Abstract:

The frequent occurrence of food safety incidents has indicated the failure of food safety governance focused on
administrative and criminal liability. The economic nature of civil liability has a natural advantage that can mobilize consumers
to participate in social governance of food safety. Sufficiently high civil liability and compensation may not only protect
the interests of victims but make illegal business operators unprofitable as well, thus eliminating the motives for illegal business
operations and essentially solving the problem of the frequency of food safety incidents. Civil liability can be made
dominant in solving food safety problems by perfecting the systems of punitive damages and claiming compensation from
the market operator in the absence of the business operator in China and solving the problem of civil liability for false advertising.
In addition, the public interest litigation system needs to be perfected and it is necessary to implement the reversal of
the burden of proof in food safety claims and lawsuits so as to make it easier for consumers to fulfill the burden of proof.

Key words: food safety, social governance, punitive damages, claiming compensation from the market operator in the absence of the business operator, public interest litigation