Qidong, a county-level city in Nantong, Jiangsu province, has recently opened free food detection rooms in 24 local food markets, according to an official in Qidong's market regulation administration.

A Qidong resident surnamed Xu sent vegetables she bought at a food market to its detection room on Dec 2, and received the test results on her phone about half an hour later, which showed that her vegetables had no pesticide residues.

The food detection service has earned praise from local shoppers. Agricultural products that fail to pass the tests will be disposed of in front of supervisors, market managers and stall holders.

To date, the 24 detection rooms have provided 267 free food tests. The detection rooms are open to the public from 8 am to 9 am and from 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm every day.