China is making great progress in addressing its serious
food safety concerns and improving its food safety regulation. On June 23rd,
2014, the revised amendments for China’s Food Safety Law (Draft) was submitted
to the ninth meeting of the 12th National People's Congress for review. The New
Food Safety law is expected to be put into effect at the end of 2014.
The Draft increased the total number of articles from 104 to
159. The highlights are:
1. The Draft clearly encourages the establishment of a food
safety liability insurance system and supports food manufacturing companies to
participate in food safety liability insurance.
2. For online food trade, the Draft provisions demand an
online third party platform provider do real-name registration of all its food
operators and clarify their management responsibilities.
3. The Draft Increases the circumstances that government
officials should resign or be discharged, including concealing or lying about major
food safety incidents, taking bribes during an investigation of a food safety
incident, and participating, harboring or condoning food safety related crimes.
4. The Draft strengthens corporate responsibility by
requiring the management personnel in the food safety related area to acquire
career qualifications and the establishment of a food traceability management
system.
5. The Draft increases consumer compensation substantially
to ten times the damage.
