Poor hygiene, difficult supervision, no dine-in takeaway restaurant food safety how to ensure food

As a new form of business generated by the development of the Internet, the number of food business establishments specializing in takeaway has been increasing in recent years, due to its small scale, large flow of personnel, concealment of places, and lack of direct contact with consumers, some non-dine-in takeaway restaurants have food safety hazards, and some stores "sell dog meat on sheep's heads" to avoid the supervision of the platform and relevant departments. How can dine-in takeaway restaurants be effectively supervised to ensure the safety and hygiene of takeaways?

Standing sticky feet and touching sticky hands

Bundles of food raw materials are discarded on the floor, small cubicles are filled with grease and oil...... This is what the reporter saw not long ago on a takeaway street somewhere in the north. On the Internet, many netizens also reported that there is also a takeaway street in the local area, and the health problems are generally worrying, "it's really dirty" and "I lost the desire to order takeout after reading it".

In recent years, there have been more and more restaurants specializing in takeaways, because they do not provide dine-in, the store area is generally small, and the corresponding investment cost is low and easy to be accepted by operators. Since these stores do not need to have direct contact with consumers, they often attract customers after beautiful packaging on the Internet. However, the reporter recently visited many places and found that the food safety problems of some pure takeaway stores are more prominent.

The reporter interviewed a non-dine-in takeaway concentration in a place in the north and found that poor sanitation is a common problem in these stores. The reporter walked into a spicy fragrant pot takeaway shop and found that the ground was full of oil stains, the chef who was working had a few pieces of cardboard under his feet, the operating table was also covered with oil stains, and the small room was filled with the smell of chili peppers.

In its neighboring stores, the same situation still exists, and the supervisors of relevant departments said that "standing sticky feet, touching sticky hands", the most intuitive problem of some non-dine-in takeaway restaurants is that hygiene is not up to par. "It's hard for consumers to see the actual operation, so these stores are less concerned about environmental hygiene."

During the interview, the reporter found that the hygiene problem not only exists in the store, but also outside the store. Outside some shops, it is not uncommon for garbage to be discarded at will and oil to flow sideways, and "some shops need to be burned with caustic soda regularly to ensure basic hygiene."

In some shops, the ingredients are placed anywhere. In accordance with the relevant regulations on food safety, in order to avoid problems such as rodent infestation, it is stipulated that the ingredients must be placed on the shelves at least 10 cm above the ground. However, during the reporter's unannounced visit, it was found that the semi-finished ingredients of many stores were placed on the ground at will, and some stores were too narrow because of their space, and the ingredients piled up on the ground even blocked the takeaway brothers who came to pick up the meal.

In addition, some non-dine-in takeaway stores have "two skins" online and offline. In a store, the reporter asked the store owner on the grounds that he could not place an order, but the person in charge directed the reporter to an online store with a different name and said that they were the same one. On the takeaway platform, the reporter saw that some stores have very little information about their online stores, but some netizens commented that the stores were "packaged" very comprehensively.

The reporter asked a number of takeaway platforms and learned that in order to reduce the situation where the pictures uploaded by merchants do not match the actual situation, the pictures displayed on the merchant's detail page are uploaded spontaneously by consumers after reviews. In addition, when entering a non-dine-in takeaway store, it is necessary to strictly review the authenticity of the store, store qualification certificates, etc. The platform requires stores to upload real-world environment maps in the background to verify whether the merchant is real, but it is not mandatory to display exposed pictures.

There are problems in store concealment and supervision

Non-dine-in takeaway restaurants lack consumer supervision because they do not actively solicit customers, have no physical contact with ordinary consumers, and have shortcomings in implementing the main responsibility of food safety due to their poor basic conditions.

First, there are fewer complaints, which are easy to be ignored by regulators. Liu Jianhong, director of the catering department of the Shanxi Provincial Administration for Market Regulation, said that the supervision of catering stores includes active supervision by regulatory departments and consumer complaints, but because consumers cannot see the actual environment, there are fewer consumer complaints in these stores.

A staff member of the market supervision department told reporters that from the actual number of complaints, the actual complaints of pure takeaway restaurants are much lower than those of ordinary dine-in restaurants, "Many times the people do not sue and the officials do not prosecute, and these stores often have 'hidden corners'." ”

Second, the basic conditions are poor, the implementation of responsibilities is difficult, and it is difficult for supervision to take into account reality. When the reporter visited, it was found that most of the non-dine-in takeaway restaurants are mainly "mom-and-pop shops" and "brother shops", these stores have few staff and small store area, Liu Jianhong and others said that the personnel responsible for food safety production in these stores are mainly part-time, and the actual process is a formality.

In addition, most of the non-dine-in takeaway restaurants are remote, the store rent is cheap, the investment is small, and the risk-taking ability of practitioners is weak, a law enforcement officer from the Taiyuan Xiaodian District Market Supervision and Administration Bureau said that if the handling is too strict, it can easily lead to the closure of stores, but it is difficult to form a deterrent to remind law enforcement, and it is difficult to control the relevant law enforcement boundaries.

Third, it is easy to become a "shadow store" in the context of "decentralization, management and service". The reporter learned that in the context of "delegating power, delegating power, delegating power, and providing services", the administrative license of the "three small" restaurants belongs to the filing system, that is, it can be filed in the administrative examination and approval department. Some regulators said that many shops are hidden in residential buildings, and the regulators are not even aware of the existence of stores, making it difficult to carry out substantive supervision.

Intensify supervision and promote bright kitchens

The reporter learned that more and more small catering stores are shifting their focus from offline to online, and many big-name restaurant companies are also exploring the "satellite store" model, and the increase in non-dine-in takeaway stores has put forward new requirements for supervision. At the same time, the regulatory authorities are also constantly exploring and increasing the supervision of such stores.

Recently, the Taiyuan Municipal Administration for Market Supervision issued a food safety reminder and warning for online dining, on the one hand, it requires online diners to publicize the information, and to publicize the true and effective license information on the main page of the network, as well as the name, address, dish name and main raw material name of the online catering operator, and be responsible for the authenticity of the publicized information, and shall not provide false information. At the same time, we strictly control food distribution and advocate the use of "food safety seals" for food delivery to ensure that food is not contaminated during food delivery; Encourage non-dine-in online meal operators to set up special food pick-up windows to prevent food delivery personnel from entering the food processing area and prevent cross-contamination.

In the interview, the reporter found that some non-dine-in takeaway restaurants have even become regional "sales champions" and "order kings", and the regulatory authorities in some regions have also focused on supervising these "Internet celebrity" stores with heavy labels. The Market Supervision Bureau of Jiancaoping District, Taiyuan City, in carrying out the special rectification of online food safety, focused on the "Internet celebrity store", "sales crown store" and the catering units with more prominent public feedback, and at the same time strictly investigated illegal acts such as unlicensed, fake certificates, and set certificates, and banned "shadow shops" and stores with large safety risks in accordance with the law.

In addition, some regions are promoting the coverage of "Internet + Bright Kitchen and Bright Stove" in non-dine-in takeaway stores. Liu Jianhong said that it is an effective means to solve food hygiene by making the food production process public in pure takeaway restaurants, and should vigorously promote the "Internet + Bright Kitchen and Bright Stove", and use openness and transparency to force restaurants to consolidate their own responsibilities.

At present, some of the "takeaway streets" visited by the reporter have been launched after rectification, and the "Internet + Bright Kitchen and Bright Stove" function has been launched, and the supervisors can check the production status of the store at any time through their mobile phones.

Up to now, Ele.me has landed more than 40 online restaurant "food safety demonstration streets" in more than 20 provinces (cities) such as Beijing, Hubei, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Guangdong, and built thousands of offline "Internet + Bright Kitchen and Bright Stove" transparent restaurant demonstration stores. Through cooperation with local market supervision departments, Meituan Takeaway has launched about 200,000 bright kitchen and bright stove merchants, covering 56 cities in 17 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) including Zhejiang, Guangdong, Gansu and Beijing.

Source: Economic Information Daily