The food safety complaint center of Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Supervision Administration launched a new mobile phone app Friday.

Their app allows people to report five kinds of food safety violations such as lack of license, unusual substances found in food, selling expired food or customers smoking. App users can also send on-site photos as evidence.

Users of the app, named "woodpecker," only have to input the name and address of the restaurant, the category of its violation and a description of the violation. Whistle-blowers can choose to remain anonymous.

The food and drug administration said reporting food safety violations by mobile app allows people to use real-time data transmission to upload tips of transgressions to law enforcement agencies.

As of June 25, the administration's food and drug safety hot line has received 35,152 complaints, with one-third about eateries with no proper license.

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