The Drug and Food Monitoring Agency (BPOM) and the Attorney General's Office (AGO) have said violations against food and drugs safety standards are "high-priority cases" that demand special treatment.

BPOM head of investigations Halim Nababan said in Jakarta on Wednesday the public could breath a sigh of relief as the AGO would demand heavier punishments in cases taken to court.

"Both the BPOM and the AGO made the decision because crimes against the safety of foodstuffs could endanger the lives of millions of people," Halim said in a discussion held by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

According to the BPOM, food and drugs safety violations include selling expired packaged food; unregistered imported food products; packaged food containing dangerous chemicals as well as forging packaged food permits.

In the past, such crimes lay under the jurisdiction of local prosecutor's offices and were categorized as petty crimes, resulting in lenient sentences, Halim said.

"As of April this year, the AGO started to handle such crimes, with the attorney general himself monitoring all incoming cases," he said.

"With the new categorization, violations against food safety will be treated similarly to crimes like corruption and money laundering that carry heavier punishments," he added.

According to Halim, any violation could result in a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment and/or a fine of Rp 600 million (US$65,574).

"While in the past, the convicts paid only Rp 50,000 or spent months in jail, now the prosecutors will demand heavier punishments for them," he said.

He said the number of cases had reached into the thousands, but that only dozens has gone to the court.

The BPOM recorded that only 49 cases went to trial in 2005, 19 in 2006 and nine in 2007.

"(The low numbers are) also due to poor coordination among the BPOM, the police and prosecutors. We often failed to gather enough evidence to bar the perpetrators," Halim said.

He also said the new categorization would speed up investigations.

"Now, the investigations will be high-priority. I can say that before, we spent years just on one case, without any guarantee the punishments would satisfy the public," Halim said.

Most violations against food and drugs safety involve home-industry players and small-scale producers, said Endang Sutriswati, a researcher of food technology and agriculture products at Gadjah Mada University.