Takeout food providers must have real restaurants

A new regulation focuses on takeout food safety, stipulating only offline catering businesses with brick-and-mortar restaurants and proper business licenses are allowed to offer online catering and ordering services.

The regulation also states online catering and ordering services should be subject to the same rules as offline restaurants.

Once a catering service is found breaking laws and regulations, the administration will inform online order platforms, which should then suspend this business from their networks.

Order-taking platforms are required to develop a food safety control system, examine, register and publish operational permits and other key information of all catering services that join the networks.

Food delivery staff are asked to maintain personal hygiene, use clean and safe containers and prevent food contamination, while employers should provide proper training and tools, especially for foods that require special preservation such as refrigeration.