"Fresh Food Lamp" Issue Becomes One of the Top 10 Consumer Rights Protection Public Opinion Hotspots in 2023

On March 15, at the themed event for the 2024 "3·15" International Consumer Rights Day, the China Consumers Association released the CCA's Top 10 Consumer Rights Protection Public Opinion Hotspots of 2023. These included prominent consumer rights issues such as complaints triggered by inappropriate words and actions of e-commerce streamers, homestay operators exposed for "price hikes and order cancellations" and "fake addresses", suspension of after-sales service by car manufacturers causing concern among car owners, and "fresh food lamps" altering product appearance to mislead consumers.

Among them, the eighth place is occupied by complaints related to "fresh food lights" altering product appearance and misleading consumers.

Hot Topic Analysis:

In recent years, public attention has increasingly focused on incidents where supermarkets and farmers' market vendors used "fresh food lights" to "beautify" stale or defective agricultural products, misleading consumers into purchasing them and triggering consumer complaints. In March 2023, prosecutors from the Dinghai District People's Procuratorate in Zhoushan City, Zhejiang Province, pointed out during case investigations that meat vendors in farmers' markets used "fresh food lights" with a low CRI, affecting consumers' color perception and misleading them into buying stale meat products, posing food safety risks. In November 2023, the Report on the Use of "Fresh Food Lights" in Jiangxi's Edible Agricultural Product Sales Markets, released by the Jiangxi Consumer Protection Committee, showed that more than 80% of the 265 business premises surveyed used "fresh food lights" for lighting.

In response to the issue of "fresh food lights" misleading consumers, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the Administrative Measures for Quality and Safety Supervision of Edible Agricultural Products Market Sales in 2023, explicitly prohibiting the use of "fresh food lights" to "beautify" fresh products. After the implementation of the Measures, supermarkets and markets across the country have gradually replaced "fresh food lights", which has been welcomed by consumers.

In addition, on the occasion of "3·15", theSupreme People's Procuratoratealso released10 typical cases of procuratorial public interest litigation for consumer rights protection, with thesecond case, "Ninghai County People's Procuratorate, Zhejiang Province, Urging Rectification of Illegal Use of Fresh Food Lights Administrative Public Interest Litigation Case",also focusing on the issue of illegal use of fresh food lights.

[Key Points]

Addressing issues such as irregular management of agricultural trade markets, substandard Color Rendering Index (CRI) of fresh food lamps, and the illegal use of fresh food lamps to mislead consumers, supervision by the People's Congress and public interest litigation supervision by procuratorial organsworked in sync. By leveraging suggestions from deputies to improve the quality and efficiency of procuratorial case handling, they urged administrative organs to perform their duties according to law, promoted the introduction of standardized administrative regulations for the industry, facilitated standardized operation of agricultural trade markets, and safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

【Basic Case Facts】

Operators of fresh meat stalls in some agricultural trade markets in Ninghai County, Zhejiang Province, used red-warm fresh food lamps with a low Color Rendering Index, which did not truthfully display the fresh color of meat products, affecting consumers' color perception and misleading them into purchasing non-fresh meat products. This posed food safety risks and infringed upon the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

【Investigation and Supervision of Duty Performance】

In early September 2022, during a joint supervision campaign on agricultural product quality and safety conducted by the People's Procuratorate of Ninghai County, Zhejiang Province (hereinafter referred to as "Ninghai County Procuratorate") and the Standing Committee of the Ninghai County People's Congress, deputies to the People's Congress raised concerns about the excessive use of fresh food lamps in some agricultural trade markets and suggested regulation. On November 21, 2022, the Ninghai County Procuratorate officially initiated a case regarding the distortion caused by fresh food lamp lighting. During the investigation, the Ninghai County Procuratorate commissioned the Ningbo Product and Food Quality Inspection Institute to conduct on-site sampling tests of fresh food lamps in agricultural trade markets within Ninghai County. The tests revealed that the Color Rendering Index (CRI) values of the sampled fresh food lamps were 45.9 and 61, respectively, far below the standard requiring a CRI of no less than 80 for agricultural trade markets as stipulated in the Standard for Architectural Lighting Design issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People's Republic of China.

On December 2, 2022, the Ninghai County People's Procuratorate issued a prosecutorial recommendation to the Ninghai County Administration for Market Regulation (hereinafter referred to as the County AMR) in accordance with the Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China and other relevant laws and regulations. The recommendation urged timely investigation and punishment of fresh food stalls improperly using fresh food luminaires, strengthening supervision of agricultural trade markets, and carrying out comprehensive rectification. Upon receiving the recommendation, the County AMR attached great importance to it, organized research on the use of meat luminaires, conducted luminaire testing, unified usage standards, and interviewed operators who used luminaires non-compliantly. It required merchants in more than 20 agricultural trade markets across the county who were using non-compliant luminaires to rectify within a specified time limit, and posted conspicuous notices with comparative photos of agricultural products before and after using fresh food luminaires, along with textual explanations, at the entrances of agricultural trade markets across the county to remind consumers to exercise caution. On January 31, 2023, the County AMR replied to the Ninghai County People's Procuratorate regarding the rectification status.

To promote region-wide governance, the Ninghai County People's Procuratorate invited deputies to the County People's Congress, staff from the County AMR, experts from the Ningbo Luminaire Association, representatives of agricultural market merchants, and people's supervisors to jointly participate in a demonstration meeting on technical transformation of fresh food luminaires, listening to opinions from professionals in the luminaire industry and standardizing merchants' use of luminaires that meet the requirements of sales venues and product categories. In February 2023, all 24 agricultural trade markets, more than 190 stalls, and 539 fresh food luminaires in the entire county were fully rectified. In April 2023, the Ningbo Municipal People's Procuratorate promoted the case of supervising and rectifying the standardized use of fresh food luminaires as a special public interest litigation case for consumer rights protection to the entire city. By the end of November 2023, more than 14,000 fresh food beauty luminaires had been replaced cumulatively across the city, with a rectification rate of nearly 100%.

During the case handling process, the procuratorial organs reported the relevant situation to the Ningbo Municipal People's Congress as a special report, actively promoting the introduction of local legislation to regulate the use of fresh food luminaires. During the legislative research and rectification process for fresh food luminaires, the Agricultural Product Supervision Division of the Food Operation Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation conducted research and absorbed the experience of Ningbo City in rectifying fresh food luminaires, and issued the "Administrative Measures for Quality and Safety Supervision of Edible Agricultural Products Market Sales" on June 30, 2023, clearly stipulating that lighting facilities that cause significant changes to sensory characteristics such as true color shall not be used in the sales process of fresh edible agricultural products.

[Typical Significance]

The use of "fresh food beauty luminaires" for edible agricultural products such as meat, seafood, and vegetables affects consumers' color perception and easily misleads them into purchasing non-fresh meat and other products, leading to food safety hazards. In response to such problems exposed in the field of food safety, the procuratorial organs took proactive action before the issuance of industry regulatory norms, effectively connecting and transforming representative suggestions with prosecutorial recommendations to urge administrative organs to perform their duties in accordance with the law. Through the handling of individual cases, they promoted and achieved region-wide governance and source governance, facilitated the introduction of administrative regulatory norms for related industries, effectively improved the quality of life of the people, and safeguarded the safety of food on the people's tables.

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