Zhejiang connects 195,000 food delivery merchants to AI kitchen monitoring

Zhejiang province's E-commerce Regulations took effect on March 1, 2022, requiring every food-delivery merchant operating online in the province to show its food preparation areas in real time by video and to install back-kitchen cameras, the arrangement known as the "transparent kitchen." Footage is uploaded simultaneously to a regulatory platform and to delivery platforms, an approach described as "internet plus transparent kitchen" oversight. Consumers can tap "transparent kitchen" on a merchant's order page to watch the kitchen live. Cameras must cover cooking, cutting and prep areas; shops under 50 square meters may install just one camera if it captures all key areas, while kitchens with partitions or more than 50 square meters should add more.

Recently, the Xiaoshan district of Hangzhou carried out a cluster enforcement campaign for online food businesses, with 101 enforcement officers inspecting 216 restaurant outlets.

On October 3, CCTV Finance reported, and ITHome carried the same day, that 195,000 delivery merchants in Zhejiang had been connected to transparent-kitchen monitoring, with AI-capable cameras reaching 97.3% coverage. The AI automatically detects violations such as animals entering the kitchen, mops being washed in vegetable sinks, and smoking in the kitchen, then pushes the findings to regulators, who send text messages urging merchants to make corrections. The report also listed specific requirements: cooking oil must not be placed directly on the floor, trash bins must have lids, pulp egg trays must not be stacked on the floor, work surfaces or equipment, and sanitized tableware and containers for ready-to-eat food must be kept in dedicated sealed storage. So far the public information stops at the scale of adoption, the camera coverage rate and the enforcement inspection figures.