On November 18th, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) took the lead in launching unified destruction events of counterfeit and substandard food across the country, disposing illegal food confiscated in the special law enforcement actions against counterfeit and shoddy food in rural areas. With the mode of “1+8+N”, the main event venue was located in Tianjin, and the parallel venues were located in 8 provinces and municipalities, including Hebei, Shanxi, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Anhui, Guangdong, Chongqing and Sichuan. Other provinces across the country carried out destruction simultaneously. Officials from the Law Enforcement Inspection Bureau of SAMR participated in the event in the main venue. Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, and China’s Supply and Marketing Cooperatives attended the launching ceremony of the events. Villagers and business representatives praised the special law enforcement action, which cracked down on crimes, protect the legitimate rights and interests of the public and continuously enhance people’s sense of gain, happiness and security in food safety.
To implement the relevant work arrangements of the Central Leading Group for Rural Work, in October 2020, SAMR, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, and China’s Supply and Marketing Cooperatives jointly carried out the special law enforcement action on counterfeit and shoddy food in rural areas with a duration of one year, cracking down on illegal acts of production and operation of food with no labeling of name of the manufacturer, date of production, or means of correspondence, counterfeit food, expired food, food with non-edible substance, and meat that has not been inspected and quarantined. Since the launch of the special law enforcement action, all localities and departments have made careful deployments, and taken active measures, with remarkable results achieved. During the special action, market regulators of various regions investigated and handled 162,000 illegal cases and transferred 2,317 cases to the public security organs. 1.48 billion yuan was fined and confiscated, a fine of 17.28 million yuan was imposed on the direct respondents, 96 licenses were revoked and 155 practitioners were restricted.
The destruction event is one of the important measures in the special law enforcement action against counterfeit and shoddy food in rural areas. A total of 925 tons of food of over 550 types were disposed in the 9 main venues and parallel venues, including liquor, beverages, brine duck feet, milk power, fruit tea, tea, nuts, edible vegetable oil, and aquatic products, with a value of nearly 30 million yuan. The on-site destruction fully demonstrated the effectiveness of the special law enforcement action, fostered strong deterrence against illegal acts, and strengthened rural people’s confidence in food safety. Methods of incineration, landfill, and dismantling were adopted in accordance with the law in the disposal, which complied with relevant regulations on energy conservation and environmental protection.
