Business owners who have recently moved into the "Tongjiang Cloud Kitchen" are expressing satisfaction with the shift from managing their own storefronts, kitchens, and permits to a streamlined setup where the venue, standards, and services are all provided. "We can now focus solely on preparing quality meals," they noted, highlighting how the centralized operation model reduces costs and offers greater business stability.
The "Tongjiang Cloud Kitchen," the first demonstration online food service cluster in western Hangzhou, has officially commenced operations. The project, which took just over four months from planning to launch, demonstrates the county's efficiency in tackling major livelihood initiatives. On August 18, a provincial-level conference on handling public complaints in the livelihood sector was held in Tonglu, during which the cluster was presented as a model for online food service governance and promoted province-wide.
The Tonglu County Market Supervision Administration has leveraged the cluster's development to create a comprehensive governance framework known as the "Four Ones" system: uniting forces through one party branch, solving challenges with one set of standards, promoting growth through one reform, and protecting food safety with one dense network. They have also introduced six pioneering regulatory measures, including the formation of an industry party branch, the publication of construction standards, a full life-cycle service reform, the creation of consumer trust units, a credit-based star rating system, and the adoption of food safety liability insurance. These efforts aim to shift online food service governance from addressing isolated incidents to managing broader industry-wide issues.
Since the beginning of this year, the county has seen a 31.9% year-on-year decrease in complaints and reports related to online food services, accompanied by an improvement in both industry standardization and consumer satisfaction. To address the challenges of a fragmented market and weak coordination among stakeholders, the administration took the lead in Zhejiang Province by establishing a functional party branch for the online food service industry, integrating party members from departments, merchants, platforms, delivery riders, and industry associations throughout the entire governance chain.
To tackle the long-standing problem of small, scattered, and disorganized takeout businesses, the administration introduced construction standards and management regulations for online food service clusters, the first of their kind in the five western districts and counties of Hangzhou. These regulations establish strict requirements across five dimensions: premises, sanitation, equipment, management, and transparent kitchens. Furthermore, by pioneering a full life-cycle service reform for online food services in the province, the administration is working to invigorate the industry and support sustainable development.
Upholding a firm line on food safety, the administration has built a robust regulatory network that combines technological, human, and community oversight. They have deepened the "Internet + Transparent Kitchen" initiative, with 94.56% of kitchens now linked to the "Sunshine Kitchen" system, and have implemented an AI-powered smart inspection mechanism for online closed-loop issue resolution.
A representative from the administration stated that the launch of the Tongjiang Cloud Kitchen marks just the beginning of this integrated governance model, not its conclusion. Moving forward, they plan to refine the "Four Ones" framework, accelerate the expansion of cluster locations, and deepen long-term governance mechanisms to shape a replicable "Tonglu Model" for county-level online food service management, ultimately safeguarding the health and safety of the public.
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