A TRIAL measure, which consists of recording penalty points, will be adopted to crack down on the illegal behaviors of food and beverage service providers, starting Jan. 1 next year,  the Municipal Market Supervision and Regulation Bureau announced.

Once food safety problems are identified, food and beverage providers will be penalized five points, two points or one point, depending on the seriousness of the problem. All penalties will be based on food safety regulations in Shenzhen.

Starting from the date that a provider receives a food trade license, their penalty points will be cleared and recalculated every 12 months. Four levels, from good to bad, will be used to indicate the quality of service providers.

If less than 10 penalty points are accumulated in a year, the provider will be in level I, the best level in the mechanism. Between 10-19 and 20-24 points indicate Level II and Level III, respectively. When the accumulated penalty points reach 25 or more, the store will be shut down by the food safety supervision department.

A checklist should be prepared and relevant evidence, including pictures and videos, should be kept when the food safety supervision department carries out inspections. If a penalty is given, a legal notice will be distributed to the provider.   

(Chen Siqi)