China: 10 years in jail for food safety failures?

While the political boffins in Washington continue their crawling to some sort of food safety legislation, the Chinese have come up with their own legislative push: public servants responsible for supervising and managing food safety will face up to ten years in jail for dereliction of duty or abuse of power in the case of a severe food safety incident.

Xinhua News Agency reports that according to the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the new item will protect people’s livelehood.

The draft also broadens the conditions for food safety crimes. It says those who produce and sell a harmful food product will be punished even if poisonings fail to occur.

The draft was submitted Monday to the NPC Standing Committee, China’s top legislature, at its bimonthly session for review. The session started Monday and will run until Saturday.

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About Douglas Powell

A former professor of food safety and the publisher of barfblog.com, Powell is passionate about food, has five daughters, and is an OK goaltender in pickup hockey. Download Doug’s CV here. Dr. Douglas Powell editor, barfblog.com retired professor, food safety 3/289 Annerley Rd Annerley, Queensland 4103 dpowell29@gmail.com 61478222221 I am based in Brisbane, Australia, 15 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time