The opportunity to eat lightly is not in the air, but in daily life and takeaway.

Light food originated from afternoon tea of European aristocrats in17th century. At that time, the dinner time of British nobles was very late, so in the afternoon, ladies and gentlemen would ask the chef to make some snacks, pad their stomachs with black tea, and then have dinner.

▲ Source: Public Comment

Later, the French simplified afternoon tea, and exquisite snacks became sandwich-like foods made of sliced bread and jam, accompanied by black tea or coffee.

After that, Americans added doughnuts, cakes and other foods on the basis of light food in France, which were generally sold in cafes.

After the European and American food culture was introduced to Japan, Japanese people who paid attention to health and efficiency improved it, and the positioning of light food gradually changed from "afternoon tea" to "simple meal", that is, foods that are easy to eat, simple to make and convenient to eat, such as Guandong cooking and rice balls, are generally sold in convenience stores.

It can be seen that the initial light food actually has little to do with health, but is only a leisure category.

So those so-called "light food" shops may have Japanese-style kimbap, western-style sandwiches and salads, and Chinese-style jiaozi, steamed stuffed buns and snacks.

Even the common salad set meal is actually not low in calories (660 calories on average, and a bowl of 100g rice is 1 19 calories).

▲ Source: Aesthetic Evaluation

In China, today's light food is neither afternoon tea nor snacks, and it prefers the concept of healthy meals.

Although it is accompanied by many negative news of questioning and the closure of famous brands, we have to admit that light food is indeed gradually entering the public's field of vision.

▲ Source: Keep APP

Ruixing has launched a light food series, and the fitness app keep has also started to launch light food take-out and meal replacement products (KeepLite), and KFC even opened a "KPRO" light food store. Recently, the big data report on light food consumption released by Meituan shows that the order volume of light food take-out is increasing, which further proves the stable development of the concept of healthy light food.

▲ Source: Meituan Light Food Report

If the hot pot is compared to the "social software" of the internet industry, the market is large and the development is stable; Then, light food is similar to the "knowledge payment" in the catering circle, with limited market and mixed fish and dragons, but it has development potential.

The hot pot industry is basically the Red Sea, and the head brand foundation is very solid. Although the market is big, there are not many opportunities.

At present, the light food industry has serious homogenization and limited market scale, but it has three advantages:

1, pay attention to health

According to "China Catering Report 20 18", consumers' tastes are changing from exciting to fresh under the influence of the concept of healthy consumption. The industry calls it "the era of eating spices is declining, and the era of eating raw materials is rising", that is, health is gradually becoming the mainstream dietary pursuit.

Therefore, light food with healthy genes itself gives people a healthy feeling.

▲ Source: Public Comment

In April this year, Wang Tao, the founder of "shalala Light Food", once said, "At present, Chengdu Direct Store has achieved the second place in the take-away sales of Chengdu Group Buying Network."

This is an unexpected result, because the taste in Sichuan and Chongqing has always preferred "spicy and delicious". Light food with less oil and salt but mainly fresh and healthy can do this, which also reflects the change of consumers' taste preference.

2, do not rely on the chef

Like hot pot, light food is highly dependent on the chef, especially light salad, which doesn't need a chef at all. Most people can learn it by looking at the salad menu.

3. Highly standardized

The production process of many light foods is very simple, because it does not involve the "cooking and frying" of traditional catering, so it is easy to standardize.

Xiao Miao, the founder of Ye Sha Light Food, said that ordinary salad packages do not require high cooking skills, as long as the quality of ingredients is well controlled.

High-quality ingredients and simple cooking make the standardization of light food relatively high.

To sum up, although it is not difficult to make light food products, light food is by no means a low-threshold category, because light food seems to be "light" and actually costs a lot.

1, high cost of raw materials.

The less you need to cook, the more you need fresh ingredients. The owner of a light food restaurant said that it was okay to cook with a vegetable that was not too fresh, but it could only be thrown away in a salad shop.

Light food needs a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, and its shelf life is short. Once the operation is improper, the loss rate will be high.

In addition, salads also have certain requirements for the types of ingredients. An entrepreneur who eats lightly said that my shop was once criticized by customers, saying that there was too little chicken breast in a salad, and customers thought it was cost-effective to order more meat, and more vegetables were just cutting corners. But in fact, the lettuce in the salad is a specific variety and can only be shipped from other places, so the unit price is more expensive than meat.

2, the packaging cost is high

It is precisely because of the high cost of ingredients that the pricing of light food products is generally high, even if it is takeaway, it is at least twenty or thirty or even forty or fifty.

Products with high prices need better packaging.

▲ Source: Public Comment

Generally, the light food take-out products use kraft paper lunch boxes, which are 2-3 times more expensive than ordinary lunch boxes, and the disposable tableware used is 1-2 times more expensive than ordinary tableware.

3. The store rent and decoration cost are high.

Light food consumers are mainly young women, with a large proportion of white-collar women. Therefore, light food restaurants are generally opened near popular business districts and CBD office buildings, and the rent is higher.

At the same time, in order to create a "green and healthy" brand image, the decoration of light food restaurants is generally exquisite.

To sum up, the capital investment of a light food restaurant is between10-400,000.

Considering various factors, young food has actually developed in recent years, but it is still unacceptable in most parts of China. In the first half of 20 18, many light food brands with financing records closed down one after another, including lascivious salad, thin salad and sweetheart rock salad.

▲ This drawing is provided by Shenzhen Hua Space Design Consultant Co., Ltd., which is a professional catering interior design company.

The collapse of light food brands is not a matter of light food in essence, but that the market has not yet grown up, and there are too many porridge, and the joy of capital has pushed these brands to death.

In fact, the current market scale of light food is not a "window" at all, nor is it a very wide "track". The light vegetable market looks very lively, but there are not many people who really consume it often. Winter is the off-season, and it is possible to halve sales or even make a 30% discount.

Compared with traditional Chinese food entrepreneurship, the threshold of light food production is very low, which leads to the surge of light food entrepreneurship projects in the market. There are too many light food brands now, which are not only mixed, but also far beyond the market demand.

If the light food brand does not want to become a "bubble" of capital speculation, it must settle down and become a brand. Only when the brand concept of health, low sugar and low calorie is deeply rooted in people's hearts can it become a light food brand with high repurchase rate and strong brand.

Although the concept of light food is only a few years old and the market is still in the cultivation stage, the cultivation effect has achieved initial results, and light food has gradually entered the lives of young people. More and more people define light food as a part of their daily diet, just like eating jiaozi, maocai and Mala Tang.

Especially the light food on the take-away platform, the market performance is similar to porridge, but the positioning is healthier and more nutritious than porridge.

The three advantages of light tableware: fast eating, health and young audience, make takeaway a breakthrough for light food.