Law revision shows resolve to better protect food safety

China’s food industry is known for its scale and efficiency. Although the overall food safety situation is improving, ensuring that the food the fast-developing industry provides is safe has proved a challenge. A meal can now be ordered with a few taps, prepared in an invisible kitchen and delivered by a stranger. When something goes wrong, however, responsibility has an unfortunate habit of disappearing somewhere along the supply chain.

On Saturday, the State Administration for Market Regulation unveiled a draft revision of the Food Safety Law for public consultation. More than two-thirds of its provisions would be amended or newly introduced. The overhaul, the most extensive since 2015, reflects a basic regulatory principle: as the food business becomes more complicated, accountability must become harder to evade.

The Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee has also issued instructions demanding tougher investigation and punishment of food-safety offenses. Recent incidents involving chemically treated vegetables and other dangerous practices have exposed some weaknesses.

Together, the two initiatives suggest a shift from responding to scandals after they erupt toward preventing them altogether through clearer obligations, tighter supervision and more credible penalties.

Consider online food delivery. China handles more than 100 million orders daily, involving nearly 10 million merchants. Traditional inspections cannot possibly keep pace. The proposed law therefore aims to establish a dedicated framework for online food businesses, which requires platforms to scrutinize merchants and clarify the responsibilities of livestream sellers and cross-border food importers.

Restaurants would be required to make food preparation more transparent through video feeds, while artificial intelligence could help regulators identify unsafe practices. The ambition is to turn millions of previously opaque kitchens into establishments subject to continuous scrutiny. Whether local regulators possess the resources to process such information effectively is another question.

School meals present a particular problem: children cannot easily choose another supplier. The draft makes school principals and kindergarten directors primarily accountable for food safety, tightens oversight of procurement and outsourced catering, and requires school officials to eat alongside pupils. The logic is straightforward — those responsible for feeding children should have a direct stake in what is served.

Yet the most consequential change may concern punishment. China has long imposed heavy penalties on companies that violate food-safety rules. The proposed revision goes further by targeting responsible individuals, including executives and food-safety managers, for deliberate or serious misconduct. Combined with the political and legal authorities’ determination to strengthen criminal enforcement, this could make negligence and fraud considerably more expensive.

That matters, because executives who might otherwise have tolerated dubious suppliers or falsified records will now have stronger reasons to crack down on irregularities.

Still, tougher laws do not automatically produce safer food. Enforcement must be consistent across jurisdictions, evidence must survive the journey from administrative investigation to criminal prosecution, and regulators must resist the temptation to substitute spectacular crackdowns for routine vigilance. Smaller businesses also need clear, workable compliance requirements rather than an ever-expanding mountain of paperwork.

Food safety is not merely a public-health concern. It shapes consumer confidence, brand reputation and the competitiveness of China’s vast food industry. A market in which customers cannot reliably distinguish safe products from dangerous ones ultimately penalizes honest businesses alongside dishonest ones.

China’s latest proposals recognize that trust cannot be delivered by algorithms alone, nor restored simply by imposing harsher sentences. It requires enforceable responsibilities at every stage, from farm and factory to platform and plate.

For a country whose consumers have grown accustomed to extraordinary convenience, the next advance in food retailing may be something less glamorous but more valuable: knowing who is answerable when a meal goes wrong.