Posted on Jan.8, 2026 by Dong Quanyue|Qingdao Vocational and Technical College of Hotel Management
To further improve the collaborative work chain and promote the market validation of independently developed products, The college, in conjunction with Inzone Central Kitchen and Inzone Plaza, jointly held an on-site food demonstration at Inzone Plaza(Quancheng Square Branch) in Jinan on January 1st and 2nd.
Teachers and students from the School of Culinary Arts showcased a variety of improved culinary and bakery products, bringing an academic-style taste feast to the citizens of Jinan.
The smoked Spanish mackerel, braised carp, black wolfberry and mulberry European-style bread, and other culinary and bakery products, co-developed by our teacher-student team and Inzone Central Kitchen, entered the product verification stage in November last year after market research, feasibility analysis, and product development.
Later, after two rounds of pilot-scale verification, the products were further improved in accordance with the characteristics of the segmented consumer market and the requirements of standardized production.
At the demonstration site, all major products were made on-site in the food processing area of the mall. Upon their launch, they triggered a buying spree, and the stock prepared for one day was sold out ahead of schedule on the same day. Among them, products such as smoked Spanish mackerel were sold out within two hours of going on sale.
Consumers who tasted the products on site generally commented that the products had both innovation and rich taste layers. They highly recognized the low-salt and healthy formulas or particularly innovative flavors of many products.
Focusing on the core link of market evaluation, this activity innovated the school-enterprise collaborative work model. We provided intellectual resources such as innovative formulas and technical processes, and authorized the publicity qualification of master chefs; Inzone Central Kitchen planned production tasks, formulated systematic plans and integrated resources; Inzone Plaza provided equipment, raw materials and basic operating personnel, and built exhibition and sales scenarios as well as user feedback channels. Through tripartite collaboration, the efficient transformation from research and development to the market was realized, the final evaluation by the consumer market was achieved, and a closed loop of industry-university-research-marketing was formed, meeting the expected goals.
According to statistics, the total sales volume of the activity exceeded 50,000 yuan, driving the sales growth of the supermarket's food processing business by more than 5%, attracting more than 500 new customers to the processing area, and boosting the overall customer flow of the supermarket by more than 2%. The activity provided 8 new marinated products and 5 new bakery products for the supermarket's processing area, covering the full-time customer flow of the elderly in the morning, office workers at noon, and family customers in the evening.
More than 100 pieces of effective feedback were collected during the activity, providing accurate data support for subsequent product iteration and large-scale production at Inzone Central Kitchen.
This activity is a food demonstration for interaction between the school-enterprise R&D team and citizens and tourists, an on-site processing test to verify the R&D results, and a practical exercise for the college to integrate into the integrated development of the Lushang Group's industry.
In the next step, both the college and the enterprise will further optimize the process parameters according to the market feedback, increase the R&D of semi-finished products with strong consumer feedback, continuously optimize the product matrix, explore and establish a replicable and promotable long-term mechanism for school-enterprise collaborative education, and help students grow and become talents in real industrial scenarios.
At the same time, this practice has also provided valuable experience for the innovation of the industrial collaborative work model, and further clarified the collaborative work path oriented by market demand.
