I found two freeze-dried products on sale online:
500 grams of chicken freeze-dried barrels, 500 grams = 44 yuan, or 88 yuan/kg
A pack of 70 grams of chicken breast is freeze-dried, 70 grams = 59 yuan, or 842 yuan/kg
Why the freeze-dried price can be 10 times different?
The gap between raw materials
The moisture content of fresh meat is between 75%-80%, the real pure The moisture content of freeze-dried meat is less than 5%. So it is almost 4-5 catties of fresh meat = 1 catties of freeze-dried meat.
Take the price of chicken breast as an example:
Branded: 13,000 yuan/ton
Ordinary: 10,000 yuan/ton
Poor: 7,000 yuan/ton, or even lower
According to the cost of ingredients, pure chicken breast is freeze-dried The cost of ingredients is:
Branded chicken breast freeze-dried: 52-65 yuan/kg
Ordinary chicken breast freeze-dried: 40-50 yuan/kg
Poor chicken breast freeze-dried: 28-35 yuan/kg
So if the ingredients are good or bad, the final freeze-dried cost can be more than doubled.
The freeze-drying plant revealed that some low-end products will add starch to the meat to reduce costs.
Production process
Good freeze-drying requires low temperature in vacuum (minus 30~minus 40 degrees Celsius) Drying in the environment, the entire production cycle generally takes 3 days. The electricity bill and equipment loss in the whole process will be about 30 yuan/kg evenly.
Most factories can’t reach the standard of vacuum drying, and even some factories can only reach -20 degrees Celsius at low temperature. If the vacuum is not up to standard, the temperature is not low enough, and the drying time is not long enough, it will lead to a relatively high water content in freeze-drying, which is more prone to damage. Therefore, many factories will directly pull the temperature to 80 degrees Celsius and directly dry the ingredients. Drying can make the food look sallow and destroy the overall color, shape and smell of the food.
Irradiation sterilization
Freeze-drying can only be dehydrated but not sterilized in a subzero freezing environment. Therefore, lyophilization should be sterilized by irradiation after packaging. Most freeze-drying plants do not have irradiation equipment. The first is that irradiation equipment is generally more expensive, and the second is that irradiation plants require qualification requirements.
So the factory generally entrusts a third party to irradiate and sterilize, and the amount of lyophilized radiation generally has three specifications: 4K, 5K, and 6K. The greater the radiation dose, the more complete the sterilization, but the lower the palatability, the more nutrients such as vitamins are lost.
Warehousing and logistics
For e-commerce, the cost of express delivery accounts for a large proportion. Shang jokingly claimed that he worked for a courier company. Coupled with the warehousing and packaging labor, it is not a small cost.
Brand promotion and distributors
For normal brands, brand promotion, back-office staff costs, and distributor channel fees all add up to several more costs. steps.
Summary
1. Freeze-dried raw materials and electricity cost constitute the most direct cost. Good ingredients + real freeze-drying technology, the final product is about 90 yuan/kg. Buying lyophilized products below this price is not recommended.
2. Freeze-drying technology can only dry, not really sterilize. Therefore, it is recommended to purchase lyophilized products in individual, airtight packages, and mixed, transparent packaged products are not recommended.
3. Freeze-drying If the color turns yellow and the shape shrinks, it may be dried rather than freeze-dried.
