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According to media reports, 102 online food providers came together in one residential community in Beijing to form a "takeaway meal village". The hygiene conditions in the village were terrible and nine of them were operating without a license. Still, these meal providers were popular.
This is not the first scandal involving online food providers that the media have exposed. On March 15, Consumer Rights Day, a popular online meal delivery platform was found hosting unlicensed and unhygienic meal providers. Online takeaway food services are very popular among consumers because of their convenience, and many of the meal providers receive countless orders every day.
However, the frequent food safety scandals involving meals ordered via the internet show not only the illegal practices of some takeaway food suppliers, but also the loopholes in supervising the online meal platforms.
According to the Food Safety Law, the host platform should register the real names of the meal suppliers and make sure they have catering licenses.
Even after so many scandals, many unlicensed takeaway food suppliers are hosted on such platforms. This means the platforms have failed to shoulder their responsibility of guaranteeing food safety. Worse, they even become part of a long interest chain of unqualified takeaway food suppliers.
The food safety supervision authorities have to improve their work and strengthen supervision, in order to curb this kind of food safety scandal for the health of consumers.
