Abstract: The legal liability system in Food Safety Law of the PRC, influenced by the theoretical paradigm of the branch law of Chinese mainland, presents a pattern in which the civil law, the criminal law and the administrative law are separated from each other, and the legal liability of the three branch laws, in practice keeps the same pattern. Such a pattern, however, as for food risk bearing both positive and negative significance, is difficult to maintain the best deterrent effect of liability. The rule of law in food safety, from the perspective of functionalism of risk regulation, is by no means a rule of law in which public and private laws are opposed, but cooperate, and branch laws do not interfere, but link, with each other, thus avoiding the double risks of insufficient or excessive deterrence. The linkage mechanism of the liability of the three branch laws in the food risk should be built from the following aspects: the unification of the value goal of the legal liability system, the echo of the constituent elements, the coordination of the way to take over the liability, and the interaction of the liability implementation procedures.

Key words: food risk, risk regulation, responsibility deterrence, Food Safety Law of the PRC, branch law linkage