Over 7,500 cases concerning threats to food, drug safety filed in China

BEIJING -- Procuratorates across China have filed more than 7,500 cases concerning illegal online acts endangering food and drug safety in a public interest litigation campaign, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP).

Some livestreaming and short video platform users had sold food items with no labeling or with false production license codes via livestreamed marketing or video recommendations, said the SPP, adding that information including ingredients, producer and date of production were not specified on the labels of the food items.

The SPP also noted that some users advertised food items via livestreaming or short videos, but asked customers to make deals offline to evade supervision.

The cases were filed between July 2020 and the end of the year. More than 4,700 cases were related to farm produce and nearly 1,000 involved health food, according to the SPP.

Launched in June 2020, the three-year supervision campaign also targets offenses that endanger public interests in the field of environmental protection.

The campaign is aimed at urging administrative departments to strengthen supervision in the field and punish those violating the law to protect the legitimate rights and interests of customers, said SPP official Hu Weilie.