New York-listed Dingdong makes public apology after Beijing market regulator finds food security issues

As the interest in consumer protection rides high in China amid an annual TV gala which focuses on the issue, New York-listed online fresh grocery giant Dingdong Maicai on Thursday apologised after Beijing’s local market regulator ordered it to “fulfil food safety responsibilities”, according to a government announcement.

Dingdong, a Shanghai-based company which made an initial public offering in New York last June, had already began an investigation of all frontline fulfilment stations and service processes across the country before the recent regulatory statement, it said in its apology, which first appeared on microblogging site Weibo.

“Upon seeing the claim about the food quality issues in one of our Beijing facilities, Dingdong immediately ceased operations of the facilities in question. After an investigation conducted by a task force headed by our CEO, we confirmed the veracity of the claim,” a spokesperson told the South China Morning Post.

“Dingdong has since conducted an investigation into all of its frontline fulfilment stations and processes to ensure all standards are strictly enforced,” the spokesperson said. The apology also said that the company would reflect on the assessment mechanism of its fulfilment stations and upgrade surveillance hardware for them.

Beijing’s local regulator will “guide the company to conduct comprehensive self-examination of 124 frontline fulfilment stations, proactively discover risks and eliminate hidden dangers,” the announcement read. It added that the bureau has organised 30 market supervision offices to carry out full-coverage special inspections on the fulfilment stations of other fresh food e-commerce platforms, such as Meituan Maicai and Missfresh.

Meituan, which is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, and Nasdaq-listed Missfresh did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the inspections.