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the state administration for market regulation and the ministry of finance issued an announcement on rewarding whistleblowers within food production and operation enterprises:

in order to encourage employees of food production and operation enterprises and the general public to actively participate in social supervision, further play the role of social co-governance, and promptly discover and effectively control food quality and safety risks, in accordance with the "food safety law of the people's republic of china" and its implementing regulations, the following announcement is hereby made on the implementation of the internal reporting reward system for food production and operation enterprises.

1. this announcement shall apply to the rewards given by market supervision and management departments to internal whistleblowers who report in their real names the illegal food quality and safety behaviors of enterprises.

2. the term "internal whistleblower" as used in this announcement includes internal personnel and relevant insiders of food production and operation enterprises and third-party online food trading platform providers (hereinafter collectively referred to as enterprises). internal personnel refer to personnel who have signed labor contracts with enterprises; relevant insiders refer to personnel who have terminated their labor contracts with enterprises within one year, have business relations with enterprises, and are temporarily employed by enterprises.

3. market supervision and management departments shall make public the relevant provisions on reward for reporting, open up reporting channels, and guide enterprises to publicize them in prominent locations at their production and operation sites. internal whistleblowers can report the illegal food quality and safety behaviors of enterprises to market supervision and management departments at all levels through the internet, telephone, fax, mailing address, window and other channels announced by market supervision and management departments for receiving reports.

4. after receiving a report from an internal whistleblower, the market supervision and administration department shall promptly conduct an investigation and verification in accordance with the relevant provisions of the interim measures for handling complaints and reports on market supervision and administration (order no. 61 of the state administration for market regulation), and inform the internal whistleblower whether to file a case. the market supervision and administration department may, based on the needs of the case investigation, invite the internal whistleblower to assist in the investigation after obtaining his or her consent.

5. after the market supervision and management department responsible for the investigation and handling makes a final decision on the handling, if the report is verified to be true, the internal whistleblower who meets the reward conditions shall be rewarded. the source of reward funds, reward conditions, reward standards and reward procedures shall be implemented in accordance with the relevant provisions of the "interim measures for rewarding reports of major illegal acts in the field of market supervision" (guo shi jian ji gui [2021] no. 4, hereinafter referred to as the "measures"). in addition to material rewards, spiritual rewards such as commendation announcements, issuance of honorary certificates, and awarding of honorary titles may be implemented with the consent of the internal whistleblower. if the same internal whistleblower reports the same illegal act, no duplicate rewards will be given.

6. if the clues of food quality and safety violations provided by internal whistleblowers to the market supervision and management departments are highly concealed, highly harmful, and have a wide social impact, or if they avoid major food quality and safety violations, eliminate major food quality and safety hazards, or assist in investigating and handling major food quality and safety violations and crimes, the market supervision and management departments responsible for investigation and handling may appropriately increase the reward standards with the consent of the financial department of the people's government at the same level. the upper limit of the reward amount for each case shall be implemented in accordance with the relevant provisions of the measures.

7. market supervision and management departments shall optimize and simplify the review and issuance process of reward funds to reduce unnecessary personal information of internal whistleblowers. internal whistleblowers shall cooperate in providing necessary personal information such as real identity documents, effective contact information, and proof of employment relationship with the enterprise. if internal whistleblowers have special requirements for the reward issuance method, they can be considered as appropriate.

8. market supervision and management departments shall strengthen the protection of personal information of internal whistleblowers in accordance with the relevant provisions of the measures. without the consent of the internal whistleblower, the identity information, reporting content, reporting rewards and other related information shall not be disclosed in any way.

9. enterprises shall not retaliate against internal whistleblowers by terminating or changing labor contracts or by other means. if the above behaviors occur, they shall bear corresponding responsibilities according to law; if they are suspected of committing a crime, they shall be held criminally liable according to law.

10. internal whistleblowers are responsible for the authenticity of their reports and shall not provide false or forged evidence, misreport the case, or interfere with the handling of the case. those who forge materials, conceal facts, or maliciously report or falsify to obtain reward funds will be strictly dealt with in accordance with article 23 of the measures.

11. enterprises should establish an internal food quality and safety risk mitigation system in combination with the "daily control, weekly investigation, and monthly scheduling" work mechanism, and encourage internal personnel to proactively discover and actively reflect food quality and safety risk hazards. the main person in charge of the enterprise, the food safety director, and the food safety officer shall implement the food safety management responsibilities, and promptly determine and verify the food quality and safety risk issues reported by internal personnel. for those that are verified to be true, the enterprise shall promptly make rectifications, and may give certain rewards to internal personnel who reflect food quality and safety risk issues as appropriate.

12. this announcement shall be implemented from the date of its release, and rewards for reports made by internal personnel of other food producers and operators and relevant insiders may be implemented accordingly.