Stronger penalties for sellers of unsafe food

People who seek profits by selling so-called healthy products to the elderly or providing harmful food to children will be punished more harshly in line with a newly amended judicial interpretation.

The interpretation is meant to offer strong, special protection for young and older people to ensure that what they eat is safe for consumption, according to a legal document on handling criminal cases involving food safety.

The 26-article interpretation, which was jointly issued by the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, China's top judicial authorities, took effect Saturday.

"The revision is a response to public concerns and aims to resolve new problems in the field of food safety," said He Li, chief judge of the top court's No 1 Criminal Division.

"In recent years, some business owners were found to be making huge profits by either tricking older people into buying healthy food at high prices or exaggerating the effects of health products through so-called free physical tests or lectures. This behavior led to frequent complaints by the public and has seriously damaged people's health and property rights," she said.

People will also receive tougher punishment if they are discovered selling harmful food－such as those with excessive additives or that do not meet food safety standards－in or around schools, according to the amended judicial interpretation.

Guo Lixin, deputy head of the top procuratorate's law and policy research office, said the revised document will also help them crack down on people committing new crimes involving food safety, including those who sell harmful food via livestreaming or misleading advertisements.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, the country has stepped up efforts to improve people's livelihoods, with strict supervision over food safety as a highlight.

Statistics from the top court showed that from 2013 to last year, Chinese courts solved more than 38,000 criminal cases in which people produced or sold unqualified, poisonous or harmful food, with over 52,000 defendants receiving sentences.

From January to September last year, prosecutors across the country took 9,442 people to court for alleged food-related crimes, up 21.7 percent year-on-year, according to data from the top procuratorate.

In addition, courts and procuratorates nationwide solved a large number of criminal cases related to the making or selling of fake food and illegal business operations, the top court added.