Breaking news from the blackmail desk: FDA = C.R.E.A.M.? I heard a story today firsthand from a restaurant owner who will remain politely anonymous – really it’s none of your business – but a little rattled after an FDA scare last week. He had hired a young guy in his early 20s who kept “forgetting” to bring his health certificate and official ID, all while demanding to know the recipe for said restaurant owner’s signature product. Shady? Certainly. Threatening? Not really...
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...Until a few days ago, when the restaurant owner got a call from an IP/internet phone number demanding the said recipe — which even the employees don’t know — or else the caller was going to pull a Farine and go to the FDA. Fortunately, this business owner has all his ducks in a row and said, “no, you’re not, because I’m going to call them first” and so he did. He called the FDA. He called the cops. He told them he was being blackmailed and they told him to forget about it. But he was spooked.
“It’s definitely a much scarier environment for F&B operators these days,” he told me this evening.
To get a sense of whether there is indeed a Farine effect, I called lawyer Nicola Aporti, who specializes in F&B in Shanghai.
“Blackmail can be part of the game, he told me. "It sometimes happens but it’s usually from a disgruntled employee or a professional complainer.”
He couldn’t say one way or the other if FDA threats were up but he advised all restaurant owners to familiarize themselves with the new Shanghai Food Safety Regulations, which came out in March. In particular, he highlighted the expiry date issues, as well as the famous Article 124 of the national Food Safety Law, and articles 29 and 30 of the new Shanghai Food Safety Regulations. I spoke to a few other owners as well, who are now a bit more scared of their run-of-the-mill disgruntled employees, fearful that anything can be staged or manipulated, and then photographed and sent to the FDA for a quick 300,000rmb.
Apparently, it's already happened to a major import supermarket chain this week as well.
Tougher food safety laws in China are no doubt good for everyone. But for the time being, it remains to be seen if they’ll be even better for Shanghai’s blackmail community.
