How to deal with labeling defects but not food safety issues

Article 125 (2) of the newly amended Food Safety Law states, "Where the labeling and instructions of the food and food additives produced and operated are defective but do not affect food safety and do not mislead consumers, the food and drug supervision and management department of the people's government at or above the county level shall order rectification; and if the person refuses to rectify the defects, he or she shall be sentenced to a fine of not more than two thousand yuan. "

The above provision, which is regarded as a proviso to Article 125(1) of the Food Safety Law, is based on the relatively light legal liability applicable to the violations in paragraph 1 of the Article, and again according to the minor degree of labeling violations, and the application of lighter administrative penalties, in order to further embody the principle of equivalence of penalties and excesses. This content is new in the process of law revision. In the specific law enforcement process, the "defect" of the determination, the need for law enforcement in the systematic study and understanding of the legal provisions on the basis of a comprehensive consideration.

1. Two basic premises

According to the spirit of the law, food labeling content does not meet the relevant requirements of the law, only if it does not affect food safety and will not mislead consumers, can be identified as a "defect", can be based on the "proviso" provisions. The "proviso" clause can be penalized. Two basic premises are indispensable. These two prerequisites to grasp, including at least the following aspects:

1.1 the authenticity of the content.

If the labeling of the contents of the false situation, including the name, ingredients, content, date of production, shelf life and other authenticity issues, can not be considered a "defect", should be based on the "Food Safety Law" Article 124 and Article 125, paragraph 1, the relevant provisions of the implementation of the penalties.

1.2 Compliance with standards.

The content of the label shall comply with the requirements of food safety standards. First, the conformity of the labeling form. Food labeling form aspects should be consistent with the "General Principles of Prepackaged Food Labeling", "General Principles of Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Foods", "prepackaged food labeling for special dietary purposes" and other national food safety standards. The so-called form meets the requirements, including food safety standards must be labeled all the contents of the project must be complete, labeling compliance. Second, the specific content of compliance. For example, the labeling of food additives varieties, scope of application and dosage if they do not meet the requirements of food safety standards, can not be "defective" theory.

1.3 Whether it violates the prohibitions.

There are a number of "prohibitive provisions" in Chapter 4 of the Food Safety Law, "Food Production and Management". In the food labeling, if there is a violation of these "prohibitive provisions" of the content, should not be treated as a "defect". For example, Article 71 of the Food Safety Law states: "The labeling and instructions of food and food additives shall not contain false content, or relate to disease prevention or therapeutic functions." "The labels and instructions of food and food additives shall be clear and obvious, and the date of production, shelf life and other matters shall be conspicuously marked and easily recognized." If the text of the food label involves disease prevention and treatment functions or the label content is vague, the date of production and shelf life and other content is not recognizable, should not be regarded as "defective".

1.4 Several characteristics of misleading consumers.

Circumstances that may mislead consumers include:

1.4.1 Functional misleading.

In particular, the new "Food Safety Law" requires the implementation of strict supervision of health food, special medical use of food formulas and infant formula food and other special food, is the most likely to appear on the label of the functional misleading varieties. For such products, the compliance of labeling content must be strictly audited. Where there are exaggerated health functions, medical purposes and nutritional formulations on the growth and development of infants and young children and other content, are not "defective" category.

1.4.2 Conceptual misleading.

Many food labels are "conceptually" misleading to consumers. For example, in the product labeling "pure green", "pollution-free", "does not contain how to additives", "national gold medal enterprise product ", "won the × × Award" and so on. Food labeling as long as the above content is found, not only suspected of false content, but also does not meet the relevant national standards for prepackaged food labeling. Such cases obviously should not be recognized as "defective".

1.4.3 Price misleading.

The labeling of food products with "sale price", "lowest price", "special price" and "buy one get one free" is misleading. "Price misleading, the same can not be treated as a "defect". In addition, these contents are suspected of false and illegal.

2. Examples of "defects"

2.1 A professional counterfeiter complained to the food regulatory authorities about the nutritional content of a food product. He claimed that he bought a certain brand of "pastries", and that in the "Nutritional Composition Table" on the label, the unit of energy "kj" was labeled as "KJ "

This is a violation of the relevant laws and regulations, and in addition to filing a claim against the seller, the regulatory authorities are required to penalize the operator according to the law, and to reward the whistleblower.

After careful verification of the complained product labeling, found that the labeling content in addition to kilojoule unit case and "food nutrition labeling general rule" there is inconsistency, the other are in line with the requirements of the regulations, labeling "KJ" is in Chinese The label "KJ" is in the Chinese "kilojoule" after the registered number. According to the regulations, the unit of expression of nutritional content can be in Chinese or English, or both. In our opinion, the above labeling content meets the premise of "not affecting food safety and not misleading to consumers", and should fall into the category of "defective".

2.2 A professional counterfeiter complained to the food regulatory authority that the label of "Dried Cinnamon Dumplings" sold by a supermarket incorrectly stated that it contained 0.2 grams of fat per 100 grams. According to the regulations, when a nutrient content value "0" threshold value, its content should be labeled as "0". Fat content of "0" threshold value of 0.5 grams. Although the fat content of cinnamon (dried) per 100 grams is indeed 0.2 grams, but because it is below the "0" threshold, it should be labeled as "0" fat content.

After verification, the product under complaint does have the above problem, but its label "Nutritional Composition Table" also simultaneously in the "Nutrient Reference Values" column under the labeling of fat as "0%", indicating that the company's understanding of the "Nutrient Reference Values", "0%". However, its label "Nutritional Composition Table" also indicates "0%" of fat under the column "Nutrient Reference Value", which shows that the enterprise still has the concept of "0" limit value. As a roughly processed product of agricultural products in general, such labeling should not be misleading to consumers and will not cause food safety problems. It seems that this problem can be recognized as a "defect".

2.3 A brand of liquor was the subject of a complaint by a professional counterfeiter. The whistleblower claimed that the ingredients on the label contained "Yin Chen". The ingredient was not included in the "List of Food and Drugs" issued by the former Ministry of Health, and was considered to be a drug added to ordinary food. The complainant filed a series of claims with the food regulatory authority, including a claim against the manufacturer and operator.

After a traceability check of the product, it was found that the reported company's products had a "long history" of adding chennai, and the product had been approved by the former Ministry of Health. What's more, although the chen chen did not appear in the national list of relevant medicinal food, but it is indeed the real medicinal food varieties. In many areas of China, there is the custom of processing the chen and rice flour into cakes for consumption. At the turn of spring and summer, many pastry stores have "artemisia dough" (i.e., made of fresh chen and rice flour) for sale, which is regarded as a delicacy by the people. This is a traditional food, and it should be outlawed just because it's not on a list?

In fact, similar to the "medicinal food" items like chen, a lot of the original list of the Ministry of Health, but very few varieties contained in the list. I thought, the relevant departments as soon as possible on the "medicine and food" list to be expanded, and at the same time it is necessary to collect more in some areas where there are traditional eating habits of the goods, will be included in the list. As long as it does not affect food safety, there should not be more restrictions.

2.4 Penmanship should generally be regarded as a "defect". Penmanship errors (misspellings) on food labels should generally be regarded as "defects" by the regulatory authorities after a comprehensive assessment in conjunction with the other contents of the label, as long as they do not affect food safety or mislead consumers.

3. Legal responsibility for "defects"

The "defects" in food labeling are still subject to legal responsibility under the law.

"Ordered to correct" is the first punishment for food labeling "defective" offenders. For food producers, it should be required that their future products do not have the "defects" that have been found. For food operators, they should be required not to have the same "defects" in their subsequent products. As for food products with labeling "defects" produced and operated prior to the "order to correct", they can be allowed to be sold out, given that there is no safety problem.

Refusal to correct food labeling "defects" of the production and operation, a fine of less than 2,000 yuan. This is the only penalty provision in the new Food Safety Law that does not set a lower limit, indicating that the problem of "defective" food labeling should not be too harsh, and there should be a certain degree of tolerance.

Of course, if the food production and operation of repeated "defects", the relevant regulatory authorities can also be in a comprehensive assessment of the relevant circumstances of the violation of the process to be "discretionary", not as a "defective "Determination.

"Chinese People's **** and the State Food Safety Law" Article 97 of the imported prepackaged food, food additives should be labeled in Chinese; according to law there should be instructions, there should also be Chinese instructions. Labeling, instructions should be consistent with this law and other relevant laws and administrative regulations and national standards for food safety, and contains the origin of food and the name, address and contact information of the domestic agent. Prepackaged food without Chinese labels, Chinese instructions or labels, instructions do not meet the provisions of this article, shall not be imported.