Recently, almost everyone in Zhuhai trembles with fear on hearing of tofu, what’s up?
The tofu in Zhuhai maybe is poisonous.
It is said that a suspect confessed during the police’s interrogation that he had put the rat poison into the oil pan of a tofu factory, and the fried bean curd produced had been put into the market. Administration for Market Regulation in Xiangzhou of Zhuhai issued a notice saying that the aforementioned fried bean curd has been recalled. This news scared me and I put down the fried bean curd in my hand immediately. What the hell are those people doing? Pouring poison into the well, throwing pesticides into the river, and now poisoning in food factory, break the law.
Poisoning, defined as ‘the crime of releasing dangerous substances’ in the criminal law, refers to the act of intentionally releasing toxic, radioactive, infectious pathogens and other substances to endanger public safety. Note that poisoning is a dangerous offense, that is to say, in tofu case, there is no requirement for the actual harm caused by the poisonous tofu. As long as the criminal’s poisoning behaviour has the danger of endangering public safety, he or she may be the crime of throwing dangerous substances. Tip: Because the circumstances of the tofu case is rather bad, the suspect shall bear criminal responsibility if he or she has reached age of fourteen.
In fact, not only this kind of poisoning cases, food safety is what people worry about all the time. From melamine to poisonous rice and from swill-cooked dirty oil to clenbuterol, the constant exposure of food safety problem disappoints us. On September 11th this year, relevant departments of the State Council launched a joint campaign to improve food safety. According to a press conference of the Action Group from police, by the end of November 29th, polices around our country had solved 8,758 cases of food and arrested 16,000 suspects, which shocks us. According to report, the suspect of the tofu case shall be convicted of two kind of crimes.
Ⅰ. The crime of producing or selling poisonous or harmful food
‘Hummer Sugar’, a so-called magical aphrodisiac candy from Malaysia, was sold in more than 20 cities across China. After examination, it was found that the sugar contained medicine components of tadalafil and its derivative demethyltadalafil, which was toxic and harmful food. In October this year, ten suspects were detained on suspicion of producing and selling toxic and harmful food.
The aforementioned crime means that a person mixes the food to be produced or sold with toxic or harmful non-food stuffs, or sells the food mixed with toxic or harmful non-food stuffs that he knows clearly. Both the unit and natural person shall be convicted of the aforementioned crime and bear the punishment of fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention, as long as the actor engaging in the aforementioned behaviour deliberately which are against the State Administration Legislation of Food Safety; if a serious food-poisoning accident is caused, to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years and not more than ten yeas; and if serious disability or death of a person, serious injure of not less than three people, or slight injure of not less than ten people is caused, the actor may be sentenced to death because of the very serious consequence.
Ⅱ. Producing or selling food not conformed to safety standards
Earlier this year, Wang from Jiangxi Province, the owner of a cake shop, added excessive amounts of sweet baking powder that contains aluminum potassium sulfate and is produced by Jianshi Company into the sesame cake, resulting in the excessive aluminium of the sesame cake. Wang was sentenced to three months’ criminal detention, suspended for six months and fined 10,000 Yuan for producing and selling food that did not meet safety standards.
The crime of producing or selling food not conformed to safety standards refers to the criminal act of producing or selling food against the State Administration Law of Food Safety, and is sufficient to cause serious food poisoning accidents or other serious food-borne diseases. The subject of this crime also could be natural person and unit, as long as the actor deliberately produced, sold food that does not meet the food safety standards stipulated in the food safety law, causing serious consequences, shall be convicted of a crime and the maximum punishment shall be life imprisonment. If the consequences are not serious and the sales amount is less than 50,000 RMB, it is only a general illegal act; if the consequences are not serious but the sales amount reaches 50,000 RMB, the offender shall be convicted and punished according to another crime--the crime of producing and selling fake and inferior products.
Do you think the above two crimes are too similar to make off? Actually, their most essential difference is that: the crime of producing or selling toxic and harmful food refers to adding toxic or harmful non-food raw materials into the food; and the crime of producing or selling the food not in conformity with the safety standards is that the food have poisonous and harmful raw material because the raw material has been polluted or rotted but it still is food raw material. In the aforementioned case, what is added in the ‘hummer sugar’ is the poison called demethyltadalafil while the aforementioned sesame cake quality does not meet the standard stipulated by the provisions of food safety because of excessive food additives. Thus, the crimes they break are different and the suspect of the ‘hummer sugar’ case shall bear the more serious responsibilities.
This article should have ended here, however we could still find the link of ‘hummer sugar’ on the Internet now. Considering the serious situation of China’s food safety, here put forward some suggestions.
As for country, it is necessary to implement the responsibility of supervision, establish a social co-governance system for food safety, establish a food safety credit system, and strengthen legislation promotion. As for producers or sellers, the farmers need to enhance their awareness of food quality and safety, and guarantee the quality of agricultural products from the source. All manufactures and runners should consciously obey legislation and strictly control the quality of food. At the same time, they should improve the management system of food production and storage, assume responsibility for food safety, and avoid the recurrence of poisoning accidents. Consumers should actively join the co-governance team of food safety, establish the concept of food safety, enhance the awareness of rights to food safety, and timely report the problematic food. Finally, the media should play a supervisory role, establish a food safety and quality information sharing network, strengthen cooperation with relevant government departments, and share food safety and quality information. Food is the most important thing in life and safety is the most important thing about food. As long as we shoulder our own responsibilities and missions, food safety is just around the corner.
