Shanghai shuts down 35 delivery restaurants over improper licenses

Eateries on Ele.Me, Meituan, and Baidu Waimai affected.

Watch what you order online, as Shanghai closed more than 30 restaurants listed on popular food delivery apps for various licensing offences.

According to the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration, 35 eateries on platforms such as Ele.Me, Meituan, and Baidu Waimai were found to have “irregularities” such as operating without a license or falsifying one.

On Ele.Me, one eatery was Xiaojiang seafood barbecue on South Hongmei Road, which was caught with a fake license, while Sichuanese joint Tianxiang malatang was busted for operating beyond its license to only sell pre-packaged food.

On Meituan, the Jinyun Road branch of Haodada chicken cutlet was found to be operating without a license. The Meituan-listed Mangguofang desserts on Zhijiang Road was also unlicensed.

The city’s food safety arm ordered these restaurants to obtain the necessary licenses immediately or face a fine, and these infractions were recorded in Shanghai’s food safety credit file. Those who used fraudulent licenses will be blacklisted and banned from running a food business.

This crack down comes after city authorities teamed up with delivery platforms in March this year to report restaurants operating illegally or without licenses.