As the Chinese start their annual lobster gorge, authorities are clamping down on the many unlicensed lobster restaurants, with a focus mainly on take-out delivery services that are hardest to police. Any restaurants selling small lobster via delivery APP platforms are required by law to produce a business license.
“The requirements for out-of-store shopkeepers should be consistent with physical stores, including requirements for food quality, safety and legal licensing”, reports the State Food and Drug Administration regarding the Supervision and Administration of Food Safety in Internet Catering Services. Authorities are warning the public not to order online from lobster vendors who do not produce their business license information upon request, reports the Yangtze Evening News.
Food safety is a big public health issue in China, with scandal after scandal making the headlines on a regular basis. In our neck of the woods, there was national outrage when a mom and pop store in Huai’an city of Jiangsu province was found to have added dyeing and printing auxiliaries to the duck blood they sell to make it appear more appealing.
Back in Nanjing, on 20 April, the “Food Safety Caravan” activity for primary school children, took place on Nanjing Ecological Science and Technology Island. It included indoor and outdoor activities relating to food safety. “The caravans carry touch-screen game machines about the knowledge of food safety and health”, reported the Nanjing government.
“Indoor activities included science lectures about food safety, interesting experiments, and physical displays. This helps teach students to study nutrition knowledge, and at the same time to know the dangers of excess sugar and salt and guide students to form a good eating habit.”
Carrying on its good samaritan work, Nanjing marked Earth Day in 2018 on 22 April, by publicising environmental protection knowledge. “Nanjing is carrying out special renovations to clean up catering pollution. Qixia district will better manage its cooking fume pollution and mobilisation of garbage classification in regional catering enterprise”, the authorities revealed.
Restaurants in some of the most affected areas downtown are required to ensure purification and sewage facilities are in use and that kitchen waste is dealt with in an appropriate manner. Restaurants along Maqun Jie in Qixia district have signed declarations that they will continue with the initiative, while spot checks will take place twice a week.
