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Food safety is of paramount importance and it is not just something we should say.

CCTV reported on August 24 that a takeaway shop called "Wangjing BBQ" in Chaoyang District, Beijing, had multiple problems in its operation: the business borrowed someone else's business license, the business address was different from the license, and the dine-in photos were fake. Not only that, the investigation found that more than 30 food stalls in the "Live Kitchen" used the license of the Food City to open takeaway shops. In addition, there are takeaway shops opened next to waste recycling stations, and the sanitary conditions are worrying.

The disguise of "ghost takeaway" makes it difficult for consumers to identify. In the past, "ghost takeaway" referred to businesses that did not have relevant business licenses or store photos, but now, many businesses have uploaded business licenses and store photos. Under this "disguise", consumers have confidence in the quality of takeaways, but the actual situation is not the case.

Chaos continues to emerge

According to the survey, "ghost merchants" in the food delivery industry still exist and are even more hidden. The above survey found three problems: first, the store photos and addresses on the business licenses uploaded by some merchants on the platform do not match the actual situation; second, some merchants borrowed the business licenses of other merchants, and there were also cases where multiple merchants borrowed one business license; third, the hygiene conditions of some food delivery stores were worrying.

Regarding the above situation, on August 24, the Beijing Chaoyang District Market Supervision Bureau issued a document stating that after on-site inspections, it was found that "Live Kitchen" and "Jingmenlou" and other companies were operating online takeaways in the form of food city stalls and stores, and they had relevant licenses and qualifications; the Chaoyang Market Supervision Bureau has filed a case to investigate the illegal and irregular problems such as dirty and messy sanitary environments found in the above companies. At present, the relevant companies have carried out rectification work on the above issues, and the offline stores have been closed on their own, and the online takeaway platform has also been offline.

The Beijing Changping District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau also responded that after verification, Beijing Dongsha Shenxin Store (Shen) did not conduct business activities at its registered address, but rented its license to Zhang for him to register and use on food delivery platforms such as Meituan and Ele.me. At present, law enforcement officers have filed a case against Zhang, the person in charge of Wangjing BBQ, and Beijing Dongsha Shenxin Store (Shen) for suspected illegal activities. The store involved has been suspended for rectification and removed from all food delivery platforms.

A reporter from the First Financial Daily checked the business qualifications of merchants on food delivery platforms and found that it was very common for different merchants to use the same company name and address to apply for business licenses. Most of these merchants had an average annual turnover of less than 20 yuan per person and monthly sales of more than 500 yuan. Most of them were food court stalls, and many of them also operated offline dine-in services.

For example, the business license provided by "Hengji BBQ Burrito (Store No. 01, Xiaoshiguang Food City)" located at 201-1, 2nd Floor, Building 23, Yard 1, Dingfuzhuang Beili, Chaoyang District, Beijing shows that the name is Beijing Dingli Xiaoshiguang Catering Management Co., Ltd. and the legal representative is Hu Yashuang.

Another business named "Lazy Cat Takes Charge. BBQ. Deliver the Pot to Your Home" is also located at 201-1, 2nd Floor, Building 23, Yard 1, Dingfuzhuang Beili, Chaoyang District, Beijing. The business license provided by this business is the same as that of "Hengji BBQ Burrito", and its name is Beijing Dingli Xiaoshiguang Catering Management Co., Ltd., and the legal person is also the same.

As for the "Wangjing BBQ" that was reported to have complete qualifications and licenses and clean and tidy store photos, but actually rented a license to open a store with a fake address and fake photos, the Changping District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau responded that it has conducted law enforcement inspections and collected relevant evidence materials on the "Wangjing BBQ" that was exposed by the media for renting licenses and ghost delivery. The store involved has been suspended for rectification and has been removed from all food delivery platforms.

In other words, stores with identical business licenses and food business licenses may seem "dangerous", but they may be compliant in terms of qualifications and will not be "rejected" by the platform, but their hygiene conditions need to be carefully examined. Many stores with complete qualifications and clean store photos may also be "ghost takeaways" because they have problems with their qualifications, and the information displayed on the platform is inconsistent with the actual situation.

Yicai investigated the situation of many food delivery platforms. At present, the selection of Ele.me's "Rest assured order list" mainly refers to the four dimensions of good comprehensive sales, good taste, good reputation, and many repeat customers. Many selected restaurants do not even have photos of the environment or physical stores on the platform, and lack information on food safety. "Little Blue Heart" is mostly based on brand merchants, and uses "rest assured commitment, store visits, real photos, ratings, and food safety guarantees" as the standard. However, the reporter found that although a light breakfast in Chaoyang District, Beijing was selected for the "Little Blue Heart" list, the actual page did not display photos of dine-in and store visits.

The "transparent restaurants" that are most reassuring to consumers and can broadcast live from the back kitchen have the fewest restaurants selected. At the same time, many of the businesses show "no cameras are turned on yet", "the cameras are undergoing offline maintenance/upgrades/inspections, the platform will actively contact the merchants to restore the video signal as soon as possible", "the equipment is not online", etc., but they are still on the "transparent restaurant" list.

In addition, China Business Network searched for businesses related to "Food City" on platforms such as Meituan and Ele.me, and found that many businesses did not upload photos of their stores.

Lack of platform supervision

How can we ensure the safety of users’ takeaway food through reasonable and scientific qualification screening and sanitary environment testing? Takeaway platforms have an unshirkable responsibility in many aspects, from review to supervision and consumer rights protection.

For food delivery platforms, this not only tests the optimization of the platform's initial access standards, but also the "online" status of the platform's subsequent testing and verification.

A senior rider told the First Financial reporter that it is recommended that users choose physical stores with dine-in services when placing orders, preferably restaurants they have been to before, to prevent some merchants from uploading fake pictures.

This process also requires the efforts of the platform. In 2023, Ele.me announced the "Rest assured" strategic system, stating that it would build a platform and industry standards from three aspects: food safety, word-of-mouth praise, and scientific testing through "Little Blue Heart", "Rest assured list" and "Food Star".

At that time, Ele.me's chief operating officer Chen Weiye also said that staff would be designated to conduct on-site inspections of merchants' offline stores, and only clean and hygienic stores would be selected as "Little Blue Hearts" and receive relevant marks on the App. Ele.me would monitor the store's operating conditions through cameras, and when a store had major food safety issues, "Little Blue Hearts" would label it with a zero-tolerance principle. Consumers could also watch the back-kitchen live broadcasts of "transparent restaurant" merchants on Ele.me.

But behind this seemingly beautiful vision, the situation of food safety monitoring by food delivery platforms is not optimistic.

For food delivery platforms, after formulating relevant standards, how to strictly supervise, screen and eliminate non-compliant merchants in accordance with the standards will obviously be a longer-term and more severe test.

In this regard, Wang Beibei, senior partner of Yingke Law Firm in Beijing, told China Business News that according to the Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China, the Electronic Commerce Law of the People's Republic of China, and the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Food Safety of Online Catering Services, takeaway merchants should disclose business licenses, food business licenses, quantitative grading information, addresses and other information to consumers. In addition to strengthening routine supervision and inspections, regulatory authorities should also set up smooth complaint and reporting channels, such as telephones and online platforms, to encourage consumers to report any health problems they find. In addition to regular inspections, regulatory authorities can also conduct surprise inspections and flight inspections, and conduct on-site inspections without prior notice to truly reflect the hygiene conditions of the merchants' daily operations. When ordering takeaways, consumers are advised to carefully check the above information provided by the merchants and try to choose merchants with complete licenses, physical stores and high reputation.

As "ghost takeaway" continues to persist despite repeated bans, the platform has been absent.

Wang Beibei believes that the platform may have the following problems: lax qualification review, failure to effectively identify violations such as forgery, expiration, and borrowing; insufficient field inspections, failure to promptly discover and deal with problems such as poor sanitary conditions and food safety hazards. Incomplete information disclosure, incomplete disclosure of important information such as merchant qualification information, food safety rating, and complaint and reporting records, and untimely updates. The platform should strengthen the review mechanism, establish a database, record the information of merchants whose business qualifications have been revoked or have bad records, and conduct key comparisons and verifications when they reapply to prevent them from going online again by simply changing their names. Improve the tracking and monitoring system, and conduct in-depth investigations and verifications in a timely manner if similarities are found between newly launched merchants and merchants whose qualifications have been revoked.

Chen Liteng, a digital life e-commerce analyst at the E-commerce Research Center of the China Internet Network Information Center, told China Business News that when verifying the qualifications of takeaway merchants, technical identification can be used to automatically identify and filter false information and abnormal behavior through big data analysis and artificial intelligence technology. The business conditions of merchants that have settled in the platform should be checked from time to time to prevent merchants from sharing qualifications or uploading false information.

The safety of takeout food has also received attention from regulators. On August 21, the Hainan Prefecture Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Qinghai Province issued a document stating that it had established an "online monitoring + offline rectification" working mechanism, with takeout business operators gathering as key areas, focusing on small restaurants, and catering operators with fried chicken and barbecue as the main categories as key inspection targets, strictly investigating unlicensed operations, operations beyond the scope of business, failure to publicize license information online as required, poor sanitary conditions, unknown sources of food, use of non-food packaging materials, expired health certificates of employees and other illegal behaviors. As of August 21, 35 online food third-party platform providers were inspected, 18 problems and hidden dangers were found, and 8 were ordered to rectify; 886 online food operators were inspected, 68 problems and hidden dangers were found, and 42 were ordered to rectify.

In April, the Hongxiang Sub-district Office of Zhengxiang District, Hengyang City, in conjunction with the District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau and the Urban Management Squadron, carried out a centralized rectification campaign against takeaway shops without dine-in service around the University of South China, focusing on the main qualifications, sanitary conditions, equipment and facilities, etc. According to statistics, a total of 21 food production and operation units were inspected, 126 law enforcement personnel were dispatched, 21 problems were found, 14 rectification notices were issued, and 1 was sealed on the spot.