The company making grocery store sushi possible

Ever wonder how sushi made it to the masses in grocery stores? The answer lies on the soy sauce packet that usually comes with each to-go tray of sushi that consumers happily buy for a quick and relatively cheap fix. Advanced Fresh Concepts a.k.a AFC Franchise Corporation is the largest supplier of fresh sushi to supermarkets and grocery stores, according to its website. From the looks of it, they provide their franchisees with all the ingredients and trained staff who prepare sushi on-the-spot and pack it in trays for individual consumption.
Elitist sushi fans who can afford to drop upwards of $50 for high quality sushi at decent restaurants may turn their noses up at supermarket sushi. To be fair, the quality of AFC sushi hardly compares to the quality at a sushi restaurant. For starters, the sushi rice tastes a bit sickly sweet and a quick look at the ingredients reveals why: high fructose corn syrup. It would be interesting to find out why AFC uses such an artificial ingredient and an educated guess has to with easy preservation since the sushi, once made and packaged, must sometimes last at least 12 hours. In contrast, people usually eat restaurant sushi within 15 minutes after it leaves the chef's hands so naturally it will be much fresher. Same goes for the raw fish and other ingredients in restaurant sushi.
Still, fast-food sushi fits the bill for desperate sushi fans who lack time and money to indulge in a restaurant sushi meal. Sometimes all one needs is a close approximation of the heavenly flavors of soy, wasabi, fish, nori and sushi rice to recharge and refuel.
Elitist sushi fans who can afford to drop upwards of $50 for high quality sushi at decent restaurants may turn their noses up at supermarket sushi. To be fair, the quality of AFC sushi hardly compares to the quality at a sushi restaurant. For starters, the sushi rice tastes a bit sickly sweet and a quick look at the ingredients reveals why: high fructose corn syrup. It would be interesting to find out why AFC uses such an artificial ingredient and an educated guess has to with easy preservation since the sushi, once made and packaged, must sometimes last at least 12 hours. In contrast, people usually eat restaurant sushi within 15 minutes after it leaves the chef's hands so naturally it will be much fresher. Same goes for the raw fish and other ingredients in restaurant sushi.
Still, fast-food sushi fits the bill for desperate sushi fans who lack time and money to indulge in a restaurant sushi meal. Sometimes all one needs is a close approximation of the heavenly flavors of soy, wasabi, fish, nori and sushi rice to recharge and refuel.