Discussing Prepared Meals in Ten Minutes Part Twenty-One: The Second Half of Prepared Meals Is Ultimately About Competition Among People

Ask AI · How do the evolution of talent in the prefabricated food industry compare and contrast with the automotive industry?

In Lingnan in March, the kapok trees are fiery red.

Looking back from the spring of 2026, the prefabricated food industry has just experienced a tumultuous five years. From the capital-driven boom to the center of public opinion, and then to the turning point after the national standards were implemented, this industry—related to the food security of 600 million people—has finally bid farewell to its wild growth phase and entered a new stage with clear regulations and standards.

At this critical moment, we should pay more attention to those who actually cook.

Because no matter how strict the standards are, how advanced the equipment, or how powerful the technology, the ultimate factor that determines how far and how steadily an industry can develop is always the people—those standing beside production lines, sitting in R&D labs, running through fields, and shuttling in warehouses. Industry is the tree, people are the roots. The deeper the roots, the taller the tree can grow.

1. A Re-definition of Industry People

In February 2026, the “National Food Safety Standard for Prefabricated Dishes” (Draft for Comments) was publicly solicited. Four clear red lines: no preservatives allowed, shelf life no longer than 12 months, raw material content clearly marked, and industrialized pre-processing standards implemented.

Will the national standard cause a surge in the prefabricated food industry?

No. The word “surge” itself implies loss of control. The wild growth and backlash in public opinion over the past few years are ultimately related to a lack of regulation. The significance of the national standard is precisely to cool down the industry by enforcing bottom lines, encouraging those only seeking quick profits, shortcuts, and borderline practices to exit voluntarily.

What remains is a long process of value reversion.

And the core of this value reversion is the return to people.

It is foreseeable that after the implementation of the standards, the industry will undergo three profound changes.

First, scale expansion after reshuffling. The stricter the standards, the faster the differentiation. Small workshops lacking qualifications and capabilities will be eliminated, but the market space they vacate will soon be taken by compliant leading companies and truly innovative enterprises. With increased industry concentration, it’s not about contraction but healthier expansion.

Second, deeper integration of the industry chain. The standards demand higher requirements for traceability, additives, and cold chain logistics, pushing upstream raw materials, midstream processing, and downstream distribution to collaborate more deeply. From standardized farming and breeding in fields, to regulated operations and intelligent warehousing in factories, and finally to last-mile cold chain delivery, the entire chain will evolve from loose connections into a quality community.

Third, rebuilding consumer trust. The standards are primarily written for consumers. Safety, transparency, and regulation will ultimately translate into trust. When prefabricated dishes are no longer associated with additives, inferior meat, or black workshops, consumers’ choices will shift from passive acceptance to active selection. Cost reduction and efficiency improvements on the B-side, along with gradually cultivating consumer habits on the C-side, will enable prefabricated dishes to truly penetrate the capillaries of the national diet.

But all these changes ultimately hinge on one question: who will support them?

2. The History of Industry Development Is Essentially a History of Talent Evolution

Looking at the history of global industries, the rise of any industry is not just about equipment and capital accumulation, but a continuous process of talent migration, differentiation, and upgrading.

Let’s examine three typical cases across borders and eras.

The automotive industry, from Ford’s invention of the assembly line in 1913 to Tesla’s integrated casting today, has spanned over a century. Germany’s auto industry relies on master-apprentice craftsmanship, American auto industry was shaped by Taylor management and mass production, Japan cultivated proactive problem-solving engineers through lean production. China, in just a few decades, has caught up with this entire industrial system and is now training a new generation of versatile talents who understand software-defined vehicles in the intelligent connected car sector.

The development history of the automotive industry, at its core, is a story of continuous iteration—from artisans to industrial workers, and then to on-site engineers and software architects capable of proactively discovering and solving problems.

The internet economy is even more illustrative. Over thirty years, it has almost redefined the professional world. Silicon Valley has cultivated new roles like product managers; China, with its large population and fierce competition, has produced a large number of operators who understand traffic, operations, and user growth; Southeast Asia and India have formed vast IT service and software outsourcing groups.

Looking at Japanese cuisine: from street stalls in Edo to high-end restaurants in New York, Paris, and Shanghai, it has followed a path of cultural and talent export. Initially, Japanese craftsmen went abroad to establish shops; later, to support global expansion, Japan quickly built systematic chef training programs, breaking down highly experience-dependent techniques into teachable, assessable, and replicable standards.

Behind these three paths lies the same fundamental principle.

Once an industry matures, three things happen:

First, fission. A core industry, once formed, will generate supporting and derivative roles far beyond its original scope. The automotive industry gave rise to finance, insurance, maintenance, and tuning; the internet spawned e-commerce, logistics, content, and payments; Japanese cuisine led to ingredient trade, sake代理, and tableware design. The same applies to prefabricated food: it’s not just about making a dish in a factory, but about continuously creating new roles and professions along the long chain from farm to table.

Second, upgrading. Assembly line standards changed the composition of automotive workers; ISO systems shaped modern quality control roles; global standards for Japanese cuisine fostered overseas training systems for qualified sushi chefs. Standards are never just constraints—they are the most effective tools for industry upgrading.

Third, integration. Automotive needs software talents familiar with mechanics; internet requires algorithm experts understanding human nature; Japanese cuisine needs local-savvy oriental chefs. As industries evolve, single-skilled talents become insufficient; the real front-runners are versatile, hybrid talents.

The same logic applies to prefabricated dishes. It’s no longer just about chefs and packing workers; it’s about a complex industrial ecology integrating modern agriculture, food industry, intelligent manufacturing, cold chain logistics, digital marketing, and food culture. The kind of talent available will determine the industry’s future.

3. In the Era of Standards, Talent Opportunities in the Industry Chain Are Opening Up

The era of standards is precisely a window for talent deployment.

From a global perspective, the food industry is inherently a large employment system. According to the International Labour Organization, about 40% of the global workforce is engaged in primary production, processing, and catering. Prefabricated food, situated at the intersection of food manufacturing and catering, naturally lies at this nexus of talent.

Moreover, every link in the industry chain is seeking capable industry professionals.

In production, future needs go beyond skilled cooks; they require factory managers, production supervisors, and quality control specialists familiar with HACCP systems, automation equipment, and lean management. Enterprises and vocational schools can collaborate deeply, transforming modern food workshops into real training grounds, cultivating a new blue-collar workforce that understands industry, standards, and on-site operations. The shared factory model at Zhaoqing Gaoyao Prefabricated Food Industrial Park exemplifies this industrial organization upgrade, focusing on cultivating versatile production talents.

In raw material supply, stricter standards on pesticide and veterinary drug residues mean upstream agriculture cannot continue extensive practices. Contract-based, standardized, large-scale farming and breeding will generate new roles like agricultural brokers, plant protection experts, and supply chain buyers—people who understand agricultural technology, contract management, and can enforce standards in the field. Previously, a pigeon sold for fifteen yuan as raw material; after processing into prefabricated dishes, it can sell for forty-five yuan. The added value depends on standards, processing, and branding. To share this value, passing standards is the first step.

In storage and logistics, cold chain is the lifeline of prefabricated dishes. Future needs will go beyond drivers; cold chain planners, digital dispatchers, and multi-temperature zone warehouse managers who understand temperature control algorithms, route optimization, and equipment maintenance will be essential. Continuous chain integrity is no longer optional but a matter of life and death.

In R&D, stricter boundaries on food additives mean innovation must occur within clear limits. Future R&D talents will be closer to flavor scientists: they need knowledge of nutrition, flavor chemistry, texture restructuring, and the ability to convert home-cooked flavors into industrial, traceable, standardized recipes.

Marketing and branding will become increasingly important. When product quality converges, brand and content strength will be the real differentiators. The industry will need not just salespeople but content creators and brand specialists who understand dining scenes, short videos, live streaming, brand storytelling, and emotional connection. Those who can turn cold words like safety, standards, and convenience into stories consumers trust, share, and order from will have a market advantage.

Packaging and equipment will also see upgrades. Technologies like quick-freezing, non-thermal sterilization, intelligent cooking and processing devices, and modified atmosphere packaging are core supports for innovation and key to building competitive advantages. Behind these are a large number of food packaging material R&D engineers and food machinery automation designers, whose continuous technological upgrades push the entire industry forward.

4. Industry Depends on People

Why focus today on the talent chain?

Because an industry without a talent chain is just a bubble floating on the surface. It looks lively, but when storms come, it disperses immediately.

Industry is for people.

What is the ultimate goal of developing prefabricated food?

To ensure that 150 million “post-00s” can still enjoy decent meals during busy weekdays; to free 280 million elderly from heavy kitchen work, giving them time and energy back to life.

A survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences shows that urban residents in China work an average of 9.2 hours daily, plus commuting time, leaving very precious free time. Preparing dinner traditionally takes about one to two hours for a typical family of three; using prefabricated dishes, it can be done in twenty to thirty minutes. Over a year, just for dinner, this saves more than a month’s worth of time.

Seneca once said that our problem is not that life is too short, but that we waste too much of it. The true value of prefabricated dishes is not just convenience, but freeing countless families from repetitive, inefficient, and trivial daily labor, giving time back to people.

At the same time, everyone involved in this industry—whether R&D personnel or cold chain drivers—deserves decent income, respect, and visible career paths. That’s what a truly mature industry should look like.

Industry relies on people.

Whether the standards can be implemented, quality maintained, or brands built depends ultimately on whether each position’s personnel have professionalism, a sense of vocation, and long-term commitment.

For example, Japan’s Nichirei Group’s “authentic fried rice” took over twenty years of research and refinement—from rice variety selection, to stir-fry timing, to freezing technology iterations. Every detail was repeatedly polished, leading to over a decade of being Japan’s best-selling fried rice.

The most important lesson from this case: standards are just the baseline. Beyond that, it’s still about people.

5. Why People Always Remain the Measure of Industry

Protagoras said, “Man is the measure of all things.”

Over two thousand years later, this remains true today. Especially in an era increasingly embedded with standards, data, and efficiency, we must ask: what is the position of humans?

Prefabricated food provides a very practical perspective.

Some worry that standards will eliminate individuality, that industrialization will erode warmth. But France’s AOC system has long proven that high-level standards do not kill craftsmanship—they protect it. By strictly defining regions, varieties, and techniques, it appears to impose restrictions, but in reality, it fosters respect for terroir, raw materials, and craftsmanship.

Others fear that prefabricated dishes will replace stir-fried food, that factories will squeeze out kitchens. But this is not a zero-sum game. “Food in Guangdong” and “Prefabricated Food’s First Province” are not mutually exclusive. One path preserves the heat, craftsmanship, and on-site feel; the other embraces standards, scale, and broader markets, delivering proven flavors to more tables. Clear boundaries mean these paths do not compete but support each other.

The real question is not whether to industrialize, but where humans stand after industrialization.

Whitehead wrote in “Process and Reality” that reality is characterized by dynamic, creative progress and interconnected events. Today, the practices of Zhaoqing’s first prefabricated food park and Hengxing’s shared factory exemplify this philosophy. They are not building static factory clusters but cultivating a living, continuously collaborative, innovative organism. Here, tradition and modernity intertwine; farmers and workshops connect; local flavors and global standards coexist. Behind every prefabricated dish is a continuous creation from land to table.

And the main protagonists of this creation are always people.

Let Every Life Find Its Place

We look forward to that with a complete talent chain, the prefabricated food industry will no longer be just about “eating,” but will become a warm, creative, and deeply integrated new model of advanced manufacturing and modern services.

When students from the postgraduate program in prefabricated food start taking leading roles in enterprises, and more versatile talents who understand agriculture, love rural areas, grasp industry, and excel in marketing deepen their involvement, this industry will truly have the most solid and enduring foundation.

This path is worth continuing.

Because every improvement in dining efficiency is a step toward restoring quality of life; every warm, healthy, delicious home-cooked meal is a concrete support for a better life.

And more importantly, beyond standards and efficiency, beyond technology and capital, it is always people who remain the final measure and the most enduring scale of this industry.

(Author: Nong Gan Bu)