State Administration for Market Regulation Deploys Series of Actions on Network Food Safety Compliance and Quality Improvement

The State Administration for Market Regulation announced on March 16th that, to further strengthen the responsibilities of online food trading platforms and their operators, it is launching a series of actions to improve compliance and quality in online food safety. The series focuses on addressing three major issues strongly reflected by consumers: First, strictly regulate the chaos of live-streamed sales, urging live-streaming platforms, rooms, and hosts to strictly implement the “Supervision and Management Regulations on Food Safety Responsibilities for Live E-commerce Operators” which took effect on March 20th, clarifying responsibilities, enforcing the sales ban list, and preventing misleading marketing language. Second, rigorously verify the qualifications of online food products, urging platforms to strictly perform substantive reviews to prevent the online sale of food products without proper production and operation licenses, using false qualifications, or impersonating others’ credentials. Third, severely punish false advertising, urging online food operators to truthfully display information about the origin, ingredients, and functions of their products, and prevent the use of inappropriate language related to disease prevention or treatment to deceive consumers. During the campaign, special rectification efforts will target issues such as live-streamed food sales, online food sales, health foods, and influencer foods, increasing supervision and law enforcement against counterfeit, substandard, and inferior products. Platforms will be encouraged to jointly sign self-discipline agreements, strengthen cross-regional and online-offline coordinated supervision, and achieve traceability at the source and risk traceability in food safety. The administration will enforce the strictest supervision, urging platform companies to enhance compliance management and improve quality and safety standards, creating a safe and trustworthy online food consumption environment, and fully safeguarding the safety of people’s “table.”