TMTPOST -- The public debate over pre-made dishes in China has reignited in recent weeks, due to Luo Yonghao ’ s sharp criticism of restaurant chain Xibei for allegedly relying heavily on such meals. What began as a narrow business dispute has evolved into a broader controversy touching on consumer rights, food safety, industrial modernization, and even cultural identity. Yet beneath the heated arguments lies a more fundamental question: how should society balance tradition and innovation in the age of industrialized food?
On September 10, 2025, Luo Yonghao, well-known entrepreneur and internet personality, posted on social media after dining at a Xibei outlet. He declared that "almost everything" on the table was made from pre-prepared dishes and described the experience as "disgusting," particularly given the restaurant ’ s high prices. His statement immediately went viral, stirring anger, suspicion, and animated discussions online. Luo escalated the matter by publicly offering a 100,000 yuan reward for evidence proving Xibei ’ s reliance on pre-made food.
Xibei ’ s founder, Jia Guolong, responded within hours. He denied the allegation outright, insisting that his company followed a "central kitchen pre-processing plus in-store preparation" model that complied with national regulations. "Not a single dish we serve is a pre-made dish," Jia said, inviting the public to tour Xibei ’ s kitchens nationwide. He also announced plans to sue Luo for defamation. What might have remained a spat between a businessman and a restaurant group quickly became a matter of national discussion, amplified by traditional media and social platforms alike.
The controversy has revealed just how little most consumers understand about what qualifies as a pre-made dish. For many, the phrase is a catch-all term for anything not freshly cooked from scratch in front of their eyes. Yet in March 2024, China ’ s State Administration for Market Regulation issued a formal definition that distinguishes pre-made dishes from ordinary kitchen pre-processing. According to the regulation, pre-made dishes refer to meals or components made from agricultural products and food ingredients, pre-packaged with or without added seasonings, that can be eaten directly or cooked with minimal additional steps. The definition explicitly excludes raw meat, seafood, and unheated vegetables.
Within that framework, pre-made dishes range from ready-to-eat products such as vacuum-packed rice, to ready-to-heat meals like frozen dumplings, to marinated meats requiring cooking, to fresh ingredients cut and packaged for assembly. Yet dishes produced in central kitchens for chain restaurants do not automatically fall under this category. This gap between technical definition and public perception is one reason the debate has turned so emotional. To the average diner, anything that bypasses visible manual preparation is branded a "pre-made dish" and viewed with suspicion.
To understand why this controversy matters, it helps to place it in the larger context of food industrialization. Pre-made dishes are not a uniquely Chinese phenomenon but a stage in the global evolution of food services. In the United States and Europe, pre-prepared foods became common in the 1960s as a way to lower labor costs and guarantee consistency across expanding restaurant chains. Japan went even further during the 1970s and 1980s, with government investment in cold chain logistics and frozen food production transforming the restaurant industry. By 2024, Japan ’ s frozen food market had reached 3.5 trillion yen, with pre-made dishes accounting for a large share of household consumption.
China ’ s trajectory began later. In the 1990s, prepared foods appeared primarily in the form of cleaned vegetables, representing the first step toward industrialized supply chains. After 2000, advances in cold chain logistics allowed specialized companies to scale up. The decisive shift came after 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced millions to rely on home delivery and semi-prepared meals. The "stay-at-home economy" transformed demand and normalized the presence of industrially produced dishes in daily life. By 2024, China ’ s pre-made dish market had grown to 485 billion yuan, a 33.8 percent increase from the previous year, and analysts project it will surpass 749 billion yuan by 2026. Yet even at this scale, penetration remains lower than in developed economies, meaning growth potential is enormous.
Another recurring worry in the public debate is nutrition. Critics often assume that pre-made meals are inherently less healthy than freshly prepared food. However, studies suggest the nutritional gap is far narrower than popular belief. Proteins, fats, and carbohydrates — the main building blocks of nutrition — are largely preserved during processing. Professor Zhu Yi from the College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering at China Agricultural University has noted that after cooking or heating, the protein loss in meat is less than five percent, a negligible figure compared with what happens in home kitchens.
The real issue lies in vitamins and certain minerals, which can diminish during thermal processing. Vitamin C, for example, is particularly sensitive. But here too, the comparison with home cooking is revealing. When vegetables are stir-fried, 20 to 30 percent of vitamin C is lost; when they are stewed for a long time, the loss can exceed 50 percent. In other words, the nutrient losses in pre-made dishes are not radically different from those in ordinary cooking methods. In fact, industrial processing under controlled conditions can sometimes achieve better nutrient retention than a distracted cook at home.
What is more, many pre-made dishes are developed with input from nutritionists, ensuring balanced proportions of oil, salt, and sugar. Industrial production allows for standardized control that ordinary households often cannot achieve. And by making diverse cuisines more accessible, pre-made dishes may even promote dietary diversity, something nutritionists consistently recommend.
( Author: Ma Jinnan; Translator: Zhang Xinyue )
