diff --git a/api b/api
index 8da07fe3741..d1e34ab8e29 100755
--- a/api
+++ b/api
@@ -1812,6 +1812,24 @@ refresh_all_pkgapp_status() { #for every package-app, if dpkg thinks it's instal
   # this variable needs to be global to be accessible from the subshells
   local apt_cache_output="$(echo "$packages" | xargs -r apt-cache policy)"
 
+  #redefine package_available() to use apt_cache_output and avoid running apt-cache multiple times
+  package_available() { #this will only be used in this function's subprocesses.
+    echo "$apt_cache_output" | grep -x "${1}:" -A2 | grep -vxF "  Candidate: (none)" | grep -q "^  Candidate:"
+  }
+
+  #redefine package_installed to only read /var/lib/dpkg/status once
+  local dpkg_status="$(grep -x "Package: \($(echo "$packages" | sed 's/:'"$arch"'//g ; s/ /\\|/g')\)" -A 2 /var/lib/dpkg/status)"
+  #this one only takes off 0.1s on my pi5, so if it causes issues it could be removed
+  package_installed() { #exit 0 if $1 package is installed, otherwise exit 1
+    local package="$1"
+    [ -z "$package" ] && error "package_installed(): no package specified!"
+    #find the package listed in /var/lib/dpkg/status
+    #package_info "$package"
+
+    #directly search /var/lib/dpkg/status
+    echo "$dpkg_status" | grep -x "Package: $package" -A 2 -m1 | grep -qxF 'Status: install ok installed'
+  }
+
   # parse apt_cache_output for each package app
   # generate list of all packages needed by package apps
   for app in $(list_apps package) ;do