Longer prison sentences as courts get tough on food safety offenses
Print Edition
TEN people received jail terms ranging from three to 13 years in food safety cases across the city yesterday, as courts cracked down on these crimes.
Offenses included using expired ingredients in mooncakes, adding addictive poppy shells to dishes, running an illegal abattoir and passing off industrial tallow as fit for human consumption.
The six cases illustrate the harsher line local courts have taken in food safety cases since China’s Supreme People’s Court issued interpretations and set standards for punishments in May.
Those found guilty yesterday received an average jail term of 5.63 years, compared with 3.13 years in 15 cases from January 2011 to this May, said the Shanghai Higher People’s Court.
The longest sentence increased from nine to 13 years, while the shortest was up from six months to three years.
And the average fine was more than 13 times the previous figure of 283,300 yuan.
The 13-year term was handed down at Jinshan District People’s Court to Ni Xiaogang, owner of two trading companies.
Ni bought 5,530 tons of industrial tallow Ñ rendered beef or mutton fat Ñ from Australia and New Zealand from February 2010 to January 2012.
Then he sold it for more than 37.09 million yuan (US$6.09 million) to a manufacturer producing edible tallow.
Ni’s companies were fined a total of 19 million yuan and Ni received a 1-million-yuan fine.
In another case, Zhang Ruguo, owner of Shanghai Panpan Food Co Ltd and shareholders Gao Zhaogang, Zhang Ruqiang, Feng Baozhong and Geng Zhilian received sentences ranging from five to six years at Fengxian District People’s Court.
They had asked staff to remove filling from out-of-date mooncakes and add it to fresh casings. Seven tons of these mooncakes were sold to 10 companies for 100,000 yuan.
Panpan was fined 1 million yuan, while the five defendants also received fines ranging from 100,000 yuan to 120,000 yuan.
In another case, Zhang Shunhong, who ran an unlicensed slaughterhouse in Pudong New Area, was jailed for six years and given an 800,000-yuan fine.
He sold almost 41 tons of pork illegally from March 5 to May 28 this year, making more than 620,000 yuan from sales.
Meanwhile, in separate cases, Yue Wencai, Huang Meiling and Zhu Chunliang, were found guilty of adding poppy seed shells to hotpot and crayfish in different parts of the city.
They received jail terms of between three and three and a half years and were fined between 40,000 yuan and 50,000 yuan.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
