- Platform says 60,000 restaurant merchants completed compliance upgrades this year
- New rule take effect June 1 as regulators step up oversight of delivery-only operators
Alibaba-backed Taobao Flash (淘宝闪购), an instant retail and delivery platform, said it has helped 60,000 restaurant merchants complete compliance upgrades this year as China rolls out stricter food-safety requirements for online food delivery platforms and merchants.
The disclosure coincided with the implementation on June 1 of new regulations requiring online food-service operators to strengthen accountability for food safety.
Taobao Flash has also worked with local authorities in cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Nanchang to introduce the first batch of labels identifying delivery-only merchants.
The platform now allows merchants to apply for labels such as “delivery-only,” “dine-in available” and “open kitchen.”
Verified labels are displayed to consumers after review.
Clampdown on “ghost kitchens”
The initiative targets a long-running problem — commonly known in China as “ghost kitchens” — in China’s food-delivery industry.
The term refers to food sellers that operate exclusively online without physical premises or that rely on fraudulent business licenses, raising food safety concerns.
Taobao Flash said it has connected to business-license verification systems operated by market regulators across all 31 provincial-level regions in China.
The company has also established food-safety cooperation mechanisms with multiple provinces and cities, including Chongqing, Hebei, Anhui, Henan and Nanjing.
Deeper regulatory collaboration
Several regions have begun testing deeper forms of regulatory coordination.
In Shanghai, authorities use electronic business-license systems to verify the authenticity of merchants, licenses and operating locations. Fujian has introduced a province-wide framework for data sharing, risk assessment and joint enforcement.
To comply with the new rules, Taobao Flash said it has strengthened merchant reviews across five areas: identity verification, license authentication, address validation, store inspections and product oversight.
New merchants are subject to video verification and offline checks, while the company’s in-house AI model, Baize (白泽), has been deployed across more than 100 food-safety monitoring scenarios.
The platform said it removed 332,000 non-compliant merchants during the first five months of 2026.
Crowdsourced reporting
Taobao Flash has also expanded a crowdsourced reporting program that allows delivery riders to flag potential food-safety issues.
The mechanism operates in 48 cities and includes information-sharing channels with local regulators.
Hong Yong, an associate researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, a think tank affiliated with the Ministry of Commerce, said AI could play a growing role in food-safety oversight and called for closer cooperation among regulators, platforms, technology providers and consumers.
