Market supervision authorities in China’s Guangdong province reached co-governance arrangements with key delivery platforms to boost oversight of the fast-growing online catering sector.
According to a China Daily report, the authorities signed the cooperation agreements with companies such as Meituan, Taobao Flash Shopping and JD Takeaway.
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The move follows the rollout of provincial regulations on the supervision and administration of food safety responsibilities of catering service providers, which became effective on 1 June.
In addition to the formal agreements with regulators, the three platforms have jointly signed a “self-regulatory convention” on the development and food safety in the province’s online catering industry to reinforce shared governance in the sector.
A central measure is the establishment of a shared blacklist system across the three platforms.
Merchants found to have committed serious food safety breaches and removed from one service will also be blocked by the other two.
This mechanism aims to prevent “non-compliant” businesses from returning to the market by shifting to a different platform.
The cooperation framework also encourages catering merchants to open live-streamed kitchen feeds, so that customers can watch the kitchen video in real time when making orders.
According to the agreements, the aim is to move the industry away from passive compliance towards proactive governance.
Delivery workers and consumers are also incorporated into the oversight structure. Their reports on food safety problems will be transmitted directly to the relevant regulatory bodies, under the new arrangements.
In April, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation fined seven e-commerce platforms a total of 3.6bn yuan ($527.3m) over food delivery safety violations.
