China will punish the production and sale of unsafe food products more harshly to combat increasingly severe food scandals, judicial authorities said on May 3.

The Supreme People's Court (SPC) and the Supreme People's Procuratorate have issued judicial interpretations that specify crimes related to food safety and set standards for the punishment of these crimes, SPC spokesman Sun Jungong told a press conference.

Some 2,088 people were punished between 2010 and 2012 in 1,533 food safety cases. The number of such cases grew exponentially in the three years.

According to the Criminal Law, there are two basic charges of undermining food safety. The first is producing and selling food that fails to meet the safety standards, and the second is producing and selling poisonous and hazardous food. But the charges should meet the important conditions of "enough to cause serious food poisoning and other food-borne diseases."