China cracks down on 'ghost kitchens' in food delivery apps

China's food delivery apps will now have to verify restaurants' licences and operating addresses, as authorities crack down on thousands of "ghost kitchens" that have raised food safety fears.

"Ghost kitchens" refer to takeaway merchants on food delivery platforms with no physical shop fronts. These have come under scrutiny recently for operating often without a licence.

According to new rules that took effect on Monday, shop listings on food delivery apps will need to match physical stores, and vendors have to indicate if they do not offer dine-in services.

This is the latest effort by Chinese authorities to regulate the country's cut-throat food delivery industry.

The scrutiny of "ghost kitchens" came about last year, after a man in Beijing lodged a complaint to local authorities over an unsatisfactory cake - topped with inedible flowers - he had ordered from a food delivery app, state media reported.

Officials found that the cake chain he had ordered from listed nearly 380 locations on major e-commerce platforms but did not have a single physical store. Its online shops also used forged business licences.

Further investigation revealed that cakes ordered from the stores were outsourced to an order-transfer platform, where food orders were awarded to third-party vendors with the lowest bids.

Authorities found a total of 3.6 million cake orders across two order-transfer platforms, state news agency Xinhua reported.