Celebrities in China are grumpy about the country’s new food safety law, which was approved by Parliament on 28 February.

One of the regulations says individuals who recommend food in advertisements are legally liable for damages if the product is later found to be unsafe. Celebrities are widely believed to be directly targeted by the provision, Xinhua reports.

Feng Xiaogang, the movie director famed for hit films such as “The Banquet” (2006), tells Xinhua he thinks the rule is “unfair”, and that many celebrities are concerned about it.

“I won’t advertise for any food product any more,” Ni Ping, a well-known television presenter, told press at a session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body with many celebrity members (SciDev.net). Ni has taken flak for advertising chestnut juice made by Sanlu, the now-bankrupt state-owned company at the heart of last year’s scandal involving melamine-tainted milk.

A Chinese actor, Chen Daoming, says Ni is responding more to “the unjustified criticism she has received than to the new regulation”. Still, it does seem unreasonable, as Feng points out, to punish even those stars who have checked for quality certification on the foods they endorse, if that certification later turns out to be unfounded.

Not every star is complaining. “Celebrities are public figures and they have social responsibilities,” said Jiang Kun, a xiangsheng (crosstalk) artist (Xinhua). “Since celebrities enjoy many privileges and have vast social influence, they should behave themselves,” he adds.

The food safety law itself goes into effect on 1 June this year, and calls for a raft of new measures: an enhanced monitoring system, tough penalties for offenders, a food recall system, and a new national food safety commission.

The commission may help coordinate a previously disjointed regulatory approach, under which 13 Chinese government departments had a hand in food safety. But the deputy director of China’s National Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety, Wu Yongning, says at least five government departments will still remain heavily involved. He told USA Today that the new law was an opportunity lost to create a single powerful body to handle food safety, akin to the US Food and Drug Administration.

“At present, China’s food security situation remains grim, with high risks and contradictions popping out,” AP reports China’s health ministry saying in a news release on 1 March.