China Plans Food Safety Law Overhaul Targeting School Meals, Online Sellers and Excessive Fines

A bigger law for kitchens, classrooms and online platforms

China is proposing to expand its Food Safety Law from 154 to 191 articles, adding dedicated rules for school meals and online food businesses while changing penalties that can impose large minimum fines for small violations. The State Administration for Market Regulation released the draft on October 10, with public comments due by November 10, 2026.

The proposal would make school principals and kindergarten directors primarily responsible for food safety, require online platforms to check sellers' permits more thoroughly, and bring food preparation into view through live video. It would also make responsibilities clearer for livestream sellers and companies importing food through electronic commerce.

The scale of the online market helps explain the proposed changes. China handles more than 100 million food delivery orders daily, involving nearly 10 million merchants. Each order can involve a platform, a restaurant and a delivery service, creating several places where a safety problem needs to be identified and addressed.

The draft adds 37 articles and revises 93. Its proposed length is about 24 percent greater than the current law, calculated from the increase of 37 articles over the existing 154. It would be the most extensive overhaul since the comprehensive revision in 2015.

A parallel push against food safety crimes would strengthen investigations, punishment and cooperation between regulators and criminal justice authorities. Together, the initiatives seek to make routine business responsibilities more specific while directing stronger enforcement toward serious misconduct. The legislative changes remain proposals, with their final wording and commencement date still to be decided.

School leaders would share responsibility for what children eat

School meals would receive a dedicated section covering leadership, staffing, ingredient purchases, inspections, catering arrangements and supervision. School principals and kindergarten directors would carry primary responsibility for food safety, while school officials would be required to eat alongside pupils.

Children often have limited choice over who prepares their lunch. The proposed arrangements place responsibility with the people running their school, including when an outside company supplies the meals. Contracting out catering would therefore leave school leaders with continuing duties to oversee the service.

Ingredient purchasing and inspection are central to that oversight. A meal can become unsafe before cooking begins, through unsuitable supplies or failures in handling. The draft addresses these stages alongside the management of companies hired to prepare or deliver food.

Eating alongside pupils would give school officials direct experience of the meals being served. That requirement would operate alongside staffing, purchasing and inspection duties, giving schools several ways to identify and correct problems.

Platforms would have to check who is selling food

Online marketplace operators would have to establish branches or offices in the provinces where they operate. They would also need designated food safety management bodies, food safety directors and food safety officers, creating identifiable teams responsible for carrying out safety duties.

Sellers would have to register under their real identities. Platforms would be required to substantively verify necessary permits and filings, rather than simply collect images of certificates. In practical terms, the proposed duty is to check whether a seller has the required authorization to operate.

These requirements address two basic questions when an online meal causes concern: who sold it, and which organization was responsible for checking that business? Real identity registration and provincial offices would give regulators clearer points of contact in a market operating across local boundaries.

Online food delivery providers would also be required to show meal preparation through live video for public supervision. Customers would gain a view of preparation that is usually hidden when they order through a phone.

Livestream sales and food imports get clearer duties

The draft reaches beyond restaurant delivery. It clarifies food safety responsibilities for online sellers, livestream operators, livestream marketers and marketing service agencies. These businesses can play different roles in getting a product from a producer to a buyer.

A livestream sale may involve a seller supplying the food, a presenter promoting it and an agency organizing the marketing. Identifying duties for each participant would give regulators a clearer basis for deciding who must answer for problems at each stage.

Companies involved in commerce across borders would be responsible for the safety of imported food, food additives and related products. The proposed responsibility would cover more than the finished food item, extending to other products entering the food supply chain.

The accompanying criminal enforcement guidelines also call for clearer regulatory responsibilities in fresh food commerce, food delivery and livestream sales. Both initiatives respond to businesses that can connect suppliers, promoters and consumers across several jurisdictions.

Smaller violations could face more proportionate fines

Some current provisions set minimum fines for violations involving goods worth less than 10,000 yuan. A fixed minimum can produce a large penalty even when the amount of food involved is small, prompting disputes over heavy punishment for minor violations.

The draft would replace fixed fines in some provisions with penalties calculated as multiples of the value of the goods. Under that approach, the financial value involved would help determine the size of the penalty. The proposed change is intended to make punishment more proportionate while retaining strict food safety enforcement.

The same overhaul would target responsible individuals, including executives and food safety managers, for deliberate or serious misconduct. A business could therefore face consequences alongside the people responsible for the conduct.

The two changes address different enforcement needs. Small violations would receive a penalty structure more closely connected to the value involved, while intentional or serious wrongdoing would bring greater personal exposure for decision makers. For businesses, the proposal makes both the nature of a violation and responsibility for it central to enforcement.

Live video would become part of regulatory oversight

Food businesses would have to install monitoring equipment at key points of risk and connect relevant live video feeds to local market regulation authorities. Regulators would be authorized to use video inspections and monitoring through the Internet of Things, meaning connected devices that transmit information about conditions or activity.

The draft promotes an approach described as Internet plus artificial intelligence. Software could help officials identify activity requiring attention across large numbers of food businesses, while video could allow some checks without an inspector being physically present.

A camera, however, captures only what falls within its view. Testing food samples remains necessary to identify many forms of contamination, and visits remain necessary to examine conditions directly. Digital monitoring would add another means of finding risks alongside those tasks.

Implementation would require practical decisions about camera coverage, how long recordings are kept, who can access them and who responds when a warning appears. Local authorities would also need staff and technical capacity to assess information and arrange follow-up. Collecting footage and acting on it are separate operational tasks, both necessary for the proposed system to work.

Criminal enforcement would focus on everyday foods

The Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee has issued guidelines calling for tougher investigation and punishment of food safety crimes. Priority areas include meat products, school meals, health foods, vegetables and fruit, with scrutiny extending across production, processing, online sales, catering and imports.

The guidelines seek closer coordination between administrative regulators and criminal justice authorities. Regulators can inspect businesses and impose administrative penalties. Suspected crimes must enter a different process involving police, prosecutors and courts.

Clearer case referral procedures, an information sharing platform and mechanisms for transfers in both directions would connect those processes. Agencies would also clarify inspection and appraisal standards and the rules for using evidence collected during administrative work in criminal proceedings, and vice versa.

Serious offenses with substantial social impact would face heavier punishment. The guidelines also call for tighter controls on suspended sentences and exemptions from criminal punishment. A suspended sentence allows a person to avoid immediate imprisonment subject to legal conditions, making decisions about its use an important part of sentencing.

Authorities would update lists of prohibited additives when investigations uncover new substances illegally added to food. The National Health Commission said that, as of May 2026, it had issued 1,750 food safety standards covering more than 340 food categories, extending from raw materials and production to transport and storage.

A Xiamen investigation shows why coordination matters

A case in Xiamen, Fujian province, has drawn national supervision after allegations that a pest control company used the pesticide dichlorvos for years while serving more than 100 restaurants. Police placed six people under criminal detention on August 30, and at least one suspect was subsequently approved for arrest.

The State Council Food Safety Office placed the case under direct supervision. A joint working group involving the State Administration for Market Regulation and the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration was dispatched to oversee the investigation.

The case involves a service provider working across many restaurants, illustrating how a food safety risk can spread beyond one kitchen. Investigating such activity requires authorities to examine both the company providing the service and the food businesses where it operated.

The commission also identified incidents involving formaldehyde treated cabbage and chemically treated waxberries as concerns behind the enforcement push. Its guidelines encourage courts, prosecutors and police to use findings from individual cases to identify weaknesses in wider supervision, including through formal recommendations and risk alerts.

How the changes fit into the legislative timeline

The current proposal follows earlier changes to China's food safety legislation. The 2025 amendment concentrated on particular products and transport arrangements; the new draft covers a wider range of business models, institutional duties and enforcement measures.

• 2009: China enacted the Food Safety Law.
• 2015: A comprehensive revision reshaped the law.
• 2025: A limited amendment addressed bulk transport of liquid foods and liquid infant formula.
• May 2026: The National Health Commission's standards total reached 1,750, covering more than 340 food categories.
• October 10, 2026: The State Administration for Market Regulation released the latest revision draft for public comment.
• November 10, 2026: The public consultation closes.

The consultation gives businesses, schools, consumers and other participants an opportunity to propose changes to requirements that would affect their daily responsibilities. Camera systems, permit checks, school catering arrangements and penalty calculations all require rules that can be applied consistently.

Complaints need a route to action

Consumers already participate in food safety oversight through complaints, reports, inspection programs in which they help select what is tested, school meal committees and reporting tools. The proposed expansion of video access would add another way for the public to notice possible problems.

A useful reporting system needs an investigation, corrective action and feedback to the person raising the concern. Protecting people who report problems also matters, particularly when they have direct knowledge of practices inside a business or institution.

Local enforcement capacity will shape how these arrangements function. Regulators need specialist knowledge, funding, cooperation across departments and enough staff to pursue leads. The new criminal enforcement guidelines seek to strengthen that cooperation through shared information, clearer transfers and supervision of major or complex cases.

For families, the changes would put more explicit duties on school leaders and food platforms. For businesses, they would combine closer scrutiny of permits, kitchens and management decisions with proposed changes to fines for smaller violations. The consultation will help determine how those responsibilities are written into the next version of the law.

Key Points

• The draft would expand China's Food Safety Law from 154 to 191 articles, adding 37 and revising 93.
• Public comments are due by November 10, 2026.
• School principals and kindergarten directors would carry primary food safety responsibility, and school officials would eat alongside pupils.
• Online platforms would verify seller identities and permits, appoint safety personnel and establish provincial offices.
• Live video and connected monitoring would support public and regulatory supervision.
• Some fixed fines would become penalties based on the value of the goods, while serious misconduct would expose responsible managers to punishment.
• Separate guidelines call for stronger criminal enforcement, clearer case transfers and better evidence sharing.