Food Quality: Russia is experiencing a boom in the production of ready-made food
The production of ready-made food is growing at a tremendous pace and will triple by 2029. Yelena Krupskaya, Director of Food Safety at X5, spoke about this at the fifth International Conference "Food Quality Food Safety". The event started on 23 September at the National Centre RUSSIA.
"The production of ready-made food is a global trend. We conducted a study of consumption and customer attitudes towards it. As a result, four key challenges were identified," Yelena Krupskaya said.
The first challenge is the lack of production enterprises in the regions. Retailers should respond to this by building their own factories. The second challenge is the lack of personnel. So it is necessary to focus on process optimization and automation, which will increase production efficiency, and at the same time make the products safer.
The third challenge is legal regulation.
"The fourth challenge is consumers' doubts regarding quality. Our data show that about 30% of customers doubt the safety of prepared food, another 30% doubt the usefulness of the ingredients, and about 20% doubt the correctness of transportation and storage. To respond to this challenge, X5 has implemented internal control systems: tracking the movement of products and labeling, which does not allow cashiers at the checkout to sell the expired goods," Yelena Krupskaya said.
The increase in demand for ready-made food is explained by several factors at once. First of all, this is an increase in the pace and rhythm of life — people simply do not have the time and energy to cook. Secondly, there is an increase in the number of working women. Housewives who spend several hours at the stove are becoming a part of the past. The quality of the prepared food and its variety have also improved, while previously it was perceived only as fast food. Finally, there is the speed of delivery, which also matters. Any order will be delivered as soon as possible.
The International Conference "Food Quality Food Safety" will be hosted by the National Center RUSSIA until 24 September, and then will move to the Patrice Lumumba People's Friendship University of Russia on 25 September.
During the meeting, the heads of the working groups and the leaders of the project teams presented reports on the work done.
At the beginning of next year, it is planned to make the punishment for counterfeiters of dairy products more severe.
