Illegal addition of food tends to be hidden and technological
Folk anti-counterfeiter tells about changes in food and drug safety situation
● After years of crackdown and rectification, especially after the "four most stringent" requirements were put forward, the overall situation of food and drug safety in my country has been significantly improved, but the problem of adding hormone drugs to functional foods sold online and offline is prominent
● There are frequent food and drug safety problems in my country. In addition to the lack of organization of consumers and the lack of legal deterrence, the bottom line is that there is a problem with the values of counterfeiters and sellers.
To ensure "safety on the tip of the tongue", the counterfeiters should be severely punished, and the punitive compensation system should be implemented without compromise.
● To crack down on problematic food and drugs, we must rely not only on the competent administrative departments, but also on the general public. More consumers should be mobilized to actively report illegal acts of food and drugs, and promote social co-governance of food and drug safety.
□ Our reporter Chen Lei
"Back then, I bought a box of sea cucumbers in a non-staple food store. After purchasing, I found that this box of sea cucumbers did not have the QS (food production license) logo, no factory date, no factory name, factory address, and no phone number." Recently, a well-known private anti-counterfeiting person In an interview with a reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily", Zhang Xiaohong recalled a shopping experience in a certain place in Shanxi 11 years ago. At that time, the food and drug safety problems in the market were relatively serious, and there were a lot of expired food, "three no" foods, and illegally added foods. Wait.
Many folk anti-counterfeiters hold the same view.
They believed that the food and drug safety situation at that time faced many challenges.
After years of crackdown and rectification, especially after the "four strictest" requirements were put forward, the overall situation of food and drug safety in my country has been significantly improved. Issues such as expired food, "three no" food, and imported food without Chinese labels have been resolved to a certain extent. However, in the current online sales in full swing, the problem of adding hormone drugs to some functional foods is prominent, and the illegal addition tends to be recessive and technological.
The interviewed folk anti-counterfeiters believe that the existence of food and drug safety problems is ultimately a problem with the values of the counterfeiters and sellers. It is recommended that all localities increase their support for private anti-counterfeiters and implement a reporting reward system; the judicial organs further refine Judicial interpretations, unified judgment standards, and encourage consumers to file claims against toxic and harmful food and drugs in accordance with the law.
Problem food floods the market
The rise of civil anti-counterfeiting rights protection
According to Zhang Xiaohong's recollection, in March 2011, he bought a box of "three no" sea cucumbers worth 4,200 yuan in a non-staple food store in a city in Shanxi Province.
my country implements a market access system for food, and all food produced without QS is prohibited from being sold.
Zhang Xiaohong believes that the label of this box of sea cucumbers does not comply with the provisions of the Food Safety Law on the items that must be marked on prepackaged food labels, and it belongs to food that does not meet food safety standards.
After that, he sued the non-staple food restaurant to the court, asking it to compensate the loss and pay 10 times the compensation.
Before that, Zhang Xiaohong had formed a team to know about fakes and buy fakes and reported dozens of problem food and fake and shoddy goods to relevant departments.
The case went through the first instance, the second instance, and the retrial. In August 2017, the court made a retrial judgment, and the merchant should pay the plaintiff’s economic loss of 4,200 yuan and 10 times the compensation of 42,000 yuan.
"We are a 'woodpecker' in the consumer market. Through our persistent civil crackdown on counterfeiting and rights protection, some illegal food products have been removed from the shelves, recalled, rectified and destroyed, and production has been stopped," Zhang Xiaohong said.
Henan native Yan Zhen (pseudonym) is a "post-80s" who entered the field of folk anti-counterfeiting by chance.
It was the spring of 2013. When shopping in a supermarket or store in a city in Guangdong, he found a lot of food with questionable labels. After buying it, he filed a claim with the merchant. "At that time, many supermarkets and stores were able to buy the questionable food."
"I mainly focus on food labeling issues, such as new resource foods that are not labeled inappropriate for people or consumption, excessive use of food additives, excessive use of nutritional fortifiers, product false label levels, production beyond the scope of production licenses, expired food, etc. "According to Yan Zhen's recollection, looking at the media reports at the time, the main problems of food and drug safety were waste oil and the addition of Sudan red to food.
"Ten years ago, supermarkets selling expired food and food without a production date can be seen everywhere." Wu Ming (pseudonym), who is also engaged in civil anti-counterfeiting in a city in Guangdong Province, told reporters.
The intuitive feeling of folk anti-counterfeiting is consistent with the judgment of relevant state departments.
According to public information, in December 2011, the National Food and Drug Administration Work Conference was held.
The meeting pointed out that it is necessary to clearly recognize that the current food and drug safety situation is still not optimistic, and the supervision work still faces many difficulties, problems and challenges.
We must have a deep understanding of the arduousness and complexity of the current regulatory work, be prepared for danger in times of safety, and plan ahead.
According to statistics: in 2012, more than 140,000 food safety reporting cases were accepted nationwide, involving a total amount of 860 million yuan; the former State Food and Drug Administration and the Ministry of Public Security detected more than 14,000 cases of production and sales of counterfeit drugs, with a value of more than 160 billion.
In 2013, the State Food and Drug Administration System investigated and dealt with nearly 300,000 cases of food and drug violations.
Get support for knowing fakes and buying fakes
Food and drug safety situation is improving
In October 2013, the Fifth Session of the Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People's Congress revised the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law. If an operator commits fraudulent acts in providing goods or services, it shall increase compensation for the losses suffered by consumers according to the requirements of consumers. The amount of compensation is 3 times the price of the product purchased by the consumer or the service fee received.
The Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues concerning the Application of Law in the Trial of Food and Drug Dispute Cases promulgated in December 2013 clearly stated: "Due to a dispute over the quality of food and drugs, the purchaser claims rights against the producers and sellers, and the producers, sellers, etc. The people's court shall not support the defense on the grounds that the purchaser still purchases the food or medicine knowing that there is a quality problem in the food or medicine."
A folk anti-counterfeiter said that after knowing and buying counterfeit goods are eligible to claim punitive damages, more consumers have taken up legal weapons and fought against food and drug lawbreakers, which has played a more active role in purifying the market and has a strong effect. to make up for the reality of insufficient administrative resources.
At this time, Yan Zhen also began to know the fake and bought the fake and filed a number of claims.
For example, from November to December 2014, Yan Zhen placed multiple orders for tea gift boxes at an online store on an online shopping platform, costing a total of 593.9 yuan.
Yan Zhen believes that the production license number on the outer packaging of the tea gift box is false information, so the tea sold in the online store is a product that does not meet the food safety standards, so he filed a lawsuit with the court.
The court held that, according to relevant national laws, food producers should obtain a production license number, which is a mandatory requirement.
In this case, the product involved has not obtained a sales license. In addition to claiming compensation for losses, consumers can also claim compensation for 10 times the price from the manufacturer or seller.
In March 2015, the court ruled that the online store should refund the payment of 593.9 yuan and pay the plaintiff 5,939 yuan in compensation.
Yang Lin (pseudonym) from Hubei started a full-time crackdown on counterfeiting eight years ago, specializing in foods containing problematic additives or harmful chemicals.
In the past 8 years, a group of health product stores selling diet pills supplemented with sibutramine were punished or even shut down because Yang Lin and his team cracked down on counterfeiting.
There are also folk anti-counterfeiters who have provided 600 reports of counterfeit medicines and toxic and harmful food reports to the market supervision departments of various provinces in half a year, and received about 500 written, telephone and text messages.
Among them, about 180 cases of toxic and harmful substances were detected and imposed administrative penalties, and more than 200 cases were identified as counterfeit drugs and imposed administrative penalties.
In Zhang Xiaohong’s impression, after the implementation of the Supreme People’s Court’s Food and Drug Judicial Interpretation, it supported “knowing fakes and buying fakes”, food and drug safety problems in the market have been greatly reduced, and the overall food and drug safety situation has improved. , 'three no' foods, imported foods without Chinese labels and other issues have been relatively resolved."
In Yan Zhen's view, an obvious change is that the problem of non-standardized food labels in a large and medium-sized supermarket in a city in Guangdong has been solved, and some supermarkets even print the words "confirmed by both parties that the product has not expired" on the receipt, and are equipped with The staff who specialize in cleaning up expired and expiring food, "the operation of physical stores is more standardized and conscious."
In April 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation held a press conference saying that the national food safety sampling data showed that my country's food safety situation is generally stable and improving.
Inappropriate use of additives
It happens when making and selling fakes
In May 2019, the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Deepening Reform and Strengthening Food Safety Work" was issued, which stated that my country's food safety work still faces many difficulties and challenges, and the situation is still complex and severe; microbial and heavy metal pollution, pesticide and veterinary drug residues exceeding standards , the use of additives is not standardized, the production and sale of counterfeit and other problems occur from time to time.
The opinion pointed out that it is necessary to deepen reform and innovation, and use the most rigorous standards, the strictest supervision, the most severe punishment, and the most serious accountability to further strengthen food safety work to ensure the "safety on the tip of the tongue" of the people.
According to Zhang Xiaohong's observation, there are still some common problems in my country's food and drug field, such as food with counterfeit registered trademarks, food with excessive pesticide and veterinary drug residues, and inferior drugs without an expiration date.
Yan Zhen believes that the main problem in my country's food and drug field is that many functional foods sold by micro-businesses, direct sales and online stores are illegally added with hormone drugs, and the illegal addition technology tends to be technological and recessive, and identification and detection methods are sometimes used. Can't keep up.
Wu Ming found that in some places, because local legislation no longer supports consumers who know fakes and buy fakes, they have also raised the standard of 10 times compensation if they do not meet food safety standards. For example, consumers are required to prove that the food involved is poisonous and harmful. , making it difficult for the people to crack down on counterfeiting, and the food problems in these places are showing signs of resurgence.
According to reports, since last year, Wu Ming has reported 300 problems that do not meet food safety, and about 280 of the businesses involved have not been punished.
At the press conference held by the State Administration for Market Regulation in April 2021, the relevant person in charge disclosed that, according to the sampling data, my country is still in a period of food safety prone and frequent occurrence, microbial contamination, pesticide and veterinary drug residues exceeding the standard, exceeding the scope and limit of the use of food Food safety issues such as additives still need to be managed continuously.
In an interview with reporters, Wang Hai, a well-known folk anti-counterfeiter, believes that food and drug safety problems in my country are frequent. In addition to the lack of organization of consumers and the lack of legal deterrence, the bottom line is that the values of counterfeiters and sellers have gone wrong.
Implement the whistleblower reward system
Severely punish counterfeit sellers
Food and drug safety is a major event related to the national economy and people's livelihood.
As the pioneer of consumer rights protection and the "woodpecker" of infringers, what are the suggestions of folk anti-counterfeiters for maintaining food and drug safety?
A non-governmental anti-counterfeiter believes that cracking down on problematic food and drugs depends not only on administrative departments, but also on the general public. More consumers should be mobilized to actively report food and drug violations, provide clues to administrative organs, and cooperate with judicial organs to crack down. Food and drug violations and crimes shall be promoted, and social co-governance of food and drug safety shall be promoted.
In Zhang Xiaohong's view, the nature of merchants is profit-seeking, but in order to have a correct value orientation, they must be "escorted" by the rule of law.
"Food and drug safety comes from 'management' in the final analysis, among which the civil supervision of the masses is indispensable. The vitality of the punitive compensation system lies in its execution. It is necessary to strengthen the execution of the system, strengthen the supervision of the implementation of the system, and effectively transform the advantages of the punitive compensation system into Governance effectiveness." Zhang Xiaohong said.
Yan Zhen hopes that localities will increase support for private anti-counterfeiters, implement a reporting reward system, and judicial organs will further refine judicial interpretations, unify judgment standards, and encourage consumers to file claims against toxic and harmful food and drugs in accordance with the law.
As a practitioner who has been engaged in anti-counterfeiting for many years, in Wang Hai's view, in order to ensure "safety on the tip of the tongue", the counterfeiters should be severely punished and the punitive compensation system should be fully implemented. "I hope to improve the law and clarify all The purchasers, users, and service recipients of the goods can claim punitive damages.”
Wang Hai believes that the reform of food and drug safety supervision is imminent, and the first reform is to promote the development of consumer organizations, so that consumers and enterprises can play an effective game through organizations.
Wang Hai also suggested that information disclosure should be done to solve the problem of information asymmetry between consumers and enterprises.
For example, the food and drug administration should take the initiative to publish the decision on food and drug administrative punishment and the results of all food and drug sampling inspections as soon as possible, which can not only deter illegal and criminal acts such as the manufacture and sale of counterfeit and shoddy products, but also provide effective guidance for consumers.
"Use the law well so that people don't dare to do evil." Wang Hai believes that the role of the law is not only to make the perpetrators pay the bill, but also to prevent people from doing evil.