Summer has arrived, bringing peak season for bubble tea, a beverage deeply beloved by young people.Recently, a Xinhua News Agency reporter went undercover at the popular milk tea chain Nayuki's Tea by applying for a job. The investigation revealed multiple branches had issues such as cockroaches crawling around, rotten fruit, unwashed rags, and inaccurate labeling.
Nayuki's Tea is not an isolated case. The Beijing Municipal Market Supervision Administration previously discovered during surprise inspections that some tea shops used expired, stale, or unlabeled ingredients, and ordered them to rectify the issues.Across the nation, irregularities at trendy milk tea shops are frequently exposed. In the first half of this year, Shanghai market regulators conducted surprise inspections at brands including 1 Point Point and Tea Baidao, finding widespread issues such as unclear food labeling, uncovered food in refrigerators, substandard hygiene in preparation areas, and items stored alongside food.Specialized sampling results released in June by Nanjing's Xuanwu District Market Regulation Bureau indicated risks in microbial levels and sugar content at Heytea. If even popular brands face such issues, lesser-known ones are undoubtedly worse.
On the surface, the proliferation of bubble tea shops in recent years has led to severe homogenization. Fierce competition coupled with rising raw material costs has caused many operators to prioritize profit over management. At a deeper level, the industry's reliance on takeout—and even dine-in customers' limited access to kitchens—makes it difficult for consumers to verify conditions. This significantly empowers operators to disregard hygiene standards and evade oversight.Sunlight is the best disinfectant; transparency is the most effective sanitizer. Article 55 of the Food Safety Law mandates that food service providers establish and implement raw material control requirements, prohibiting the procurement of ingredients that fail to meet food safety standards. It encourages these providers to publicly display their preparation processes and disclose information about food ingredients and their sources.Since 2014, the China Food and Drug Administration has directed local authorities to implement the "Open Kitchen, Transparent Kitchen" initiative in the catering industry. This initiative encourages food service providers to use transparent glass, video surveillance, and other methods to publicly display food preparation processes, placing critical areas and steps of food service operations under public oversight.In April 2018, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Guidance on Implementing Open Kitchens in Food Service Establishments," explicitly encouraging food service providers to adopt transparent kitchen practices, further standardizing the disclosure of processing procedures, and promoting collaborative governance of food safety in catering services.
Since relevant laws, regulations, and normative documents treat the disclosure of food preparation processes by catering service providers as a recommended practice rather than a mandatory requirement, some restaurants have their own agendas and are reluctant to implement it voluntarily. Data from 2017 shows that only 27.52% of licensed catering service units nationwide had implemented the "Open Kitchen, Transparent Kitchen" initiative. This means that over 70% of licensed catering businesses have yet to adopt it.In recent years, while the "Open Kitchen" initiative has seen further promotion and adoption, many hidden corners remain.
The chaos surrounding trendy milk tea shops further underscores the necessity of disclosing food preparation processes, with the "Open Kitchen" system undoubtedly serving as the best form of oversight. After years of promotion, catering businesses have gradually adapted and accepted the initiative, while consumer awareness of supervision has continuously increased. The conditions for transitioning from advocacy to mandatory implementation are now ripe.Recently, the "Zhejiang Provincial Regulations on the Management of Small Food Workshops, Small Catering Establishments, Small Grocery Stores, and Food Vendors" were reviewed and approved. New provisions stipulate that small catering establishments engaged in online food delivery must gradually implement real-time video streaming of food preparation processes on third-party online ordering platforms. Specific implementation measures will be defined by the provincial market supervision authorities.
Competent authorities across regions should learn from advanced practices, further refine laws and regulations, and promote transparent kitchens as standard practice. This will ensure constant public oversight, compelling catering services to operate in compliance with regulations.