People's Court Daily: Beware of the "beauty trap" of weight loss chocolate

"Are you still worried about losing weight? Eating chocolate can easily keep you in good shape." It is hard for some people who want to lose weight not to be tempted by such advertisements. However, if they do not keep their eyes open, they will easily fall into the "beauty trap" of weight loss chocolate. Recently, the People's Court of Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, concluded a criminal case of selling toxic and harmful food and civil public interest litigation. The defendant Rao was sentenced according to law and was ordered to pay ten times the price of the food as damages.

From April 2020 to December 2022, the defendant Rao purchased bulk weight-loss products such as candies, capsules, and chocolates through an Internet platform, knowing that they were mixed with toxic and harmful non-food raw materials. He then commissioned others to make inner and outer packaging marked with "weight loss" health functions and false product names, manufacturers and other information. After packaging them himself, he sold them to unspecified people in the society through WeChat and other transaction methods, with a total sales amount of more than 720,000 yuan.

After some consumers purchased and consumed slimming chocolate and other products, they experienced adverse symptoms such as increased heart rate, chest tightness, dry mouth, dizziness, and vomiting, and they questioned the defendant Rao. The defendant Rao knew that the slimming chocolate he sold contained contraband, but he claimed that this was caused by the slimming chocolate promoting consumers' metabolism. For example, a consumer once asked "Why do I feel a little dizzy after taking slimming pills?" The defendant Rao replied "The enhanced version makes you lose weight quickly, but consumes a lot of physical energy." Similar physical discomforts were covered up by Rao with excuses such as "stubborn physiques need to use enhanced products" and "anemic physiques affect menstrual periods."

During this period, some consumers realized that banned ingredients had been added to the product, questioned the product and requested testing. The defendant Rao directly asked someone to help forge the test report to dispel consumers' doubts.

After testing, sibutramine was detected in all the weight loss products in this case. Sibutramine is a central nervous system depressant that can reduce weight by reducing appetite and promoting energy consumption. It was once developed as a weight loss drug, but long-term use can cause adverse reactions such as dry mouth, insomnia, diarrhea, increased heart rate, and limb convulsions. In severe cases, it can lead to arrhythmia, hypertension, and even myocardial infarction. As early as 2010, the State Food and Drug Administration announced the suspension of the production, sale, and use of sibutramine preparations and APIs in my country. Sibutramine is included in the "List of Substances that May be Illegally Added to Health Foods (First Batch)" and is a "toxic and harmful non-food raw material" that the state explicitly prohibits from adding. However, because it has the effect of suppressing appetite, some vendors still ignore the ban and take risks, illegally adding such prohibited ingredients to food, and making them into Internet celebrity weight loss products such as weight loss chocolate for profit.

In this case, the defendant Rao was not a first-time offender. On December 26, 2019, he was sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for two years, and fined for the crime of selling counterfeit drugs. According to the defendant Rao's confession, he has been engaged in the micro-business industry such as beauty and skin care, and weight loss for 7 years. He knew that the weight loss chocolate he sold was added with sibutramine and other banned substances, but he still forged the test report to deceive consumers.

On November 8, 2023, the People's Procuratorate of Xiaoshan District filed a public prosecution with the Xiaoshan District Court on suspicion of selling toxic and harmful food, and filed a lawsuit for an ancillary civil public interest lawsuit requiring Rao to apologize and compensate for the losses.

After the trial, the court held that the defendant Rao sold food knowingly mixed with toxic and harmful non-food raw materials, and there were other particularly serious circumstances. His behavior constituted the crime of selling toxic and harmful food. This behavior endangers the personal health and safety of unspecified consumers and damages the public interest. In addition to criminal liability, he should also bear civil compensation liability of ten times the price paid to consumers. Moreover, the defendant Rao committed a new crime during the probation period, and the probation should be revoked, and a judgment should be made for the new crime, and the penalties for the previous crime and the subsequent crime should be imposed together. Taking into account the existence of attempted crimes and truthful confessions, the two crimes were punished together, and the defendant Rao was sentenced to eleven years and three months in prison and a fine of 1.56 million yuan. At the same time, the defendant Rao was sentenced to pay 7,292,179 yuan in public welfare damages and publicly apologized in national media. The judgment is now effective.

Judge reminds <br /> Food safety is related to the health and life safety of the people. Businesses should not produce and sell toxic and harmful food for the sake of petty profits, otherwise they will not only bear criminal responsibility but also civil compensation liability.

The judge also reminded consumers that when buying weight loss health foods, they should not trust the exaggerated claims in advertisements and should buy them through formal channels. Some irregular products not only have no weight loss effect, but may even endanger life and health safety.