Personal Injury Law

248 arrested in China for food safety violations in 2010 - In the US - Zero

By Bill Marler, Esq.

According to Chinese press reports, a total of 248 people were arrested in China last year for involvement in food safety cases, food safety authorities said Sunday. The country dealt with 130,000 cases involving food safety last year, including 115 criminal cases, according to a statement of the National Food Safety Regulating Work Office.

The cases touched upon such areas as production of edible agricultural produce, food production, food circulation, catering services and food exports and imports,

A total of 191 officials were punished for failing to do their duty in food safety enforcement, with 26 of them fired, it said.

A country that jails food safety violators and fires officials for failing to enforce food safety laws?  Perhaps we can learn a thing or two?  But then China also arrested Zhao Lianhai (???) in 2010. Zhao was a Chinese dissident and former Food Safety worker who became an activist for parents of children harmed during the 2008 Chinese milk scandal after his child was sickened as well. In 2010 he was sentenced to 2 1/2 years imprisonment for 'disturbing social order' the day I left China's annual Food Safety Conference.

Full post as published by Marler Blog on January 30, 2011 (boomark / email).