“people who exercise and lose weight all over the world have been suffering from bitter salad for a long time. At the moment when they eat Chinese light food, they feel like they get what they want…”
Light food is hard to cook
But recently, “Chinese light food” was produced
Recently, “Chinese light food” has become popular on Weibo.
#How to treat Chinese light food as a new outlet # # Chinese salad went online and its sales volume quadrupled in March # and a series of topics about Chinese light food rushed to the hot search, generating 4.22 million reading numbers.
Gourd eating netizens are very enthusiastic about Chinese light food:
“Fitness and weight loss people all over the world have been suffering from bitter salad for a long time. At the moment of eating Chinese light food, I feel like I have achieved my wish…”
“light food entering China must have Chinese flavor, so that it can be recognized by everyone, otherwise there is no way to satisfy my Chinese stomach.”
even doctor clove said, “as long as the mix is reasonable, the sauce can reduce oil, salt and sugar, and Chinese light food also has great potential!”
It can be seen that on weekdays, everyone has many complaints about “imported light food”.
For traditional light food, the only advantage may be “good-looking”.
Western light food is mostly composed of two parts, lettuce in the lower layer, and several pieces of meat, virgin fruit and coarse grain in the upper layer. Some netizens jokingly called the upper layer of light food “light food edible part”, that is, light food edible part. As for the following vegetable leaves, maybe only friends who “can chew the three meter green belt with oil and vinegar juice” can swallow them.
It is already a tacit secret of the light food circle that “light food looks good but not delicious”.
The emergence of Chinese light food undoubtedly solves the biggest pain point that “imported light food” is not delicious. It’s not that I don’t want to eat green vegetables. I really don’t want to eat raw and cold vegetables in the way of “sheep eat grass”.
It can also be said that the emergence of Chinese light food has saved the “Chinese stomach”.
And those rising Chinese light food brands
What is Chinese light food? Chinese light food is not just a big mixed dish in supermarkets.
In the vegetable series: cold foods include northeast mixed vegetables, cold mixed Flammulina velutipes, and spinach with nuts; Hot food includes lettuce in oyster sauce, boiled cabbage, stewed vegetables
It is not only hot and cold, but also rich in meat and eggs: Coconut Chicken, scalded shrimp, steamed eggs with minced meat, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, spicy shredded chicken with pepper
“Light food” does not refer to a specific food, but a form of catering. Light not only refers to the amount of ingredients, but also the simple cooking method of ingredients, so that the nutritional intake of consumers is free from burden, pressure and healthier.
Chinese light food, unlike traditional salad, is just a stack of various vegetables, with richer ingredients and more diverse production methods, cold mix, blanching, oil stewing
Speaking loosely, as long as it is low sugar, low salt and low oil, the Chinese food culture has been vast for thousands of years, and most dishes can be processed to become the only “Chinese light food”.
When neishenjun was still lamenting the complete range of Chinese light food products for the last second, the next second, diners had smelled the business opportunities and made many “alternative” products in the dazzling light food market.
Shaye light food, which focuses on light food takeout, has launched three “light food porridge”, and some light food restaurants have launched shredded chicken and buckwheat cold noodles. In addition, HEMA also launched Chinese light food products such as Chinese salad and konjak cold skin. The emergence of these “Chinese light foods” seems to be setting off a new catering outlet.
First, the first batch of Chinese light food brands emerged this summer.
Professor Jiantang, daodaoxiang, light grain house and other catering brands specializing in Chinese light food were established at the beginning of this year.
Among them, when Professor Jiantang entered the light food market at the beginning, the sales volume on major takeout platforms was comparable to that of Western salad. Nei Shenjun learned that although Professor Jiantang has not been open for a long time and is a new brand, there are still hundreds of takeout orders a day.
And daodaoxiang is not willing to fall behind. Not only does the take out platform have good sales, but also has won a lot of praise on public comments.
Among them, hot dishes, beef with black pepper, Pleurotus eryngii, stir fried oatmeal and coarse grain shrimp have become the signature dishes of rice flavor, which have been repeatedly recommended.
Secondly, some Western light foods have also begun to follow the trend of new Chinese light foods.
Chinese light food is so hot that Western light food brands can’t help but take a share: Shaye light food, who was born in Western salad, launched three “light food porridge”; Many light food brands, such as xizan spring and summer light food, lizibai, and Qinmi light interest, have also launched creative Chinese light food.
Whether it is a high-volume light food chain brand or a single direct store, various flavors of “shredded chicken and buckwheat noodles” have become the stepping stones for these brands to open the Chinese light food track.
There are also Shangchao fresh brand mixed dishes or prefabricated dishes.
In addition to traditional diners, fresh food supermarkets have also taken a fancy to this new catering outlet. Jd.com’s 7 fresh foods first divided a large area in the supermarket for cooked food and mixed vegetables. HEMA also launched Chinese salad, konjak cold skin and other Chinese light food products, and failed to achieve good results.
Chinese salad, launched by HEMA in December last year, has been on the market for three months, and the sales of Chinese salad have soared fourfold. And this growth rate continues to accelerate after the summer
Zhang Qian, head of HEMA workshop, said in an interview:
“HEMA has been making light food salad for four years. During these four years, we have found that consumers’ demand for light food products is becoming more and more diversified. The Chinese light food we launched this year is actually to better meet the needs of domestic consumers and cover the whole year.”
As for Chinese light food, she also said, “Chinese salad can be used as a light food in summer, or it can be made into a cold dish. At the same time, we have also developed some low-energy stewed prefabricated dishes to meet different consumption scenarios and everyone’s needs for light food products.”
Why should Chinese light food “fight bravely”?
in the general trend of consumption upgrading, consumers still have a lot of demand for light food, just like “0 sugar, 0 card” food, whether IQ tax or really useful, is becoming more and more mainstream.
light food opened 5792 stores and closed 3985 stores nationwide in 2020. It is one of the few catering categories in which the number of outlets can maintain growth during the epidemic.
according to the enterprise survey data, there are more than 13000 existing “light food” related enterprises in China, and more than 6000 new related enterprises were added in 2021, with a year-on-year increase of 75.87%. The registration of related enterprises has shown an overall growth trend in the past decade.
according to Euromonitor International data, China’s light food market will reach 120billion yuan this year.
whether Western or Chinese, there is a phenomenon of rapid iteration in the light food circuit. “New elements”, “salad diary”, “rice salad” and other brands fell down, and new brands continue to emerge.
western style light food market has been proved to be difficult to enter, while Chinese style light food has taken over this market and become a new breakthrough. Compared with traditional western style light food,
Chinese light food has its unique advantages:
taste localization
Chinese light food solves the pain point of “light food tastes bad”.
Western light food is always connected with words like “eating grass” and “unpleasant”, while Chinese food we are familiar with is generally connected with words like “spicy”, “sour and spicy” and “thick juice”.
these words are exactly the Chinese flavor we love. As soon as the lid of the pot is lifted, the heat steams, and the appetite follows, satisfying the “Chinese stomach”. The
period is year-round. Because cooked food and hot food are added to
, the concept of Chinese light food, light season and peak season is relatively not so strong, and it can cover all the seasons of the year.
while many western traditional light food restaurants may have hundreds of orders a day in summer and autumn, but in winter, the number of orders in many stores will fall precipitously.
many Western light food restaurants fell in autumn and winter like autumn wind sweeping away the leaves.
links to the popularization of
. Compared with some unfamiliar dish names in Western light food dishes such as “collard cabbage”, “smoked salmon”, “ketogenic beef”, words such as “green vegetables in oyster sauce” and “scrambled eggs with tomatoes” are more familiar to the public, which can make light food from a niche category to the public.
in other words, such dishes have a wide audience, high consumer acceptance and strong universality, which can significantly reduce marketing costs.
is Chinese light food a flash in the pan? Two major pain points remain unsolved.
Chinese light food is not easy to grow and strengthen in this 120 billion yuan light food market. The defect of light food market has not been solved here in Chinese light food. The homogenization of
brand is serious, which is still a problem. Although there are thousands of ways to light Chinese food as long as the oil and sugar are reduced, the dishes that are popular are still “mixed vegetables”, “buckwheat noodles” and “green vegetables in oyster sauce”. Compared with Western light food,
is subject to the limitations of ingredients, and big brands are also unable to play tricks on a plate of salad. It is still unknown whether Chinese light food can successfully solve the problem of homogenization and make more dishes out of the circle.
￠ single business type ￠
in the previous ￠ investigation ￠ you found that the business type of the traditional light food market is very single.
data shows that 93% of users choose to order meals online in the consumption of light food, and takeout is still the dominant consumption channel of light food at present.
however, the current sales scenario of Chinese light food is still subject to takeout and retail platforms, and the difficulty of developing offline Tangshi business is comparable to that of traditional light food.
Chinese food is broad and profound, with rich cuisines and diverse cooking methods, and it occupies an absolute dominant position in China. If Chinese food is made into light food, the richness and localization of goods have been achieved. Why bother to arrange and combine those cold vegetable leaves.
I hope that Chinese light food can solve the problem of “popularity but not popularity” in the light food market, so that these categories more in line with the “Chinese stomach” have a broader market space.
Author: Yang Ningrui; Source: internal reference of the owner of the restaurant (id:cylbnc), reprinted with authorization. Reprint authorization and media business cooperation: Amy (wechat: 13701559246);
food people are “watching”
