Former women’s pro wrestler and TV personality Kitao Akira appeared on TOKYO MX’s “5-ji ni Muchu!” on September 1 and praised pre-cut vegetables sold at supermarkets, saying “I think whoever came up with that is a genius.” The show also featured survey results on how often different generations use kitchen knives. The comment sparked a thread on 5ch, where opinions were split: some praised the products as “convenient and a lifesaver” and said “the pre-cut garnish scallions are the one thing I buy,” while others raised safety and nutrition concerns, saying they’re “washed in sodium hypochlorite, which isn’t good for you” or that “vitamins leach out, lowering their nutritional value,” and still others questioned “why bother paying extra for something like this.”
Kitao Akira: “I Think Whoever Came Up With It Is a Genius” — Praises Supermarket Smash Hit, “Why Didn’t This Exist Before”
Former women’s pro wrestler and TV personality Kitao Akira (59) appeared live on TOKYO MX’s “5-ji ni Muchu!” (weekdays 5:00 PM) on the 1st and talked about cooking.
The show introduced an article summarizing survey results and trends on how often people use kitchen knives, broken down by generation.
Hypochlorite isn't great for you, so I'd rather they just hand me shredded cabbage on the spot.
5AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:40
I rarely buy it, but the pre-cut garnish scallions are pretty handy lol
8AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:40
Also, they already sell ready-made gyoza — what's with people who buy the wrappers and insist on making them by hand? Just buy the gyoza already. It's not "homemade tastes better," just buy gyoza that's already tasty from the start.
24AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:44
Re: #8
No way, homemade gyoza is definitely tastier.
27AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:45
Re: #8
Store-bought packs are small so you end up buying a bunch anyway, but that same money buys ingredients for cheaper. People who cook for themselves tend to be big eaters, so buying store-bought would blow up the household budget.
9AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:41
Occasionally just the garnish scallions. Never touch the rest of it.
12AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:41
[Time Efficiency] "Cutting Out the Knife" Cooking Trend Spreads Among Gen Z — "Effortless Homemade" Becomes the New Normal in the Dual-Income Era ★2 [Gure★]
13AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:42
Apparently potato skins are packed with nutrients. I don't peel mine.
14AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:42
Isn't that stuff meant for people living alone?
20AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:43
Re: #14
Somehow it feels off when it's the mom of a family buying it. Right up there with buying oden from 7-Eleven lol
15AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:43
It's overpriced, and you can tell they're just using the usable bits from vegetables that would normally get thrown out.
16AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:43
"Genius" is a stretch — anyone who actually shops and cooks would've noticed the demand for this.
17AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:43
The scary part is it never turns brown. Normally veggies discolor fast once cut and left out. Cutting them yourself only takes like 5 minutes anyway, so might as well.
26AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:45
Re: #17
Isn't that just because there's less oxygen inside the packaging?
18AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:43
Do they even make pre-cut potatoes?
22AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:44
Re: #18
They sell bagged pre-cut veggies for curry — just potato, onion, and carrot.
23AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:44
The bags of pre-cut vegetables are filled with acetylene gas to keep them from spoiling. Once you cut them, they start rotting from the cut surface, which is why this wasn't possible before. Open the bag and you can watch it rot before your eyes.
35AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:51
Re: #23
Actually it's a nitrogen/CO2 gas mix.
25AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:45
Guess they're too dumb to know it's been soaked in chemicals?
29AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:48
Pre-cut vegetables are soaked in diluted hypochlorous acid. Probably fine for the elderly, but I don't think you should feed it to kids.
39AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:52
Re: #29 Re: #30
So there are other ways to prevent spoilage besides the gas they're charged with.
30AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:48
Sodium hypochlorite is used in the manufacturing process of pre-cut vegetables, so it's very dangerous to the human body.
If you want to live a long life, don't eat it.
32AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:49
Water-soluble vitamins definitely leach out (fat-soluble vitamins and minerals probably survive), and it doesn't keep as long.
What's so genius about that?
33AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:50
I'll buy it if it's marked down cheap, but "convenient because it's pre-cut" isn't a reason I'd buy it.
34AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:50
Pre-cut vegetables get washed like crazy to keep bugs from getting mixed in, so there's basically zero vitamins left.
40AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:52
So going by Re: #34, uncut cucumbers and the like would be best, I guess.
47AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:56
Hypochlorous acid gets used way more in school lunches and restaurants.
50AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:58
Re: #47
Honestly, not using it is scarier. Hospital food, for instance, basically never serves raw vegetables as-is.
49AnonymousSep 1, 2026 17:58
Bagged pre-cut salads are great. You just pour dressing right into the bag and eat, and all you throw away is the bag — no bulky waste. I stopped buying salads in plastic containers.
52AnonymousSep 1, 2026 18:01
Re: #49
Yaoko still does the container style since they're all about looking flashy. Nutrition-wise, RF1 is still more reliable.
56AnonymousSep 1, 2026 18:04
Not everything needs to be trashed. If you want to cut it yourself, fine — but even if it costs a bit more, pre-cut saves effort, you use it all up, and it's convenient.
58AnonymousSep 1, 2026 18:06
Re: #56
You're just trying to justify yourself.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
In the manufacturing process for pre-cut vegetables, it’s standard practice to wash them with sodium hypochlorite or hypochlorous acid water for sterilization, and to seal the bags with a nitrogen/CO2 gas mix to prevent discoloration and spoilage — one poster in the thread even corrected their own earlier claim of “acetylene gas.” Hypochlorous acid-based agents are approved as food additives and are widely used in school lunches and restaurant chains too, but the thread reached no consensus on safety, with claims that it’s “not good for you” running up against counterarguments that “it’s used in plenty of other foods too.” It is a food-science fact that cutting and washing cause water-soluble vitamins to diminish, but whether that makes it “not genius” is where opinions diverged — voices prioritizing convenience were roughly matched by those worried about nutrition and price.
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