The number of legal provisions alone has increased by nearly 50%
Huang Wei, deputy director of the Administrative Law Office of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), introduced the new version of the Food Safety Law at a press conference held in the General Office of the Standing Committee of the NPC on the afternoon of the 24th. She said that the revision of the law is very strong, the original only 104 articles, now a full increase of 50 articles, into 154 articles, an increase of nearly fifty percent. The increase in these provisions mainly include eight aspects, involving supervision, prevention, punishment and accountability, and at the same time also added a reward for reporting system and the protection of whistle-blowers, can be said to be comprehensive, not only reflects the deterrent effect, but also operational. If it can be strictly enforced, the safety of the tongue will certainly be more secure.Fruits and vegetables may not use highly toxic, highly toxic pesticides
In the specific provisions of the law, the new law emphasizes the use of pesticides to implement strict supervision, accelerate the elimination of highly toxic, highly toxic, high-residue pesticides, to promote the research and development of alternative products and applications, and encourage the use of highly efficient and low-toxicity and low-residue pesticides, in particular, highly toxic, highly toxic pesticides shall not be used for fruits, vegetables, tea, Chinese herbs and vegetables.The new pesticides are not used on fruits, vegetables, tea, Chinese herbs and other state crops, and the illegal use of highly toxic, highly toxic pesticides, increase the provisions of the public security organs to be detained, and severe penalties.
In addition, the new law highlights the strict regulation of special food, which includes several categories: health food, special medical use formula, infant formula. The new law explicitly prohibits the production of infant formula milk powder in the form of sub-assembled, because the use of sub-assembled production of infant formula milk powder there is a great safety risk, easy to cause secondary pollution, easy to let some unscrupulous elements in the second sub-assembled in the process of illegal additives, substituting the good for the bad.Third-party platforms are responsible for the safety of food purchased online
Another point of this amendment is the sale of food on the network platform. State Food and Drug Administration deputy director Teng Jiacai said, the new law in this regard set three obligations: First, the network food third-party trading platforms to enter the network operator real-name registration, to clarify the management responsibility. The second is to require the network food third-party trading platform to obtain a license to operate in accordance with the law to review the license of food operators, in particular, found in the network of food operators have illegal behavior, should be stopped in a timely manner. Third, the provisions of the obligation to protect the rights and interests of consumers, including consumers through the network of third-party platform for food trading, the purchase of food and its legitimate rights and interests have been harmed, you can enter the network of food operators or food producers to claim compensation, if the network of third-party platform for food trading provider of the network of the real name of the food business operators, name, address and effective contact information can not be provided by the network of food trading platforms to provide compensation. Trading platform to provide compensation. This actually means that third-party trading platforms such as Taobao are jointly and severally liable for the food sold by the merchants above them.Local October 1 next year before the introduction of the management of small vendors and small workshops
Small stalls and vendors will often be the blind spot of food safety supervision, how to protect food safety in this area, the new law also provides for the strengthening of small workshops, food vendors and other supervision. The new law requires that localities should formulate specific management measures for small food production and processing workshops and food vendors. According to the newly introduced Legislative Law, if the law explicitly requires the state organs to make supporting regulations on specialized matters, the relevant state organs shall make regulations within one year of the implementation of the law. The revised "Food Safety Law" on October 1 this year, that is, before October 1 next year, each province, autonomous region and municipality directly under the Central Government to develop specific management of small processing workshops and small vendors.Focus on the whole process of supervision and unified supervision
In recent years, food safety problems occur frequently, public opinion is thought to be the cause of inadequate supervision. In this regard, the new version of the Food Safety Law, a lot of ink. The law requires the improvement of the unified authority of the food safety regulatory agencies, from the segmented supervision into the unified supervision of the Food and Drug Administration. That is to say, before the production and sale of food by different departments, now unified to the Food and Drug Administration. At the same time, the new law clearly requires the establishment of the strictest whole-process regulatory system, food production, distribution, food service and sales of edible agricultural products and other links, food production and operation of food additives involved in the process of food-related products regulation, network food trading and other emerging business and so on, have been refined and perfected, and further emphasize the main responsibility of the food producer-operator and the supervisory authority Supervisory responsibility. This can avoid the situation of passing the buck to each other, so that the responsibilities are clear.Increase the amount of fines, improve the penalty
How to deter illegal behavior? The best way is obviously to impose heavy penalties on offenders, Huang Wei, deputy director of the Administrative Law Office of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, also described the amendments to the law have the meaning of heavy punishment. The new law has made great reforms to the investigation and punishment of illegal behavior. First of all, once there is a food safety problems, law enforcement departments should first judge the violations, if they are criminal offenses, directly by the public security department to investigate and pursue criminal responsibility. If it does not constitute a criminal offense, only by the administrative law enforcement departments to carry out administrative penalties. In addition, the new law has two provisions. Article 1, in order to strengthen the punishment of criminals, for food safety crimes sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment or more, life shall not engage in food production and management. Article 2, a new penalty of administrative detention, the current law does not have such a provision, there is no violation of the law (some of which may not directly cause serious consequences, and therefore may not necessarily be applicable to the criminal accountability) to make the restriction of personal freedom of punishment. In fact, many offenders are not afraid of punishment, but afraid of off, afraid of arrest, for this situation the new law added to the illegal addition of non-food substances, the management of sick and dead animals and poultry, illegal use of highly toxic, highly toxic pesticides and other serious violations of the law, an increase in the penalty of administrative detention. In terms of fines, the new law will be a number of violations of the fine increased significantly. For example, the production and management of food with drugs, production and management of infant formula milk powder nutrition does not meet national standards and other violations, before the amendment of the "Food Safety Law" provides that the maximum penalty can be punished by a fine of 10 times the amount of the value of the goods, while the new law increased to 30 times.Special protection for whistleblowers within food companies
In addition to regulation and punishment, sometimes "Deep Throat" and whistleblowing play a key role in uncovering food violations. In this regard, the new law focuses on the implementation of food safety social **** governance, give full play to all aspects, including the media, the role of consumers in food safety governance, the formation of the whole society to participate in an orderly manner in food safety, the formation of social **** governance pattern. The new law also added a reward for food safety reporting system, clear verification of reports should be given to the whistleblower reward, the whistleblower's information, the government and regulatory authorities to be confidential, to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the whistleblower, to report on food safety violations of the enterprise's internal whistleblower to be given special protection. The protection of internal whistleblowers is in the food safety social **** governance play a very important role in some other countries in the world, such as the United States, there is a "whistle blower" system, in Japan there is a public interest reporting system, because many of the violations of the insiders are the most likely to find that how to protect the insiders of food safety violations of the enthusiasm of the report. The new "Food Safety Law" special provisions, clear that enterprises shall not be dismissed or change the labor contract and other ways of whistleblower retaliation, internal whistleblower special protection.