Have you ever had this experience: You open the food delivery app after work, spend half an hour scrolling through options, wait for over 40 minutes, and then get a cold meal that costs nearly 50% more than last year?
Once, office workers relied on takeout to “survive” busy days, but now they’re opening their fridges more often, and instead of leftover meals, they’re finding pre-made dishes that just need 10 minutes of heating.
While takeout orders are slowly declining, supermarket shelves filled with pre-made meals are growing longer, and even restaurants like Haidilao and Xibei have switched to using pre-made ingredients for over 60% of their dishes.
This raises a question: Is takeout, which has been booming for a decade, really going to be replaced by pre-made meals?
“Pre-Made Meals Take the Lead” — Where Did the Problem Lie?
Many people’s dependence on platforms like Meituan and Ele.me started with the appeal of “no cooking and no leaving the house.”
At its peak, 550 million people in China ordered takeout, with one in every two internet users participating. The food delivery market reached a whopping 1.6 trillion yuan, and small restaurants expanded their businesses across entire cities thanks to takeout.
But now, the flaws of takeout are becoming more apparent, and people are starting to get fed up.
Hygiene Issues
In 2024, over 40% of food-related complaints received by the State Administration for Market Regulation were about the hygiene of takeout meals.
There have even been reports of 137 restaurants operating without licenses, and videos showing greasy kitchens and expired ingredients regularly making it to the trending news.
Price Increases
Take Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, for example: In 2020, a rice bowl cost 18 yuan; by 2025, it had risen to 29 yuan, a 60% increase. Even with discounts, people still find it hard to accept that a simple meal costs over 20 yuan.
Delivery Efficiency
During peak hours, delivery workers often have more than 15 orders, and delays are common. On rainy days, it’s not unusual to receive orders 1-2 hours late. What was once “worry-free” is slowly becoming “stressful.”
The Reality of Takeout “Freshness”
What many don’t realize is that the “fresh” takeout they order might not be freshly cooked. Nowadays, many chain restaurants and small shops use pre-made dishes sent from central kitchens, just reheating and packaging them. Some even use pre-packaged cooking kits.
The emergence of pre-made meals directly addresses these pain points: they’re cheaper than takeout, can be heated at home, allow for better control of oil and salt, and the source of ingredients is visible.
A hotpot restaurant in Shandong reduced its staff from 14 to 3 after using pre-made ingredients and saved over 70,000 yuan per month. The taste of its signature dish, Maoxuewang, remained exactly the same across its 50 nationwide branches.
One-Person Meals and the Takeout Counterattack
While pre-made meals are on the rise, they’re not trying to completely replace takeout. The market is already dividing into two sectors: pre-made meals for daily household use and takeout for immediate needs.
The “one-person meal” trend is booming. With over 92 million single-person households in China, many people don’t want to cook or waste food. Small portion pre-made meals, typically 200-300 grams, have become very popular, with this market projected to reach 1.8 trillion yuan by 2025.
Between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., 70% of orders are for single-serve ready-to-eat meals, such as small portions of sauerkraut fish or braised pork, which can be heated in just 10 minutes without the need for washing dishes.
Even pre-made meals targeting fitness enthusiasts have become popular. Some brands are selling over a million boxes per month, with growth rates 1.8 times faster than regular pre-made meals.
Takeout’s Countermove
Takeout is also finding its “niche” by launching “pre-made meal sections” to ensure deliveries within 20 minutes, offering convenience with the “just heat and eat” model.
Some platforms are even collaborating with farms to provide “fresh-cut ingredients and seasoning kits,” where vegetables, meat slices, and seasoning packages are delivered together, allowing users to cook them in a few minutes for a “freshly made” feel.
Chongqing has introduced new regulations requiring food delivery restaurants without dine-in options to live-stream their kitchen processes, allowing consumers to view them before placing orders, addressing hygiene concerns.
Currently, takeout mainly serves “instant” scenarios—like freshly made milk tea or fresh fruit—which pre-made meals cannot replace.
The Future of Pre-Made Meals: More Than Just “Heat-and-Eat”
To understand the potential of pre-made meals, just look at the market abroad.
The United States is the largest market for pre-made meals, worth over 80 billion USD, accounting for 32% of the global market. Japan is even more advanced, with over 70% of households regularly consuming pre-made meals.
In comparison, China’s pre-made meal market still has vast potential, and the future of pre-made meals goes beyond “just heat and eat.”
Technological breakthroughs have already been made: a U.S. company is set to mass-produce cultured pig fat in the third quarter of 2025, and a company in China is developing cultured steaks, with mass production expected by 2026.
Packaging is also evolving. The former plastic packaging is being replaced by biodegradable corn starch packaging, and some pre-made meals come in self-heating packaging, perfect for business trips or camping.
Cold chain logistics are advancing too. In Inner Mongolia, lamb ribs can go from slaughter to a dining table in Shanghai within 48 hours, with the cold chain market expected to reach 550 billion yuan by 2025, ensuring pre-made meals stay fresh during transport.
Dining Will Become More Transparent and Hassle-Free
In the next decade, the dining market may look very different: pre-made meals will occupy 35% of the market, and takeout will focus on instant small items. Both will have their place, not as rivals but complementary to each other.
For regular consumers, dining will become more transparent and convenient.
In the future, buying pre-made meals will allow you to scan a code and view the entire process: where the ingredients came from, whether they have pesticide residues, what the processing temperatures were, and even the real-time temperature curve of the logistics truck—all will be publicly available, with green certification becoming the “hard standard” for choosing pre-made meals.
Some brands will even use VR technology, allowing consumers to view the nutritional composition of ingredients before purchasing and even simulate the taste, such as checking the fat-to-lean ratio or saltiness of braised pork.
AI will also assist in meal selection. By inputting height, weight, and health requirements, users will be recommended suitable pre-made meals, such as low-GI options for diabetics or high-protein meals for office workers.
For restaurant owners, using pre-made half-finished products can save costs, maintain consistent flavor, and reduce stress during peak hours, while still allowing for the preparation of signature dishes.
For example, a Sichuan restaurant uses pre-made ingredients for Mapo Tofu while making its signature water-boiled fish fresh, combining efficiency and uniqueness.
For aspiring entrepreneurs, there are numerous opportunities in the pre-made meal supply chain, such as ingredient standardization, cold chain logistics, and eco-friendly packaging.
