A woman who sold slimming pills containing a banned ingredient was sentenced to one and half years behind bars and fined 250,000 yuan (US$35,971) by Hongkou District People’s Court yesterday.

The diet product distributed by Zhang Wuyi, 32, contained sibutramine, an appetite suppressant that has been banned in China since 2010 because it may trigger strokes or heart attacks.

Zhang sold pills worth nearly 24,800 yuan to more than 380 customers across the country in less than six months.

The case was also the city’s first public interest lawsuit concerning food and drug safety.

Under the public interest ruling, within 30 days Zhang must make an apology on state-level media and pay the state 248,000 yuan, 10 times the amount she received for the pills sold, as reparations to the state for potential harm done.

Zhang set up a company in Guangzhou in March 2017, bought the pills from other manufacturers, repackaged them under the brand Aosikang, and resold them via online stores and through other retailers.

Her crime came to light when a customer in Shanghai felt unwell after taking her product and reported the matter to the police.

Her warehouse was raided in July, 2017 and nearly 430,000 pills were discovered by police and seized. More than 70 percent of them were found to contain sibutramine.

Zhang and her workers did not wear gloves or masks when repackaging the medications, a practice which does not meet the even most basic production standards for this kind of item, according to the court.