CJ Freshway launches Icheon 'Central Kitchen'... Providing semi-prepared products to 600 locations

Exterior view of CJ Freshway's Central Kitchen Central Region branch completed in Icheon, Gyeonggi-do.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] CJ Freshway, a food ingredient distribution and group catering specialist under CJ Group, announced on the 11th that it has completed and officially started operating a Central Kitchen in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province.

The Central Kitchen opened by CJ Freshway in the central region is built on a site of 3,380 pyeong (approximately 11,170 m²) with two above-ground floors, capable of producing about 25 tons of side dishes and semi-processed products daily. A Central Kitchen refers to a facility that can mass-produce side dishes, soups, and stews provided to group catering sites.

CJ Freshway plans to simultaneously achieve three goals through the operation of the Central Kitchen: improving the quality of group catering, enhancing efficiency, and ensuring hygiene and safety.

First, the Central Kitchen will enable the production of various side dishes based on standard recipes developed by CJ Freshway's FS Menu Team, which is expected to raise the quality of food provided to group catering sites nationwide. Additionally, operating the Central Kitchen will ensure kitchen efficiency and food hygiene safety. Since the Central Kitchen delivers products in RTH (Ready To Heat) and RTC (Ready To Cook) forms to group catering sites, meals can be prepared easily and conveniently on-site.

In particular, because cooking is centralized at the Central Kitchen, food safety issues such as cross-contamination or foreign substance incidents that may occur at group catering sites are expected to be significantly reduced. Moreover, since individual catering sites do not need to perform separate food preprocessing, the amount of food waste generated during the ingredient preprocessing stage can also be greatly reduced.

CJ Freshway plans to operate menus centered on Central Kitchen products by establishing standard meal plans at about 600 currently operating group catering sites. They intend to actively leverage the strengths of products specialized for hospitals and senior care facilities to expand their reach. Starting with the production of about 50 items initially, they plan to expand to around 200 items in consideration of the characteristics of each route.

A CJ Freshway official stated, “The Central Kitchen is expected to become a new driving force for CJ Freshway’s group catering business, and once its operation is fully underway, it is anticipated to maximize the efficiency of the group catering business.”