heating instant chafing dish becomes "online celebrity". Experts suggest to formulate corresponding standards and strengthen management.
You can eat a steaming hot pot with a glass of cold water without fire or electricity. Since the beginning of this year, "self-heating instant hot pot" with an average price around 35 yuan has mushroomed on various e-commerce platforms. Specific to the name, in addition to "self-heating instant hot pot", there are "portable pot", "micro hot pot", "light boiled hot pot" and "instant hot pot". What is a self-heating instant hot pot? Do you need a corresponding production license to produce this hot pot? How to ensure food safety? The reporter learned about the issues of public concern.
Self-heating instant hot pot is popular now.
Low price, convenient use and monthly sales of more than 100,000 orders.
"An otaku is a must", "A must when traveling", "Spicy hot pot can be eaten if you want" and "4-8 people can have a party with friends and relatives just right" … Enter "self-heating convenient hot pot" on Taobao, and search for 1371 related stores and 20 brands. The manufacturers are mainly Sichuan and Chongqing, and the top seller is Chengdu catering hot pot brand. The price range of a single box is from 28 yuan to 38 yuan, and each box consists of a heating bag, a meat bag, a vegetarian bag, a wide flour bag and a butter bag. In an online store with high sales volume, the monthly sales exceed 100,000 orders.
According to a seller, self-heating instant hot pot means that you can enjoy steaming hot pot without fire or electricity, just with a cup of cold water. What is the principle of this? According to reports, the hot pot is divided into upper and lower layers. Before eating, you only need to put the ingredients with bottom materials into the upper layer, then put the heating bag composed of coke powder, activated carbon, salt and quicklime into the lower layer, and add cold water, which can immediately generate heat to heat the ingredients in the upper layer, so that the soup will boil and keep warm for 1 to 2 hours.
In addition to the hot online sales, there are also retail stores in many supermarkets. The reporter saw in a supermarket on Guanghua Avenue that the price of a brand of micro-hot pot was 35.8 yuan. A citizen who is choosing told the reporter that the self-heating instant hot pot is very convenient. After 15 minutes, you can eat it by pouring sesame oil. "It is simple, fast and has no smell of oily smoke. It is suitable for taking it on the road when traveling, and it tastes good!"
Favored by young people, the sales channel is mainly e-commerce
"Self-heating instant hot pot was produced in 2015, and it quickly became popular during the sugar and wine party this spring." Yuan Xiaoran, Secretary-General of Chengdu Catering Trade Association, introduced that it first rose in the circle of friends in Wechat business. As the self-heating technology is generally mature, more and more catering enterprises and food enterprises pay close attention to this field, and then gradually move towards e-commerce platforms and supermarkets such as Taobao and JD.COM.
At present, the consumer groups of convenient self-heating hot pot are mainly young people such as singles and office workers. Combined with young people’s consumption preferences, all manufacturers mainly use e-commerce channels. At present, well-known hot pot chains, including Dalongyi, Bashu Lazy, Xiaolongkan, Haidilao and Dezhuang, have "piled up" to launch various self-heating instant hot pot brand products. Most brands of instant hot pots can be bought on e-commerce platforms, and some can only be bought in physical stores or take-away platforms.
So, why is the self-heating instant hot pot so hot? The insiders believe that this "lazy hot pot" technology is relatively simple, easy to standardize and scale, and convenient for consumers to eat, so it suddenly became popular on social networks and quickly became a "online celebrity". In addition, according to the 2017 China Catering Report, every 10 yuan in China’s catering consumption comes from take-away. From the perspective of "lazy economy", the "decline" of instant noodles does not mean that the demand for instant noodles has decreased. As long as the products are iteratively upgraded in quality, they will naturally regain the favor of consumers.
"Follow the trend and trend. According to industry estimates, the convenient self-heating hot pot in the future will create an output value of 100 billion yuan a year. " The relevant person in charge of the Chengdu Food Chamber of Commerce said in an interview that the manufacturers of convenient self-heating hot pot in the market include hot pot catering enterprises, convenience food enterprises and condiment enterprises, among which there are nearly 100 "Made in Chengdu", and they are very optimistic about the prospect of convenient self-heating hot pot.
The industry is still in the initial stage, so it is necessary to ensure "safety and hygiene"
However, some insiders suggested that self-heating instant hot pot, as an innovative food category, is still in the initial stage. Due to the low threshold, most raw materials in actual production are assembled and produced in the form of OEM, and there is no industry standard to regulate it, resulting in the lack of standards for its production enterprises and self-heating hot pot products. A staff member in charge of food supervision of chenghua district Municipal Bureau of Market and Quality Supervision revealed that it is worrying that the self-heating instant chafing dish has not been included in the Catalogue of Food Production License. The reporter checked the 2016 edition of the Catalogue of Food Production Licenses issued by the State Food and Drug Administration and found that only fried instant noodles, instant rice, instant porridge, instant rice noodles, etc. were found in the catalogue of instant foods, and no self-heating instant hot pot was found in the whole catalogue. At the same time, reporters found on Taobao, JD.COM and other platforms that some buyers gave many bad reviews, such as "the meat in the hot pot bag stinks" and "a hair was found in the bag".
"As a category of innovative food, it basically showed a trend of barbaric growth when it first came out." Li Cheng, member of the Chengdu Food Safety Expert Committee and dean of the College of Food Science of Sichuan Agricultural University, told the reporter that hot pot is a special food in Chengdu and Chongqing, and it is necessary for relevant government departments to introduce relevant policies to ensure its healthy development while strengthening management.
Li Cheng suggested that the government should formulate a set of detailed rules on production, management and operation, and determine the standards, so that all self-heating instant chafing dish merchants can produce and operate according to the standards; At the same time, we should do more in-depth research, combine local characteristics, and try our best to ensure its characteristics; In addition, we must strictly implement the relevant food supervision regulations of the state, provinces and cities to ensure their safety, hygiene and reliability.
The reporter interviewed many hot pot merchants such as Huangcheng Mom and Xiaolongkan. Everyone agreed that self-heating hot pot, as an innovation and extension of hot pot food, is the crystallization of the wisdom of many hot pot merchants. Government departments should formulate relevant standards to protect and promote development and standardize the industry. "We will also proceed from ourselves and resolutely achieve food safety and hygiene." Kong Linglong, general manager of the administrative department of Huangcheng Mom, said.
"As far as I know, the relevant departments in Chengdu are formulating relevant regulations on the production license of self-heating instant hot pot." Lin He Yi, the media public relations officer of Xiaolongkan, told the reporter that it is expected that the introduction of the regulations will prevent unqualified manufacturers from disrupting the market, eliminate enterprises with poor quality and no food safety guarantee, and promote the healthy and orderly development of the whole hot pot industry.
Chengdu Evening News reporter Jerry Lee Intern Zhang Qiao Dong Ruizhou Photo Report