Is it safe to eat homemade food online? Knowing the truth may turn your stomach.

Three surveys understand the homemade food market

Survey 1

Food is favored by online shoppers. Why?

A few days ago, the reporter selected an office building near Paradise Road in Hexi District, near Huayuan in Nankai District and Heping District as samples, and interviewed 5 employees at random, 28 of whom had the experience of online shopping for homemade food. More than half of people are enthusiastic about it. In the interview, the reporter summarized several reasons why homemade food was sought after by netizens.

Reason 1: Delicate and interesting shapes, more unique taste

Chrysanthemum-shaped cookies, Barbie-shaped cakes and Hello Kitty-shaped chocolates, and opening an online shop for homemade desserts, people can't help but be moved by all kinds of eye-catching shapes. "Let's talk about this biscuit. Usually, children don't eat it very much, but they like homemade biscuits online. First of all, there are many styles, such as small stars, small moons, animal shapes and fruit shapes. Every time they buy online, they will choose different styles, which children especially like." Ms. Zhang works in a foreign company, and her child is 4 years old. Her love for all kinds of cute shapes has become an important reason for her online shopping for homemade food. During the interview, the reporter found that there are many people who share the same ideas as Ms. Zhang.

Reason 2 advocates freshness, health and no additives

"Why do you like homemade food online? Fresh, good raw materials, no preservatives, eat with confidence! " In an office building downstairs near Paradise Road in Hexi District, Mr. Zhang, who just got off work, told reporters. Mr. Zhang told reporters that his mother pays special attention to the quality of life, and has high requirements for seasonings and food used for cooking. She always feels that things with too long shelf life have too many preservatives, which are not good for her health. I didn't know who said it before, and I can buy fresh and green food online, so I urged my son to buy it for her. "Sesame sauce, cooking oil and sesame oil are all made by farmers from the Internet. The shelf life is very short and the taste is very good. My mother recognizes it. After eating, I will buy some from the Internet."

the banner of "pure green" and "no added" has really attracted many consumers.

Ms. Zhu, who has always been a "Taodaren" in the company, recently bought handmade cookies and cakes from the Internet, and became the object of competition among colleagues in the company. "This cookie must be eaten within 7 days, otherwise it will be broken." "There must be no preservatives. It is not only reassuring to eat, but also tastes good." Colleagues praised the dessert ordered by Miss Zhu.

Xiao Zhou has always liked baking. I heard that there is a great market for homemade cakes, so I opened a micro shop and turned my hobby into a saleable business project. I often take pictures in my circle of friends. "My cakes are all imported cream, which is sold in a circle of friends, and some friends will introduce them to his friends, selling only five a day." The price of her cake is between 15 yuan and 3 yuan, which is not lower than that of some big brand cake shops, but it is very popular and business has been good. "Now people's quality of life has improved, and more and more people like some foods with original flavor, good raw materials and little additives. Although we don't produce much, the water is flowing and the sales volume is very good." Xiao Zhou told reporters.

reason 3: the shape and taste can be customized according to customers' needs

"Life is short, let's go together." In a small box, there are 25 chocolates of different shapes, some of which are engraved with these words. During the lunch break, Mr. Meng of a company took out his mobile phone and showed the reporter a picture of a homemade chocolate he had bought online before. Mr. Meng said that September 9th is the wedding anniversary of his wife. Every year, on this special holiday, gifts will be given to each other. Gradually, he felt that it was just those things that were sent back and forth. In order to surprise his wife, he specially "personal tailor" this chocolate online. "I can carve any word, and I feel very creative."

The reporter opened the link of this store introduced by Mr. Meng, and saw that "send your girlfriend", "send your mother", "birthday", "wedding banquet" and "classmate party" all kinds of customized chocolates are available. In addition, the taste can also be selected according to your own preferences. "I just like to eat cookies with only chocolate and no sugar. It's hard to buy these cookies, so I have to order them from homemade stores." Ms. Chen told reporters.

Survey 2

The threshold for opening stores is low, and homemade food stores are developing rapidly

According to the reporter's survey, there are two kinds of online homemade food stores. One is physical stores, which are opened online in order to expand e-commerce business. Most of these stores have production licenses and other documents. The other is a self-made online shop for food lovers to test water, or to make and sell local specialties. Most of these shops can't provide safety certificates. Recently, these stores have opened more and more, mainly because of the low entry barriers for third-party e-commerce.

The reporter tried to open a homemade food store online, and found that it was easy to apply for the store according to the application procedure. The e-commerce party did not force the production license number, but asked to sign a food safety commitment letter.

some consumers reported that they had reported complaints after purchasing inferior products, but it was difficult to solve them.

Other businesses that make homemade food don't need to open an online shop. Just post some tempting food pictures in the circle of friends on WeChat, and with a few brief introductions, a shop with almost zero threshold is opened in the circle of friends. "The pickles made by my friend's mother are particularly delicious. Many people in the circle of friends ask him to order them. You see, this is mustard and this is white radish." Ms. Yang, who works in a foreign company, introduced to reporters while flipping through the pictures of her mobile phone. During the interview, the reporter found that there are quite a few self-made foods sold by this circle of friends.

"There is a very smooth channel for selling homemade food, and the threshold is very low. It is easy to open a shop online or sell it on WeChat. This factor leads to the prevalence of inferior homemade food on the Internet." An industry insider analyzed.

Investigation 3

It is impossible to provide proof only by mouth.

After logging on Taobao and opening several online stores selling homemade food at will, the reporter found that the homemade food sold by them had no information such as production date, production license number and product standard number except a brief description of the production process.

The reporter contacted a merchant on Taobao Want Want. The merchant said, "Doing business is based on conscience, and it is based on the trust of both parties. Our customers are repeat customers and have no problems." Another merchant's statement is even more unacceptable: "It is impossible to have a production license for what you make at home. If you want to believe it, buy it. If you don't believe it, don't buy it." We are also limited, don't worry about selling! "

The reporter asked some stores on Taobao. Only a few manufacturers with physical stores can provide production license numbers and product standard numbers, and most of them can't provide food safety certificates.

"We dare to show the production process, which is the best proof." A shopkeeper selling local products told reporters. The reporter saw that his shop page read: Homemade by farmers, green and natural. In the picture on the page, an old woman is picking and cooking mustard. In the farmhouse, pieces of mustard are drying in the sun. The shopkeeper told reporters: "What we do is pure green local products, and customers are also aiming at this."

Although many merchants talk about homemade food in the face of the reporter's consultation, most people prevaricate with "conscience" and "honesty" when they ask whether they have health certificates. "Unlicensed" has become the biggest weakness of home-made food sellers. Moreover, the raw materials are also unknown. It is said that it is safe, but there are greater security risks.

"It's not all about the mouth, it's about using very high-quality raw materials, and the production process shown in the hanging picture is also very clean and hygienic. Who knows, is it true? Without proof from a third party, I still feel uneasy. " "A friend opened a micro-shop and sold homemade food. Before I saw the picture he passed, I didn't wear gloves or hats when I was mixing noodles. How unsanitary! Under the banner of hygiene, I never buy it. " Some online shoppers have expressed doubts about the safety of homemade food.

There is no supervision in all aspects of supply, production and storage

Foods that enter the market according to industrial production processes are usually subject to strict supervision. However, the homemade food that thrives on the Internet is often under the banner of "private kitchen" and "exclusive secret system", and it is often in the gray area of supervision. Because of this, netizens dubbed it "dark cuisine". The reporter learned from the departments of industry and commerce, food and drug supervision, etc. that at present, most sellers of homemade food are not registered in the relevant departments. Although the food they sell belongs to the circulation field, its supply, production, storage and transportation are not within the scope of effective supervision, which makes the safety hazards and risks of consumers increase constantly.

an engineer who has been engaged in food production for many years thinks that just because you are a "master baker" or "master cook" does not mean that you can make healthy food that meets the requirements. Many consumers are induced by shopkeepers' slogans such as "no added" and "pure green" and keep placing orders to buy, but qualified healthy food is not only affected by these factors, but also to ensure the safety of the whole process from the source to the table. Food safety is related to the health of thousands of families. China has very strict requirements for food production. From the production environment, supply of goods, production process, to entering the public table, each link has different production standards, and at the same time, it is necessary to carry out multiple tests. However, most homemade foods sold on the Internet can't do this, that is, the health status of production personnel closely related to food safety, and buyers can't understand it.

In an interview, a food safety law enforcement officer revealed to reporters that there are two main sources of homemade food on the Internet at present, one is some small food processing factories, and the other is some family manual workshops. Most of the production has no specific address, and some of them are carried out at home. Moreover, a considerable proportion of homemade food belongs to different places and has strong concealment, which brings difficulties to the law enforcement inspection of relevant departments.

in addition, the market attribute of homemade food is not very clear, which brings difficulties to supervision. In this regard, a law enforcement officer is quite helpless: "Even if the production environment is bad and no longer meets the requirements, if he insists that it is for his family to eat, what can you do?"

It is illegal to sell "three noes" food online

Third-party platforms can pay in advance

Online self-made food is popular and has become a fashion among certain people. Homemade diet biscuits, self-ground flour, homemade cakes, even homemade sausages, homemade sesame paste, and so on. There are many varieties and many fans. According to the reporter's understanding, the vast majority of homemade foods belong to prepackaged foods. In the eyes of professionals, many of them are illegal "three noes" products.

It is understood that a qualified food producer must have at least the following documents: food production license, food hygiene license, health certificate, business license, product quality certificate and other documents. If the seller of homemade food does not have the above documents, it will not have the relevant production qualification.

in addition, according to the requirements of relevant laws and regulations, all food production enterprises must undergo compulsory inspection, and after passing the inspection, relevant labels are attached to the food packaging of the smallest sales unit, and sales in prepackaged foods without labels are prohibited. The label should clearly indicate the product name, specification, net content, production date, ingredient or ingredient list, producer's name, address, contact information, shelf life, product standard code, storage conditions, common names of food additives used in national standards, production license number and other information.

On the one hand, online trading of food brings convenience to consumers; on the other hand, the threshold for selling food online is low, which leads to many foods with quality problems. According to the reporter's understanding, many self-made food sellers have multiple jobs, and all of them are responsible for customer service, procurement, production and distribution. The situation of purchase and sales is rather chaotic. Due to information asymmetry, many sellers are in different places, which brings great difficulties to consumers' online food rights protection.

The reporter interviewed people in the legal profession and learned that the first amendment of the Food Safety Law since 29 has been submitted to the National People's Congress for deliberation. One of the biggest highlights of this amendment is to require the real-name registration of online food operators and stipulate that third-party platforms for online food transactions can pay in advance.

some legal workers believe that strengthening the supervision of food online transactions is of positive significance to the protection of consumers' rights and interests. The provider of the third-party platform for online food trading shall promptly stop and immediately report to the food and drug supervision and administration department of the people's government at the county level where the provider of the third-party platform for online food trading is located when it finds that the food business operators who access the network have violated the provisions of the Food Safety Law; If a serious illegal act is found, it shall immediately stop providing online trading platform services. If consumers buy food through the third-party platform of online food trading, and their legitimate rights and interests are damaged, they can claim compensation from the online food operators or food producers. If the provider of the third-party platform for online food trading cannot provide the real name, address and effective contact information of the online food business operators, the provider of the third-party platform for online food trading has the right to recover from the online food business operators or food producers after compensation. If the provider of the third-party platform for online food trading makes a promise that is more beneficial to consumers, it shall fulfill the promise. If the third-party platform provider fails to formulate relevant regulations, which damages the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, it shall bear joint and several liability.