National crackdown improves food security

A crackdown on threats to food safety has made steady progress, the Ministry of Public Security said on Monday.

In February, the ministry deployed the national public security organs to carry out Kunlun 2022, which focused on areas such as agricultural and veterinary drug residue in food, illegal additives, and online counterfeit and substandard food promoted by internet celebrities.

"We will pay close attention to possible illegal acts in the field of food and drugs in emerging businesses such as online trading platforms, social networking platforms and livestreaming platforms, accurately detect and sort out case clues, conduct in-depth investigation and verification, and ensure that the operation covers all sectors," said Li Bei, a ministry spokeswoman.

An official with the ministry's Food and Drug Crime Investigation Bureau said it had supervised the resolution of all of the 103 major food safety cases that occurred last year.

Police nationwide resolved about 11,000 such cases and arrested 13,000 suspects last year.

In October, police in Xinxiang, Henan province, found clues about illegal activities involving the production and sale of counterfeit mineral water brands.

After an in-depth investigation, police arrested 12 suspects and seized about 336,000 bottles of fake mineral water, more than 500,000 bottles and 600,000 labels. The products and profits involved in the case reached about 20 million yuan ($3.14 million).

Further investigation showed that the criminals had purchased equipment and set up production lines in rural areas since 2018.

They used underground water and filled bottles with other brands' labels after simple filtration.

They also recruited downstream dealers through social media platforms such as WeChat and distributed the water to several provinces.

The case has been transferred to the local procuratorate for examination and prosecution.

Last year, the ministry worked with departments such as agriculture and rural affairs, market regulation and customs to carry out joint enforcements in the fields of agricultural products, health food and imported cold chain food.

A large number of food safety risks were eliminated amid the enforcement, the ministry said. The ministry pledged to speed up the construction and application of fast inspection technology in the field of food and drug safety investigation, strengthen the connection between other departments and promptly plug the loopholes that appeared in the operations, so as to achieve an effective and long-term crackdown and prevention mechanism.

The public security organs will capitalize on the media platforms to strengthen the publicity of food safety and enhance the awareness of the rule of law and the concept of integrity.

The public would also be encouraged to report illegal activities endangering food safety, the ministry said.