This article would delve into the growing trend amongst Hong Kong chain restaurants using preserved food, analysing the reasons and effects on food quality and health.

The packaged food is distributed not only to restaurants, but to bars, karaokes and clubhouses. An owner stated that an advantage of restaurants buying pre-made food is that they can “expand the menu”, “if a customer wants pork rice but he’s eating in a noodle shop, no one knows how to cook it. But if the restaurant has pre-made pork rice, then it can be made by just putting it in the microwave. That could save the restaurant 20,000 HKD per month”. It can therefore be concluded that the benefits of pre-made food are not limited to the increased variety of items on the menu, but the significantly reduced costs.

What does the society think?

Regardless, there have been a variety of opinions regarding these pre-made foods amongst the local society. Researchers presented images of eight different types of food to people, ranging from traditional Chinese cuisine to fast food, and people were shocked to realise that all eight were “pre-made” in one way or another. An interviewee proclaimed that she felt “lied to” by restaurants, as they did not “explicitly label food as pre-made”. Another interviewee said that “the customers should have the right to know what they are eating and where the food is coming from”. However, there are still people who were quite neutral on the issue, stating that she “doesn’t know” a lot about such food and “it’s okay as long as it does not lead to health concerns”.

Upholding Tradition

The news company interviewed a Chinese restaurant in Tin Shui Wai that serves authentic, original dim sum. Workers are required to arrive at the restaurant at 3:30 in the morning to prepare 60-70 different types of dim sum, as the restaurant believes that fresh dim sum is the key to good taste. Investigations have shown that in Hong Kong, 80% of dim sum restaurants involve pre-made dishes. The CEO of the Tin Shui Wai restaurant stated that it would “taste worse, if the dim sum is frozen and then reheated, as the aroma and flavour from the sauce would disappear”. 

This has built a good reputation for the restaurant. Many customers visit the restaurant just to taste the fresh dim sum.  They all agree that the success of the dim sum lies in its freshness, proclaiming that it is much better compared to other dim sum restaurants. A customer said that “those pre-made dim sum transported from the mainland are so gross, even if you gave it to me for free, I would not eat it”. Moreover, the restaurant uplifts traditional features of such dim sum restaurants, such as dim sum carts, which are rare in today's Hong Kong. This, combined with the freshness of the dim sum, has been the restaurant's selling point for 20 years since its opening.

Pre-made food in mainland China

Many restaurants in mainland China have also incorporated pre-made food in their restaurants. A chain restaurant that specialises in Chinese food and has over 1,500 branches across mainland China has an interesting approach to pre-made food. If a dish is completely homemade and fresh, then it would be labelled green. If some of it is homemade and some is pre-made, the dish would be labelled yellow. If it is labelled red, then it means the dish served is completely pre-made. An obvious benefit of this approach is that it allows customers to easily distinguish between fresh and pre-made food and choose dishes based on their own preferences. It “gives consumers the right to choose food, allowing them to choose by themselves,” said an interviewee. 

Tourists from Hong Kong visited the restaurant. The interviewee “appreciates that the dishes are labelled explicitly”, but also stated that it is “not possible in Hong Kong”, as it would increase costs which would be “reflected towards the customers”, i.e. it would lead to higher prices on the menu.

Rules and Regulations

To respond to the rapid development of these pre–packaged foods, the Guangdong province currently requires all packages to have a label stating that they are pre-made. Similarly, the city of Shanghai also mandates that some restaurants indicate whether they provide packaged food or not. The National Health Committee of China established a national standard for the safety of thesefood. 

Concerningly, there are currently no laws in Hong Kong specifically dedicated to the quality or safety of pre-made food. It is strongly recommended that food be kept at a “cold temperature” throughout the supply, avoiding exposure to temperatures between 40 and 60 degrees Celsius. From August 2023, over 1350 samples were checked by the Food Quality and Safety agency, and just one of them failed. A professor proclaimed that “eating pre-packaged food” is similar to “buying food at the supermarket and cooking it at home”, and that it is “already controlled by current regulations regarding food safety.

Conclusion

It is expected that the trend of pre-made food will continue to be maintained in restaurants of the busy city of Hong Kong. While it brings numerous benefits, such as reduced costs and increased culinary diversity in menus, it has led to widespread concern regarding the safety and quality of such food. Hence, it is necessary to establish and enforce regulations governing food quality control.