AS the Spring Festival is just around the corner, precooked foods that have been processed by businesses and can be served after being warmed up for a few minutes are gaining traction among residents, Shenzhen Evening News reported yesterday.

On the shelves of many supermarkets, there are not only fair-priced precooked foods, such as stewed trotters and chicken soup, but also up-market delicacies including braised abalone, stewed fish maw and “Fotiaoqiang,” a kind of thick soup cooked with more than 30 ingredients, said the News.

The prices of these easy-to-cook foods vary from tens to thousands of yuan. In a supermarket in Futian District, the reporter with the News found that a kind of mushroom and chicken soup priced at 48 yuan (US$6.99) is quite popular.

The product’s packaging shows that the ingredients are vacuum-packed and the soup can be served as a dish after heating for five minutes, according to the News report.

The Fotiaoqiang packages are also selling like hotcakes on Rainbow Department Store’s online shopping app, the reporter found.

A 348-yuan package consisting of sea cucumber, abalone and other ingredients can serve five people.

Supermarkets like Walmart and Carrefour have also launched on-demand cooking and on-site cooking services, respectively, to meet the different needs of customers.

However, although prepared foods are time-saving and labor-saving, food safety and hygiene should never be overlooked, Zheng Xin, food safety expert at the Shenzhen Association for Instrumental Analysis, was quoted as saying in the report.

Zheng suggests that consumers confirm the expiry date and storage conditions of precooked foods and store them in strict accordance with requirements to avoid food spoilage. The foods should also be fully heated before they are served.

(Zhang Yu)