ele.me

People Getting Sick When Ordering Food Online in Shanghai

Fines up to RMB 200K for food poisoning cases

You may want to reconsider the convenience of ordering take-out food over the internet after now that people are getting sick from using online food providers.

A Shanghai restaurant that supplied meals for online food outlets has been shut down after sending 20 people to hospital with food poisoning yesterday.

The victims, mostly university students, became ill after ordering meals from a restaurant named “Sister Zhang” located on 1161 Keyuan Road in Zhangjiang area. The victims had all ordered their meals using the online-to-offline (O2O) platforms Ele.me and waimai.koubei.com.

After ordering barbecue and bibimbap from Sister Zhang, the victims came down with food poisoning symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea and fever. The victims were treated at local hospitals and then released. The victims included five students from the Zhangjiang campus of Fudan University, six students from the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and four students from the Zhangjiang campus of China Academy of Art.

Sister Zhang has been removed from both online food providers. The Pudong New Area Market Supervision and Management Bureau is testing samples of food from the restaurant, and is conducting an investigation.

This comes on the same day the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration announced new regulations that make online food providers responsible for the restaurants that supply their clients.

Starting September 1, both parties face fines of up to 200,000 yuan ($31,000) and can have their licenses revoked in the event of food poisoning cases. Online food providers must ensure their restaurants are certified, while restaurants must have valid licenses and health certifications. Complaints from customers are to be fully investigated.

This is not the first time Ele.me has been implicated in providing unsafe food to its clients.

This past March, Ele.me was fined RMB 120,000 (around $19,000) after an investigative news show discovered restaurants serving platform were preparing food in unsanitary conditions, causing five restaurant to be closed. Ele.me’s CEO, Zhang Xuhao, apologized for the violations. “We must admit that Ele.me has not fulfilled its obligations in overseeing food safety. The management and I accept full responsibility in this matter,” said Zhang.

Last November, the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration estimated that some 80 percent of online food providers in the city do not comply with health regulations. Ele.me was able to provide catering license details for only 13 percent of restaurants listed on its site.

But despite the many scandals, Ele.me enjoys the support of Alibaba, who invested $1.25 billion into the company last year.

Charles Liu

The Nanfang's Senior Editor