What is in this article?:
- Chinese courts to hand out death sentences for food safety violations
- NBJ Bottom Line
A raft of public food safety scandals, like the 2008 melamine milk debacle, prompt China to issue the death penalty for criminals guilty of lethal food contamination.
According to a May 30 brief from CNN, China’s judicial system is apt to implement death penalty indictments for food safety violations. The directive is an attempt to curb adverse food-related events, most notably the September 2008 melamine tainting scandal that killed four infants and sickened more than 50,000 others. China’s Supreme People’s Court announced that judges should issue death penalties to suspects convicted of lethal food-tainting, and increase punishments issued for criminals involved in non-lethal cases and officials attempting to protect such criminals.
Apart from the melamine scandal, Chinese food producers have also been burned with adverse events relating to spiking commodities as diverse as pork and watermelons with stimulants and steroids.
In the supplement space, Chinese sourcing is integral to industry, and despite criticisms leveled on manufacturers for using low-quality and oft-adulterated ingredients from China, cheaper commodity prices mean few are likely to opt out of sourcing from the country. Nutrition Business Journal estimates that China likely commands over 60% of the global letter vitamin supply, with substantial share in specialty ingredients like glucosamine and CoQ10.