Legal Daily Lists Typical Food and Drug Public Interest Litigation: Effectively Guarding "Safety on the Tip of the Tongue"

Source: Zhai Xiaogong/Legal Daily

As the saying goes, the country is based on the people, the people take food as the sky, and food takes safety as the first. Food and drug safety involves thousands of households and is a major matter of human life. However, there are always some businesses and lawbreakers who disregard the bottom line of the law and use their hands and feet on food and drugs, which directly threatens the health of the broad masses of the people. The reporter of Legal Daily selected 4 typical cases of public interest litigation in the field of food and drug safety in Hainan, on the one hand, it reflects the efforts and confidence of the procuratorial organs to use the sword of public interest litigation to maintain the "safety on the tip of the tongue", and urge functional departments to strengthen supervision and supervision, and to grasp the supervision system in a meticulous and strict manner. On the one hand, we remind everyone to strictly abide by laws and regulations, keep the moral bottom line, and mobilize the whole people to build a "firewall" for food and drug safety.

Online sales of salt rock flow into the restaurant

Apologize for recalling products

In July 2018, the Haikou Municipal Procuratorate discovered in the performance of its duties that Hainan Nanfeng Seafood Network Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as Nanfeng Seafood Company) sold salt for industrial use as edible salt.

After investigation, it was found that Nanfeng Seafood Company purchased 1700 kilograms of salt stone from Shanghai Bique Company in 4 times for 5500 yuan, without any processing treatment, and after simple packaging, it was sold in Taobao stores under the name of "three pepper farmers" Himalayan rose salt, and introduced for steak and other Western food seasoning, the use method was "grinding seasoning alone or mixing black pepper powder to grind together", and the implementation standard, product production license and other information were not marked on the packaging bag.

From November 11, 2017 to April 26, 2018, Nanfeng Haiwei Company traded a total of 1966 orders on Taobao, with a cumulative sales of 2200 packages, with a total sales amount of 36650.78 yuan, and the sales scope involved many provinces across the country, and the buyers also included Western restaurants, hot pot restaurants, tea restaurants and other catering operators in addition to individuals.

According to the testing and consulting expert opinions of the Hainan Provincial Food Inspection and Testing Center, the sodium chloride content in the above-mentioned salt stone is far lower than the national standard, which is an unqualified product, and if it is sold and eaten as edible salt, there are obvious safety risks in the types and contents of impurities.

The Haikou Municipal Procuratorate believes that the main use of the salt stone is sweat steaming room and decorative accessories, which is only for industrial use and cannot be eaten. In order to protect the social public interest, the Haikou Municipal Procuratorate filed a civil public interest lawsuit and requested that the defendant be ordered to warn of the consumer danger and recall the products it sold by issuing an announcement or other appropriate means to eliminate the danger, and publicly apologize in the nationally distributed media, while bearing the expert consultation fee of 824 yuan in this case.

On the morning of December 26, 2018, the haikou municipal procuratorate's first civil public interest litigation case in the field of food and drugs was heard at the Haikou Intermediate People's Court. The court pronounced a judgment in support of all the procuratorial organs' litigation claims, and the defendant made it clear that it would not appeal.

On May 22, 2019, Nanfeng Haiwei Company published a recall announcement in a local newspaper in Hainan and publicly apologized.

Prosecutors reminded that as a necessity for the daily life of ordinary people, it is crucial to meet the national food safety quality standards. Actively expanding the field of online food safety supervision and timely stopping illegal acts that infringe on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers has always been the key direction of procuratorial organs in performing public interest litigation functions, and the successful handling of this case is demonstration and early warning.

Domestic sewage is discharged directly into the reservoir

The procuratorate recommends follow-up supervision

Songtao Reservoir is the largest reservoir in Hainan, and is the main drinking water source of Danzhou, Lingao, Chengmai, Ding'an and other cities and counties. Danzhou Nanfeng Town and Dacun, Dacun, Dafeng Village, Nanfeng Town Market is located in the Songtao Reservoir Drinking Water Source Secondary Protection Zone, inhabited by thousands of residents.

Due to the lack of centralized domestic sewage treatment facilities in some residential living areas, sewage leakage occurs in residents' septic tanks, and domestic sewage is directly discharged into Songtao Reservoir, which has been seriously polluting the waters of the 61.7 square kilometers drinking water source secondary protection area of Songtao Reservoir.

In September 2018, the Danzhou Municipal Procuratorate dispatched cadres and police officers to the Yaxing Procuratorate office discovered this problem during their inspections and immediately transferred the clue to the public interest litigation case-handling department.

At that time, the Danzhou Municipal Procuratorate carried out a special supervision activity for procuratorial public interest litigation to "ensure the safety of thousands of households on the tip of the tongue", and immediately formed a case-handling team, and the public interest litigation procurator led by Deputy Procurator General Wang Shaoxian conducted in-depth on-site investigation, and learned that there were no centralized sewage treatment facilities in the area, and there were problems such as sewage leakage and direct discharge of wastewater from septic tanks.

After studying and judging, the case-handling team believes that this case is an opportunity to "break the ice" of the special activities of public interest litigation in Songtao Reservoir, and technical evidence collection is the key to handling the iron case. After many interrogations of villagers, drone photography, and a comprehensive inspection of the environmental conditions around the reservoir, the case-handling team fixed the facts and evidence of damage.

In November 2018, the Danzhou Municipal Procuratorate issued a pre-litigation procuratorial recommendation to the Municipal Water Affairs Bureau, requiring it to perform its duties in accordance with the law, accelerate the planning and construction and improvement of sewage treatment facilities in residential areas, and solve the non-point source pollution of domestic life in the Songtao Reservoir Drinking Water Source Protection Area.

To this end, the Danzhou Municipal Water Affairs Bureau attaches great importance to the comprehensive investigation of the problem of non-point source pollution in the drinking water source protection area, formulates a special rectification plan, and starts the construction of three projects of Nanfeng Town and Dacun, Dacun, Dacun and Nanfeng Town Town Wastewater Treatment Project.

After follow-up supervision by the procuratorial organs, by May 2019, the domestic sewage treatment projects in three residential areas have been completed and operated, and the residents' domestic sewage has been collected and treated centrally, and the purification treatment has been discharged after reaching the standard, effectively solving the hidden danger of residents' domestic sewage polluting the drinking water source of Songtao Reservoir.

Procurators believe that the phenomenon of residents living and producing in the protected areas of drinking water sources causes damage and pollution to the drinking water sources in Hainan is relatively common, and the procuratorial organs have urged the water affairs departments to perform their duties according to law through procuratorial suggestions in view of this historical legacy, ensuring the safety of drinking water sources.

Illegal licensing of the sale of counterfeit drugs

The control is not strict to supervise rectification

The Wanning Municipal Procuratorate has intensified the handling of public interest litigation cases in the field of food and drug safety, screened out a case of selling counterfeit drugs from the criminal cases accepted by the court, and found clues to public interest litigation in the pharmaceutical field, and then launched a series of investigations.

After investigation, in the process of handling the renewal of the certificate in 2015, Chen Mouwu and Chen Mouhai, who were suspected of selling counterfeit drugs, and their pharmacies "Wanning Wancheng Fast Nine Tong Thousand Doses Minkang Pharmacy" and "Wanning Wancheng Kangning Tongyuantang Pharmacy" provided false materials to apply for the "Drug Business License", and Chen Mouwu has been using the "Drug Business License" that should be cancelled to illegally operate drugs.

The Wanning Food and Drug Administration failed to fulfill its audit and control duties, resulting in the two obtaining the "Drug Business License" in violation of laws and regulations. Moreover, after the public security organs seized Chen Mouwu and Chen Mouhai from selling counterfeit drugs, the Wanning Food and Drug Administration did not perform its duties of paying and canceling the "Drug Business License" in a timely manner in accordance with the law, nor did it promptly impose administrative penalties on the sale of counterfeit drugs in accordance with laws and regulations.

In order to protect the life and health of the masses, standardize the operation and management of drugs, crack down on the sale of counterfeit drugs in accordance with the law, protect the social public interest, and promote administration according to law, after reporting to the provincial procuratorate, the Wanning Municipal People's Procuratorate promptly filed a case and issued a pre-litigation procuratorial recommendation to the Wanning Food and Drug Administration, suggesting that it give corresponding administrative penalties for illegal acts in accordance with the law, and at the same time strengthen drug operation and management, standardize examination and approval, and strictly enforce the law.

After receiving the "Procuratorial Recommendation", the Wanning Food and Drug Administration immediately issued an "Administrative Punishment Decision Letter" to the "Wanning Wancheng Fast Nine Tong Thousand Agents Minkang Pharmacy" and "Wanning Wancheng Kangning Tongyuantang Pharmacy", decided to revoke its "Drug Business License" in accordance with the law, and at the same time revoked the corresponding "Drug Business Quality Management Practice Certification Certificate".

Illegal oil extraction constitutes a crime

Public interest litigation closes loopholes

On May 1, 2018, Chen Moumei, the person in charge of the "Wenchang Baoluo Mei Oil Mill" in Baoluo Town, Wenchang City, did not screen the 80 kilograms of peanuts and fruits that farmers brought to the oil mill to press oil, did not remove the moldy peanut kernels, directly squeezed out 40 kg of peanut oil, and then sold 15 kg on the market at a price of 36 yuan / kg.

Coincidentally, on May 14 and 15, 2018, Han Mouli and Liao Moubo also illegally pressed oil and sold it in the same way. Subsequently, the oil mill of 3 people was seized by the Wenchang Food and Drug Administration. After inspection by the Hainan Provincial Food Inspection and Testing Center, the peanut oil produced by Chen Moumei and other 3 people did not meet the sanitary standards.

To this end, the Wenchang Municipal Procuratorate prosecuted three defendants suspected of producing and selling food that did not meet safety standards in accordance with the law, and the Wenchang Municipal Court sentenced the three people to 8 months imprisonment and 1 year of probation in the first instance, and prohibited the 3 people from engaging in food production, sales and related activities during the probation period of probation.

In the process of handling the case, the procurator undertook the case found a weak problem in the social management of food and drug safety in Wenchang City, and informed the clue to the public interest litigation prosecution department of the Wenchang City Procuratorate and the township procuratorate.

After further investigation and verification, the Wenchang Municipal Procuratorate issued pre-litigation procuratorial suggestions to the Municipal Food and Drug Administration, and put forward opinions on improving the system and improving management. At the same time, the "rule of law into the campus" propaganda and food safety and crackdown on counterfeit and shoddy goods inspection activities were used to inspect supermarkets and commissaries around the campus.

Wenchang City is a well-known "coconut town", the coconut food industry chain is perfect, homemade peanut oil, coconut oil is quite popular, food safety issues can not be ignored. Through administrative public interest litigation, the Wenchang Municipal Procuratorate urges relevant administrative organs to perform their regulatory duties in accordance with the law and maintain the "safety on the tip of the tongue" of thousands of households.

Relevant provisions of the Administrative Procedure Law

Article 25: Where in the course of performing their duties, people's procuratorates discover that administrative organs with oversight and management responsibilities in areas such as ecological environment and resource protection, food and drug safety, protection of state-owned property, and transfer of state-owned land use rights have illegally exercised their powers or failed to act, causing harm to the national interests or the societal public interest, they shall submit procuratorial suggestions to the administrative organs and urge them to perform their duties in accordance with law. Where administrative organs do not perform their duties in accordance with law, the people's procuratorates shall raise a lawsuit with the people's courts in accordance with law.

The relevant provisions of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Procuratorial Public Interest Litigation Cases

Article 21: Administrative organs shall lawfully perform their duties within two months of receiving the procuratorial recommendation, and respond in writing to the people's procuratorate. Where emergency situations such as the continued expansion of damage to the national interest or the societal public interest arise, the administrative organ shall respond in writing within 15 days.

Lao Hu Reviews (Hu Yong)

Food and drugs are directly related to the people's health and life safety, therefore, people's governments at all levels and relevant law enforcement and judicial departments should actively perform their duties and responsibilities, and effectively protect the people's "safety on the tip of the tongue".

At present, although the quality and safety of food and drugs are generally getting better and better, the problems that endanger the health and life safety of the people in some places still occur from time to time. The reason for the problem of counterfeiting and shoddy in the field of food and drugs is that on the one hand, some enterprises and individuals are ignorant of profits, mercenary intentions, and even touch the moral bottom line, have no sense of the rule of law, and base their own selfish interests on the basis of harming the health of others and depriving others of their lives. On the other hand, the repeated prohibition of counterfeit and shoddy products in the field of food and drugs is also related to the inaction of food and drug safety supervision and management departments, personnel, slow action, and even dereliction of duty and bending the law for personal gain in some places. Individual law enforcement personnel turn a blind eye to the quality of food and drugs, which encourages the arrogance of lawbreakers.

The procuratorial organs of Hainan Province regard the public interest litigation activities in the field of food and drug safety as an important task in performing their legal supervision functions, and promote the administrative law enforcement departments of food and drug supervision and administration to investigate and deal with a number of illegal acts that endanger the health and life safety of the people in accordance with the law, making important contributions to protecting people's "safety on the tip of the tongue", which is worth learning from procuratorial organs and relevant law enforcement departments in various places.

(The original title is "Food and Drug Safety Hazards Arise from Public Interest Litigation Supervision and Supervision")