Abstract: Novel derivative-type food crimes involve the structural modification of existing toxic or harmful substances to produce chemical variants that fall outside administrative catalogues, yet remain substantively identical to the prototype substances in pharmacological functions, toxicological mechanisms, and health risks, thereby rendering the traditional determination model inadequate. In response, under the principle of legality, criminal justice should adopt a substantive interpretation of “toxic or harmful non-food raw materials” that accords with the purpose of protecting legal interests, and establish a substantive determination standard for such crimes centered on “functional and harmful equivalence”. At the institutional level, the statutory transformation of the “Three-Document Model” should be promoted, alongside the construction of a dynamic category-based public notice mechanism and a coordinated administrative-judicial governance framework, to ensure the stable operation of the substantive determination standard in judicial practice.

Key words: crimes of producing and selling toxic and harmful foods; novel derivatives; substantive determination; functional and harmful equivalence; principle of legality