China has introduced new rules requiring food delivery platforms to verify the licences and physical addresses of restaurants, as regulators move to clamp down on thousands of “ghost kitchens” linked to growing food safety concerns.

“Ghost kitchens” are takeaway-only food vendors listed on delivery apps that operate without a physical storefront.

Many have recently come under scrutiny for allegedly operating without proper licences.

Under regulations that took effect on Monday, online listings must correspond to verified physical locations, while vendors are also required to clearly state if they do not provide dine-in services.

The measures mark the latest attempt by Chinese authorities to tighten oversight of the country’s highly competitive food delivery sector.

The renewed focus on “ghost kitchens” followed an incident last year in Beijing, where a customer complained to authorities after receiving a cake topped with inedible flowers ordered via a delivery app, according to state media reports.

Investigators found that the cake chain involved in the case had listed nearly 380 outlets across major e-commerce platforms, despite not operating a single physical store. Authorities also discovered that its online listings relied on forged business licences.

Further probes showed that orders placed through the platform were routed to an order-transfer system, where requests were distributed to third-party vendors based on the lowest bids.

According to state news agency Xinhua, the system handled about 3.6 million cake orders across two such order-transfer platforms.

Officials also identified 67,000 “ghost shops” operating across seven major food delivery platforms.