Chinese courts work with government agencies to protect children from food safety violations

While continuing to harshly punish those who produce or sell harmful food to juveniles, Chinese courts have also been required to work with government agencies to jointly strengthen the fight against crimes related to food safety.

The requirement was put forward by the Supreme People's Court, China's top court, on Friday when introducing four influential food safety cases involving children.

"Children's food is related to the health and safety of minors, so all walks of life must attach great importance to the it," the top court said.

In one case, for example, a consumer surnamed Li took a dairy company to court after buying 18 bottles of its baby drink with 5,904 yuan ($820) in May 2019. Li claimed that some additives were not suitable to be added in the drink, so Li asked for 10 times the purchase price in compensation.

Considering the health and safety of children, the court ultimately sided with Li and ordered the defendant to compensate 59,040 yuan.

The top court said that the fine had shown the judicial determination to protect children's legitimate rights and interests, as well as the judicial effort to heavily punish violators in the field of food safety.

In addition, courts across the country will increase exchanges with government departments related to food to form the joint force to protect children's health safety, with more law education offered to food producers and sellers to help enhance their legal awareness, the top court added.