system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What do food companies change in their ready meal products so the cooking time is reduced while still keeping the product the same?

I recently noticed that Bachelors pasta ready meals now cook in 5 mins instead of 8 mins. You still add the same amount of milk, water and butter and the meal itself seems exactly the same but the cooking time is reduced, how do they achieve this?
gpt
Cook it further in the factory. Let's say pasta needs to be boiled/heated for 12 min. in total to be done. Before maybe they par-boiled it for 4 min. Now they cook it for 7. So it's further along before packaged for you to complete.