Cheap Capitalism: A Sociological Study of Food Crime in China

This article reports on an archival analysis of cases and policy documents in China and a survey and oral interviews with food safety regulators, food industry members, consumer organization representatives, food safety observers and scholars in Zhejiang province of China, on the nature and extent of food crime, the composition of offenders and factors associated with food crime. Results indicate that the prevalence of food crime occurs in the context of ‘cheap capitalism’, which is characterized by low price, inferior quality of products and degraded social morality and business ethics. A closer interaction among government, industry and academia, forming a triple helix, is playing an increasingly significant role in causing food crime.