A major Chinese food delivery service has announced plans to stop selling dog meat and shark fins on its platform, making it the first such service in the booming market to make certain foods unavailable.
On Nov. 2, Shanghai-based delivery service Ele.me posted on its official Sina Weibo that it has removed 7,733 dog meat products from 294 shops on its app, after receiving a tip-off about food safety issues in such products. The company added that it will gradually inspect and remove all products that pose a potential threat to health, such as cat meat, snake meat and shellfish, in addition to banned wildlife products such as shark fins and bear paws.
The company specifically stated that it has no position in the moral debate over eating dog meat. Instead, the reason behind the removal, Ele.me explained, was a lack of regulations over the slaughter and quarantine process for dog meat at the national level. In addition, dog meat products are more likely to carry hazardous diseases than other meats.
China's food delivery businesses have flourished in recent years. In the second quarter of 2016, online takeout businesses nationwide accepted 25.28 billion RMB in orders, up 200 percent from the previous year, Global Times reported.
