The seasoning market's trend towards youthfulness is prominent, with "convenient seasonings" gradually becoming kitchen essentials.

Fish-fragrant shredded pork, old altar pickled cabbage fish, garlic vermicelli crayfish, spicy hot pot... As long as you open a packet of seasoning, with a few simple steps, you can make a classic dish with delicious color, aroma and taste. This seasoning is a compound seasoning. Compound seasoning refers to a seasoning made from two or more seasonings through special processing, as opposed to single seasonings (such as soy sauce, vinegar, salt, etc.). Because it only needs a few simple seasoning packets to make a dish, it is liked by many people and is vividly called "lazy seasoning" by everyone.

There are many kinds of "lazy seasoning" on the market.

Compared with single seasonings, compound seasonings effectively simplify the cooking process and meet the diverse cooking needs of consumers. Because it is convenient and easy to use, "lazy seasoning" has become a hot-selling category in the seasoning industry, selling very well both online and offline. On November 9, in the seasoning area of a supermarket on Lin Feng Road in Fengtai District, a reporter from the China Food Safety Network found that the seven-layer shelves were filled with various types of bagged seasonings. In addition to the common hot pot base, there are also compound seasonings for classic home-cooked dishes such as spicy hot pot, pickled cabbage fish, garlic vermicelli crayfish, boiled pork slices, Kung Pao chicken, and fish-fragrant shredded pork. Detailed production steps are indicated on the back of the packaging.

Various compound seasonings on supermarket shelves

Picking up a package of seasoning called "Spicy Mala Fish" from the supermarket shelves, you can see a picture-rich introduction on the back of the packaging of the three-step method for making Spicy Mala Fish. It not only gives the types of ingredients required for a package of seasoning, but also indicates the weight and cooking time required for each ingredient, making it simple, easy to understand, and easy to use.

The back of the packaging details the steps for making the dish.

The back of the packaging details the steps for making the dish. In supermarkets in Haidian District's Zhonghua Village East Road and Fengtai District's Nanyuan West Road, we found that "lazy seasonings" with prices ranging from 5 yuan to 20 yuan are diverse and occupy a place on the shelves.

In addition to offline supermarkets, the flavors and types of compound seasonings sold online are even richer, including stews, home-cooked dishes, and local specialties. Many products easily sell over 10,000 units per month, and some merchants use advertisements such as "fast serving in 5 minutes" to attract consumers. The sales volume shows that more and more consumers are choosing "lazy seasonings".

"Lazy seasoning" is convenient and fast, saving time and effort.

A market survey shows that nearly half of young people say they cook several times a week, and more than 10% of young people cook every day. In first- and second-tier cities, the proportion of young people who cook several times a week reaches 48.1% and 55.8%. However, in fourth- and fifth-tier cities, these figures are 41.9% and 39.6%, respectively. Yan Yan is a post-00s, who likes to cook at home and share food on social platforms. For Yan Yan, even if she cooks frequently, there are always a few dishes that don't taste quite right. "Once, while shopping at the supermarket, I saw water-boiled pork slice seasoning on the shelf, so I bought it to try. Unexpectedly, everyone said it was delicious after I made it." Yan Yan said that after that, every time she goes to the supermarket, she will buy a few seasoning packets to stock up at home, so she can cook whenever she wants. Besides Yan Yan, Xiao Zhang, who is in her 80s, also likes to cook. Ordinary home-cooked dishes are no problem, but it's still difficult to make dishes with the taste of a restaurant. Putting several kinds of seasonings and how much of each seasoning to put is a test. Once you put too much or too little, it won't taste right. Since being introduced to "lazy seasoning" by a colleague, Xiao Zhang has become more handy in cooking.

More and more young people like to cook, share food, and pay more attention to the taste of food. The biggest advantage of using "lazy seasoning" to cook is that it is simple and convenient, and can solve the problems of young people's difficulty in cooking and poor cooking skills in a one-click manner.

Market size exceeds 100 billion, various brands join in.

In recent years, the compound seasoning market has developed rapidly. Relevant data shows that the growth rate of the compound seasoning industry is faster than that of single seasonings. In 2020, the market size of compound seasonings reached 150 billion yuan, and it is expected to increase to 165.8 billion yuan in 2021. In the field of compound seasonings, the main products are currently hot pot base, Chinese cuisine seasonings, and table sauces. Giants such as Haitian, Qianhe, and Zhongju High-tech, which previously focused on single seasonings, have expanded their business scope to compound seasonings this year, launching stir-fry sauces and hot pot bases. Although the market size of compound seasonings is only 1/3 of that of single seasonings, the number of enterprises producing compound seasonings accounts for more than 80% of the total number of seasoning enterprises. The "lazy seasoning" track is becoming increasingly hot, with new brands such as Xiaoxiong Jiadao, Shifan, and Jiadian Zimei emerging to meet the needs. "I have been engaged in the seasoning industry for more than 20 years. My industry experience and sense, as well as my observation of consumer needs, have made me realize the transformation of seasonings from single to compound. Compound seasonings are a track that meets the upgrading of the times and consumer needs." Xiao Xiong Jiadao CEO Xiao Junyong said in an interview with the China Food Safety Network that the Xiaoxiong Jiadao brand was established in 2017. Currently, the company has a complete independent research and development, production supply chain, and enterprise quality management system, and will strictly select suppliers, including qualification audits and raw material inspections. Only qualified and high-quality raw materials are used. To ensure that the products that reach consumers are safe, healthy, and delicious.

Compound seasonings have great potential for future development.

Compound seasonings are favored by more and more young consumers because of their rich flavors, diverse forms, and ease of operation. This generation of consumers has higher requirements for the quality of life—they like to try new things and share. "Lazy seasoning" solves the pain point of young people who like to cook but are worried about not cooking well. Data shows that in 2020, the penetration rate of compound seasonings in China was only 26%, while the penetration rate of compound seasonings in the United States and Japan was the highest, reaching 73% and 66%, respectively. Zhu Danpeng, a Chinese food industry analyst, said that with the continuous deepening of the lazy effect, the prevalence of home culture, and the continuous increase of cooking novices, compound seasonings have become a rigid demand for this group of people and the catering industry, and have ultimately been favored and sought after by capital, industry, and consumers. From the perspective of the entire industry, Zhu Danpeng believes that compound seasonings have certain growth space, development space, and expansion space in the future. Unlike the previous generation who liked to use simple seasonings such as oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar, the rise of "lazy seasoning" is due to more and more young people entering the kitchen. "Solving a dish with a packet of seasoning" is becoming a trend for young people who have limited time and cooking skills, and also reflects the increasingly obvious trend of younger consumption in the seasoning industry. Of course, when purchasing such goods, you should also pay attention to the production standards and execution license numbers on the packaging and purchase according to your own needs.