In an October 4 investigation by CCTV, the top-ranked restaurant on Changsha's "Spicy Stir-Pot" delivery list, "Shu Duofu," had over 3,000 monthly orders and a 4.5 rating—its page even displayed "platform inspection within the last 30 days." Click on its "Open Kitchen" livestream, however, and the camera points at the floor: a few cardboard boxes and the table legs of a prep counter are all that's visible. A new regulation took effect in June encouraging restaurants to show their kitchens to consumers, but the platform's AI only checks whether the video feed is moving—not whether the camera actually captures the kitchen. Shift the lens an inch, and the whole system becomes a sticker.
3,000 Monthly Orders, 4.5 Rating—But the Camera Only Shows Table Legs and Cardboard Boxes
Over 3,000 monthly orders, a 4.5 rating, the top spot on the list, and a "platform inspection within the last 30 days" badge on the page—click the "Open Kitchen" livestream, and there's not even a stove in frame.
The shop is called "Shu Duofu," located in Changsha's Wuyi commercial district. It's labeled a "dine-in restaurant" and ranks first on the "Changsha Spicy Stir-Pot Merchants" list. Open the "Open Kitchen" livestream, and the camera faces the ground: a few cardboard boxes and the table legs of a prep counter. Prep work, cooking, dishware sanitization—none of the steps that should be visible are in frame.
When reporters entered the store, the roughly ten-square-meter front area held just two dining tables. One was occupied by a staff member portioning rice; on the other, the owner was lying back barefoot. The shop was so small that even the self-serve ingredient display had been moved into the kitchen.
Inside the kitchen, the deep fryer and walls were coated in a thick layer of black grease, and ingredients sat exposed on open shelving. The lower shelf and refrigerator were stuffed with white plastic buckets, with potatoes and raw meat placed side by side.
Further in was a storage room where clutter, rice, and cooking oil were piled together. A black rat scurried past the reporter's eyes and vanished under the freezer.
This happened three months after the new regulation took effect. The "Provisions on the Supervision and Administration of Food Safety Responsibilities for Online Catering Service Operators" came into force this June, explicitly stating: merchants implementing "Internet + Open Kitchen" must ensure equipment operates properly and that surveillance footage covers the key stages of food preparation. The AI inspection badge displays normally on the platform, yet the camera doesn't even point at the stove. Between the inspection label and what's actually on screen, no checkpoint exists to catch the gap.
AI Only Checks "Is the Video Moving?"—Not "Does the Video Show Anything Useful?"
The platform says it's deployed AI inspection—so what exactly is it inspecting?
Any merchant who sets up a camera can display the "Open Kitchen" badge and appear on the platform's listing page. Where the camera points and what it captures—there's no hard requirement from the platform.
AI inspection is running, but what it checks is whether the feed "moves"—whether the signal is connected, whether the stream is interrupted. Inspection frequency, time windows, and the handling process after detecting anomalies have not been disclosed by the platform. How merchants are notified of problems, what happens if they don't fix them, and the corresponding penalty clauses—none of that exists. If AI-detected anomalies don't land on the merchant, the inspection might as well not be running.
The math is clear for merchants: install a camera, display a badge, gain a traffic funnel. Even if the camera angle is flagged as off, the worst outcome is removing the badge—and that penalty line has never been drawn. The regulation describes "Internet + Open Kitchen" as "encouraged"—but encouragement has no force. Platforms and merchants both find loopholes within that encouragement: merchants keep displaying the badge, platforms keep collecting integration fees, and nobody is held responsible for what's captured on screen.
They Can't Catch the Rat, But the Shop Stays Open
An angled camera is an even more common trick than a black screen—and when merchants can't even be bothered to set one up, the rules can't touch them either.
Walking into Shu Duofu's kitchen, the first thing to dart into view was a black rat. It scurried past and disappeared under the freezer; by the time anyone reacted, it was gone. Staff didn't look up, and the owner, when called over, wasn't worried. Asked how they'd handle it, the answer was a single line: "Tried to catch it twice, didn't work, no point making a special effort." The follow-up: "Anyone in food service can say they have cockroaches, the four pests (common harmful organisms in food venues such as rats, cockroaches, flies, and mosquitoes)." One sentence stomped kitchen hygiene standards into the floor tiles.
An angled camera is the more common trick. CCTV reporters randomly sampled 60 delivery shops in Beijing, Tianjin, and Jinan that carried the "Open Kitchen" label: 17 of the livestreams wouldn't open at all; of the remaining 43, only 20 had cameras pointed at prep stations and ingredient processing areas—the places that should be visible. The other 23 pointed at storage zones, pickup counters, or even dining areas. The actual preparation process was simply off-screen. Two-thirds of "Open Kitchen" setups didn't live up to the name.
Shu Duofu ranks first on the "Changsha Spicy Stir-Pot Merchants" list, with 3,000+ monthly orders, a 4.5 rating, and a "platform inspection within the last 30 days" badge on its page. Its camera only captures a few cardboard boxes and the table legs of a prep counter. All a merchant has to do is install a camera and connect it to the platform, and the badge lights up. AI inspection has no schedule, no enforcement rules, and no penalties—a misaligned camera registers as "inspected" in the system.
Harder to address than a "black screen" is a "screen pretending to work." The new regulation took effect in June, encouraging "Internet + Open Kitchen" (i.e., real-time video that lets consumers remotely view the kitchen)—but "encouragement" can't be enforced against merchants: install a camera pointed at a wall—zero cost, zero risk, zero consequences. As long as the camera is "moving," the "Open Kitchen" label stays on the shop page as a traffic draw. As for the greasy fryer, the oil-stained walls, the exposed ingredients, the cluttered storage room—all of it stays off-screen.
If the Camera Can't Find the Stove, Why Doesn't the Badge Come Down?
Southern Metropolis Daily's commentary put it plainly: the livestream must cover the core food preparation area—that's the baseline. A platform's "inspection passed" can't be just a label; inspection items, identified hazards, and remediation status all need to be documented. If the camera can't find the stove, the badge should come down—but currently no mechanism exists to trigger its removal.
CCTV reporters' covert visits across multiple cities uncovered several systematic forms of fraud. In Changsha's Wuyi commercial district, 10 shops were sampled—4 had cameras that didn't cover the core prep area, instead pointing at walls or the rider pickup zone. At the "Wa Da Xia" bullfrog shop on Wuhan's Jianghan Road, half the surveillance frame was a green wall, and the rest showed four empty stoves with no pots on them.
Beyond camera angles, identities can also be misrepresented: the platform labels a shop as a "dine-in restaurant," but in reality there's no dine-in service—the front area has been converted into staff living quarters, another brand's price list ("Fan Xiao La") hangs in the same shop, and two restaurants share a single "Open Kitchen" camera. People don't always follow the rules either—staff walk into the kitchen smoking cigarettes, the number of posted health certificates doesn't match the actual staff, and some shops don't post any at all. All of these issues are currently sitting on regulators' and platforms' to-investigate lists.
The crux points to three missing checkpoints. Why doesn't the platform's review catch it? Because it only checks "is there a connection?"—not "is the camera pointed correctly?" AI inspection only scans whether the feed shows changes; the direction of misalignment isn't part of the assessment.
What about the remediation process? "Warning first, then fines"—but warnings are toothless. Without a reporter's hidden camera, nobody checks. In the 60-shop sample, 23 had misaligned cameras; not a single one was fined. The badge-removal mechanism is even more absent: if the livestream is black or doesn't show the stove, the platform neither flags it as abnormal nor removes the badge. The "Open Kitchen" label consumers see might be pointing at a wall, a stack of boxes, or a sleeping cat.
Whether remediation truly starts can be tracked through three things. Whether the platform discloses the criteria for "camera misalignment" and upgrades the AI inspection logic from "is the video moving?" to "does the video cover the core prep area?" Whether badge removal is triggered—once a livestream is black for an extended period or the camera deviates from the core area, whether the platform automatically strips the "Open Kitchen" label.
Whether enforcement shifts from a "reporter investigation → order to correct" chain to a "routine inspection → proactive fine" chain. Jinan's "Order to Rectify Notice" has already been issued; the next step is whether fines are actually enforced and whether the platform—not just the merchant—is held accountable. As long as one of these doesn't move, the current state of cameras pointed at walls and floors will repeat at the next delivery shop.
Without Hidden Investigations, You Can Still Read Whether a Shop Is Reliable from Its Delivery Page
Open a delivery app and a few quick actions can tell you whether "Open Kitchen" is the real deal or just for show.
Click the "Open Kitchen" badge on a delivery shop and do three things first: click the link to see if the feed loads; once it loads, check whether the camera shows the stove and prep station—or a wall, cardboard boxes, the floor, or blind spots on a shelf; then check whether the platform displays "platform inspection within the last 30 days"—that's just a label, not a fact. If the camera is misaligned, "inspected" means nothing.
If the feed won't load, if it shows "under review" for an extended period, or if the camera is pointed at a wall, floor, or shelf long-term—switch shops. The basis for this action is a September media evaluation: among delivery shops claiming "Open Kitchen" that were randomly sampled in Beijing, Tianjin, and Jinan, two-thirds failed this basic check.
Cross-check the merchant address against the "dine-in restaurant" label too. In the same shop from the CCTV investigation, the online listing said "dine-in restaurant," but the physical front area could only fit two tables, with the ingredient display moved into the kitchen. Another shop, "Wa Da Xia," listed dine-in service online, but the dine-in area held books, roller skates, and a kitten.
Two different business licenses, two brands, sharing one "Open Kitchen" camera—this kind of "affiliated shop" shows no cracks on the platform page; an on-site visit would expose it. Regular consumers can't visit in person, but at least scroll through reviews for "bad reviews with photos" and see if anyone has posted real kitchen shots.
On the platform side, regulators have already taken real action. In Zhejiang province, 195,000 delivery merchants have been connected to AI inspection, and in April regulators issued massive fines to multiple platforms—one of the reasons being failure to fulfill qualification review obligations. But AI inspection only checks whether the video moves, not whether the camera shows the kitchen. Violation costs are still mainly "order to correct + warning," with fines only coming if corrections are refused. What consumers can do now is turn "what they see" into actionable leads: package the shop name, screenshots, and address together, and submit directly through the 12315 platform or local market regulation department channels. Follow up after handoff to check the outcome—that pushes the next fine forward more than sharing an exposé.
Click the "Open Kitchen" link; if the feed won't load, switch shops.
Once loaded, confirm the camera shows the stove and ingredient prep area—not a wall, floor, or shelf blind spot.
For shops where the address seems suspect, search reviews for "bad reviews with photos" and real kitchen shots.
For shops where the feed won't load or the camera is consistently misaligned, package screenshots with the shop name and address.
Submit leads through 12315 or the local market regulation department, then follow up on the outcome.
Sources: CCTV News, IT Home, Guangming Online, Jiangnan Metropolis Daily, Southern Metropolis Daily Commentary. Attribution: based on CCTV reporters' on-site covert visits and multi-city sample data; the platform name "Shu Duofu" is as stated in the CCTV report; monthly orders of 3,000+ and ranking are based on the original report.