Online food sales added to safety watch list

Food purchased online will be monitored with special attention given to milk powder and infant products, Beijing Times reported on Feb 24.

Beijing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention monitors twelve categories of food with large consumption or carry a high risk every year.

Now, besides supermarkets, food stores, agricultural markets, the authorities will also monitor food purchased online.

"We hope the monitoring system will cover more than 80 percent of food purchase channels and locations," said Zhao Yao, official with Beijing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The move is good news for food safety online as reports emerge questions the authenticity of some products sold on websites.

When inputting Daoxiangcun - a famous dessert brand- on Taobao, China's largest online shopping platform, 353 online shops offer to provide the food.

But staff with Daoxiangcun headquarters in Beijing said they have never opened stores online or approved any online store to sell their food.

Taobao said all online food shops are authorized with real names, but they are not obligated to provide food safety licenses.