Since the first packaged snail noodles were sold in 2014 they have become a sales champion in the snack sector. With continuous upgrading of food production technologies such as rice noodle vacuum packaging, more research was done on creating menus and on standardization.

"With fresh foods such as snail noodles, if they're cooked only in restaurants the owner just needs to ensure they are cooked thoroughly," says Guo Xin, a marketing professor at Beijing Technology and Business University.

"But selling foodstuffs in packages to other regions requires a lot of prior study. This applies particularly to food sold in the hot and humid south, where it is prone to mold and may produce various toxins. So formulating food safety standards is essential."

In 2015, to further standardize the brand and promote sales growth, Liuzhou adopted the Liuzhou Snail Noodle Local Standard and the Prepackaged Liuzhou Snail Noodle Local Standard, and established the Liuzhou Luosifen Association. The standard was then divided into 10 parts with 55 sub-items, and specified in detail product classification, technical requirements for raw and additional materials, and process requirements for industrial production and processing.

At the end of last year there were 81 registered companies with more than 200 brands of pre-packaged luosifen in Liuzhou, with average daily sales of more than 1.7 million bags. The value of sales of pre-packaged snail noodles was 6 billion yuan, 86 percent more than in 2018. In the first half of this year the value of sales was almost 5 billion yuan.

These companies are well aware that for their product to succeed it is not enough just to comply with food safety standards. Almost tasteless dehydrated vegetables that were long a feature of packaged instant meals are now almost passe, replaced by a rich variety of freshly packed vegetable toppings.

The snail meat needs to be evenly granulated, rice noodles need to be crunchy, the dried beancurd stick and peanut bags need to be filled with nitrogen to keep them crisp and fresh, the chilli oil needs to be fragrant, and the sour bamboo shoots and dried radish need to be relatively fresh, too. The wood ear mushroom should not be too soft or sticky.