(File photo)

The Beijing Food and Drug Administration has ordered all stores listed on food delivery apps to publish their operation licenses before Oct. 1 in order to guarantee food safety. This decision comes after several restaurants on such apps were found to have food safety problems.

Tang Yunhua, a spokesperson for the administration, said information regarding unlicensed operations on food delivery apps will be made public every week, and apps that fail to fulfill their inspection duties will be fined 200,000 yuan for each instance of negligence, Beijing News reported.

At an Aug. 10 meeting that included several major apps such as Baidu Waimai, Ele.me and Meituan, the food and drug administration publicized the information of 60 unlicensed restaurants and ordered all the apps to suspend cooperation with them. The administration has also collected evidence proving the failure of those apps to inspect and publicize information on a number of partner restaurants. The administration plans to begin a formal investigation soon, according to Beijing News.

The newspaper previously ran an investigative story on several businesses partnering with major food delivery apps that operated under fake licenses. The report revealed instances of shockingly poor sanitation, such as vegetables being washed in the bathroom and raw materials being placed directly on the kitchen floor.

According to Beijing News, Meituan has said that it has removed 9,000 unlicensed restaurants in the past 10 months, including 2,000 in Beijing. Baidu Waimai said it removed over 1,000 restaurants in May, including 286 in Beijing. Starting from October, the apps will be required to guarantee the legal licenses of all their food providers.

“Food delivery apps cannot use the newness of the industry or technology as an excuse. They must fulfill their duty to inspect all stores on their platforms and rectify any problems. All must do their utmost to guarantee food safety,” Tang noted. 

(Photos of unlicensed restaurants. Photo/The Beijing News)