Today's Highlights: SAMR: Platforms Must Not Only Collect Commissions, They Must Implement Food Safety; Beware the Health Traps of "Fitness-Test Gadgets"; Foods with a "Shelf Life Within 7 Days" Become a New Consumer Fashion (October 14, 2026)

SAMR: Platforms Must Not Only Collect Commissions, They Must Implement Food Safety

On October 13, at the 2026 Exchange and Seminar on Social Co-Governance of Online Food Safety, Nan Jun, Director-General of the Food Coordination Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation, proposed that platform enterprises should correct the responsibility positioning of a purely neutral third-party service institution — they must not only collect commissions without assuming responsibility, or only manage traffic without regard to governance. They should exhaust all means to effectively embed the implementation of food safety responsibility into every link, every process and every decision of platform operations, and should also clarify and consolidate the responsibilities of operators, including food producers and traders, catering service providers, as well as directly operating practitioners and new food business forms such as X-type records. Whether online or offline, whether self-operated or selling via livestreaming, all must effectively fulfill the corresponding primary responsibility for food safety, and promote the formation of a pattern of social co-governance of online food safety with multi-party participation.

China's First National Standard for Dragon Fruit Officially Implemented

Recently, China's first national standard for dragon fruit, GB/T 47148—2026 "Dragon Fruit", was officially implemented. The standard comprehensively specifies key technical indicators across the entire industry chain, including terminology and definitions, classification, quality requirements, inspection methods, packaging, transportation and storage. In particular, it makes scientific and quantified provisions on sugar content, appearance and maturity, which consumers care about, as well as the sensory characteristics of different varieties such as red-fleshed and white-fleshed fruit, providing a unified "hard ruler" for producers' planting management, harvesting and processing, and for the law enforcement of market regulators.

Beware the Health Traps of "Fitness-Test Gadgets"

The Beijing Municipal Administration for Market Regulation notes that the "fitness-test gadgets" currently selling well on the market for primary and secondary school students are mostly sports nutrition foods represented by "nitric oxide pump" products; they belong to foods for special dietary uses and target sports populations reaching the corresponding exercise intensity. Some merchants seize on fitness-test anxiety and claim that they can improve endurance and explosive power and help with the physical education exam, which is suspected of false advertising. The bodies of primary and secondary school students are not yet fully developed, and blind consumption may cause problems such as palpitations, insomnia and gastrointestinal disorders; some products have excessive caffeine content, and the risk of overdose is even higher. Such products cannot replace daily exercise and can only provide psychological comfort. Regulatory authorities will step up rectification efforts in the future, strictly investigate illegal acts such as false advertising, and protect the health of young people.

Two Departments Release Typical Experience in Curbing Food Waste

The Department of Resource Conservation and Environmental Protection of the National Development and Reform Commission and the Food Coordination Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation released the ninth batch of typical experience in curbing food waste. Among them, Ji'an in Jiangxi implements a mechanism of "flexible catering + home-school co-governance + food education immersion", with the student "clean plate" rate rising to 96% and food waste dropping markedly; Liaocheng in Shandong carries out the "little hands holding big hands" campaign, organizing students and volunteers to go into communities to popularize knowledge on preventing food waste and advocate the clean plate campaign; Jinchang in Gansu promotes small-bowl self-selected dishes to achieve precise catering, while regulating self-organized banquets in rural areas and strengthening the management of mobile chefs; Qinghai issues a local standard for online catering conservation, requiring platforms to provide good ordering reminders, optimize full-reduction and minimum-order prices, encourage small-portion meals with points and coupons, and use standardization to help catering conservation take root.

SAMR Releases Typical Cases of Orientation-Related Illegal Advertising in the Food Sector

In 2026, the State Administration for Market Regulation carried out a special campaign on orientation in outdoor advertising and a clean-up and rectification of vulgar advertising, strictly investigating all kinds of illegal advertisements that violate social morals, and urging platforms to remove 175,000 pieces of non-compliant material. In the first three quarters of 2026, 33,754 illegal advertising cases were handled nationwide, with 165 million yuan in fines and confiscations. SAMR selected 7 typical cases of orientation-related illegal advertising for release, of which 2 are in the food sector: Tianjin Baiyi's e-commerce livestreaming used vulgar, borderline wording to promote food advertisements and was fined 450,000 yuan; Nanjing Huishang Fresh's investment promotion advertisement illegally used the national emblem and the name of a state organ, and also claimed no risk and guaranteed returns, and was fined 280,000 yuan.

Foods with a "Shelf Life Within 7 Days" Become a New Consumer Fashion

Fresh snack stores featuring foods with a "shelf life within 7 days" have emerged in the commercial districts of cities such as Beijing and Changsha and are sought after by young people. With a rich variety covering baked goods, nuts and dried fruits, biscuits, crispy rice crust, beverages, hot braised products and more, they break the traditional market pattern of long-shelf-life snacks. The domestic fresh snack market has reached 18 billion to 25 billion yuan, with a growth rate far exceeding that of traditional foods. Liquid nitrogen freshness locking, mature food processing techniques and efficient cold chain logistics support the development of short-shelf-life snacks. Industry insiders believe that driven by fresh snacks, "short-shelf-life foods" will become a new consumer trend, pushing China's food industry toward a "short-shelf-life food" era.

China's Exported Green Tea Found with Excessive Pesticide Residues

According to the EU Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), on October 12, 2026, the EU notified that China's exported green tea was non-compliant. Foodmate reminds exporting enterprises to strictly follow the requirements of importing countries when exporting products, check pesticide residues in products, ensure the safety of food and related products, and avoid export risks.

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