DgcityChinese diners may soon be able to watch their takeout being cooked before the rider even arrives. Draft revisions to the country’s Food Safety Law would require online catering providers to show food preparation in real time by video, opening restaurant kitchens to public scrutiny through ordering apps.
The State Administration for Market Regulation published the proposed amendments and accepted public comments through November 10. The package targets a recurring anxiety in China’s huge delivery market: unlicensed ghost kitchens, misleading restaurant listings and the gap between a polished online storefront and a cramped, unsanitary cooking space.
The draft also calls for cameras at key risk points in food businesses, with live footage connected to local market-regulation systems. Inspectors could use connected monitoring, artificial intelligence and stored video to spot violations and gather evidence. Businesses that fail to comply after warnings could face fines.
Online food platforms would take on heavier duties. They would need to open branches or offices in every provincial-level region where they operate and file with local regulators, a measure designed to ensure that companies can be investigated and forced to act locally rather than only from a distant headquarters.
Platforms would verify the identities, licenses and registrations of sellers at least once every six months, train merchants on food safety, remove listings when licenses lapse and keep records. The rules reflect regulators’ view that apps have often lacked local staff with enough authority to pull backend data or shut problematic vendors.
Schools face stricter obligations too. Principals would be named as the first person responsible for campus food safety, canteens at rural schools in the national nutrition program could not be outsourced, and two staff members would inspect bulk ingredients together.
Other provisions would tighten controls on infant complementary foods, require health-food labels to state that such products are not medicines, strengthen importers’ duties and expand whole-chain traceability and recalls. Consumers sold unsafe food could still seek damages worth ten times the purchase price, with a minimum payout.
The amendments are not yet law. After reviewing comments, regulators will steer the draft through the legislative process. If adopted in close to current form, the measures would make China’s takeout kitchen one of the most closely watched workplaces in its food industry.
