Catering is a food production and operation industry that provides consumers with all kinds of drinks, food, consumption places and facilities through instant processing, commercial sales and service labor. According to the definition of European and American standard industrial classification, catering industry is a catering service organization.

Catering service license, China catering business license. According to the Food Safety Law, which came into effect on June 1 2009, China officially launched the Catering Service Permit on June 1 2009, replacing the Food Hygiene Permit that has been used for decades.

The Food Safety Law officially promulgated at the end of February 2009 established a segmented food safety supervision system in China. Health, agriculture, quality inspection, industry and commerce, food and drug supervision and other departments perform their duties, and are responsible for the supervision of food production, food circulation and catering services. According to this law, since June 1 2009, food and drug supervision departments have replaced health supervision departments to supervise catering services, and catering service licenses have replaced food hygiene licenses.