Shanghai's see-through kitchen restaurants to increase transparency in food safety

More than 2,000 restaurants in Shanghai have installed see-through kitchens in a bid to improve food safety, a media report said.
In these restaurants, a piece of glass separates the kitchen from the dining area so that both diners and regulators have a clear idea of what is going on behind the scenes, the People’s Daily said in the report on Monday.
Currently, the number of see-through kitchens in the Pudong, where the idea was first implemented last September, has grown from 200 to 730.
More than 70 per cent of those kitchens are also under real-time monitoring through a closed-circuit TV system, which is played on screens mounted for anyone to see.
Wu Haiqin, an employee of the Pudong District Market Supervision Administration (PDMSA), told the People’s Daily that see-through kitchens are only suitable for restaurants that do not require complicated processing.
In order to better guarantee food safety, the closed-circuit TV systems have been gradually installed as an alternative, Wu added.
Food safety has become a hot topic once again during the ongoing fifth meeting of the 12th National People’s Congress. As a result, more stringent food security regulations will be implemented in Shanghai starting from March 20.
In the next several years, all restaurants exceeding a certain size in Shanghai will made to install see-through kitchens.
In addition, closed-circuit TV systems will be gradually adopted by the cafeterias of schools and other institutions around the city.