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This article focuses on China’s joint campaign by regulatory authorities and major e-commerce platforms to crack down on false advertising in the online food industry. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Eight major mainstream e-commerce platforms including Pinduoduo, Taobao and JD.com have fully banned the deceptive use of buzzwords such as "zero added" and "no added" on food products. Synonym variants will also be penalized, and existing listed products will be subject to regular inspections.

2. Most "zero added" claims on the market are misleading: some only omit one specific additive while including many others, some have far higher sugar and salt content than claimed on packaging, and some even advertise the absence of substances that are already prohibited from being added by regulation, making it difficult for average consumers to spot deception.

3. When purchasing food, consumers should not rely solely on large promotional text on packaging. They are advised to actively check the ingredient list, pay attention to actual nutritional data, prioritize products with transparent supply chains and reliable raw materials, and avoid falling into marketing hype traps.

This industry-wide compliance crackdown delivers several key messages to food brands. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Regulatory rules have been significantly tightened. China’s National Food Safety Standard for Prepackaged Food Labelling General Rules explicitly prohibits the improper use of "no added" and similar claims, and the more detailed Administrative Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Food Labels will take effect in 2027. All major platforms are conducting regular compliance inspections, and the eight leading platforms share violation information across the board. A violation on one platform leads to restrictions across all platforms, making the old,粗放 growth model relying on concept marketing completely unsustainable.

2. Consumer trends are shifting: buyers are increasingly focused on genuine product quality and are no longer easily fooled by marketing hype, changing the old market dynamic where bad money drove out good.

3. Going forward, brands need to reallocate resources to product R&D, raw material sourcing and quality control, abandon hype-driven marketing, and adopt truthful and compliant communication to secure long-term growth space through this industry reshuffle.

For food sellers operating on e-commerce platforms, key insights from this regulatory campaign are as follows:

1. Updated policy interpretation: Pinduoduo explicitly bans "zero added", "no added" and related terms across all channels including product titles, images, detail pages and live streams, and conducts full inspections of existing products as part of permanent regulatory efforts. The lightest penalty for violations is product removal, while serious violations can result in ranking demotion, removal from priority placement, promotion restrictions, security deposit deductions, withdrawal limits and even store closure. Similar campaigns have been launched across all platforms including Taobao Group and JD.com, and the State Administration for Market Regulation has launched a six-month special rectification that uses AI to fully screen for violating content in live streams and short videos.

2. Risk warning: Sellers should not assume they can avoid regulation by replacing buzzwords with synonyms, or continuing violations by switching platforms. The eight major platforms have signed a self-regulation pact to close this loophole, making violations extremely costly.

3. Opportunities and responses: After compliance reshuffle eliminates non-compliant players, sellers that prioritize quality will gain larger market share. Sellers already penalized for violations should immediately remove non-compliant products, revise all advertising copy to ensure all claims match actual ingredients, and redirect their efforts to product development.

This compliance crackdown on the online food industry offers the following key insights for food production factories:

1. Requirements for product production and label design have changed significantly. "Zero added" labels and marketing designed to cater to past hype no longer meet national regulations and platform rules. Factories need to revise their label designs, ensure all ingredient claims are factual and meet compliance requirements.

2. This industry reshuffle brings new business opportunities: as brands and sellers relying on marketing hype are removed from the market, more market share will open up for quality-focused factories. Factories that implement strict raw material and production quality control will win more high-quality cooperation orders.

3. Insights for digital transformation: Regulators and platforms are already using AI and other technologies for full compliance screening. Factories can upgrade their own digital capabilities to display production and supply chain processes transparently, meet consumer demand for genuine raw materials and transparent supply chains, and improve their overall competitiveness.

This industry-wide compliance crackdown offers the following key insights for food e-commerce service providers:

1. The industry development trajectory is clear: the online food industry has left behind the "concept-first" era of savage growth and entered a refined growth era centered on "compliance-first". Market demand for compliance-related services will grow substantially.

2. The core pain points of current clients are clear: a large number of small and medium-sized food sellers and brands are unfamiliar with updated regulations and platform rules. Many sellers that previously built operations around "zero added" hype need to revise their content and labels but do not know how to do so. Most also lack professional ingredient testing capabilities to prove their advertising claims are compliant.

3. Service providers can seize this opportunity to launch targeted solutions: offer compliance consulting services for food sellers to help them revise advertising copy and adjust label designs to meet rules. They can also partner with professional testing institutions to provide ingredient testing services and issue compliance certificates, solving client pain points while expanding their own business.

This industry-wide crackdown offers the following key insights for e-commerce platforms:

1. Many sellers still retain outdated mindsets: many hold侥幸 attitudes and stick to the old model of chasing traffic through marketing hype, with insufficient awareness of the new rules. Platforms need to strengthen rule communication and establish permanent regulatory mechanisms.

2. Many mature best practices are already available for reference: Pinduoduo has built a full-coverage, multi-dimensional permanent inspection mechanism with tiered penalty measures; regulatory authorities use AI image recognition to fully screen violating content in live streams and short videos; the eight leading e-commerce platforms have jointly signed a self-regulation pact and share violation data to close cross-platform violation loopholes; JD.com has built quality laboratories to conduct ingredient testing. All of these approaches can be adapted by other platforms.

3. For operations and management, platforms need to maintain a consumer-centric focus, strengthen regulatory networks to remove violating sellers, maintain a healthy platform ecosystem, optimize the seller base, and attract more high-quality sellers. Platforms should avoid the risk of prioritizing traffic over compliance; in the long run, industry-wide compliance benefits platform growth.

This joint industry-wide crackdown on false online food advertising reveals multiple new trends in the food e-commerce sector. Key insights are as follows:

1. The industry has entered a new development stage: online food marketing has fully left behind the "concept-first"粗放 growth stage and entered a "compliance-first" refined growth stage. Regulators, platforms and consumers are jointly working to clear non-compliant market participants.

2. Governance models are evolving: national regulators have introduced clear legal requirements, and regulation will continue to tighten going forward. The eight leading e-commerce platforms have established coordinated governance, using AI and other technologies for 24/7 full-volume monitoring, which has significantly reduced the gray space for violating sellers to move across platforms to avoid penalties.

3. On the business model level, the粗放 business model that relies on traffic and hype for profit is no longer sustainable. "Quality priority + compliant operation" will become the mainstream industry business model going forward. This industry reshuffle will also optimize the overall industrial structure. This governance model combining government regulation and cross-platform coordination also provides a referenceable framework for governance of other e-commerce product categories.