This study addresses the widespread issues of "substituting fines for criminal penalties" and "imbalance in sentencing" in the punishment of food safety crimes. It delves into the root cause, which lies in the critical gap between the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China and the Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China. This study first highlights the specific manifestations of the poor connection between the two laws. Firstly, the misalignment of the crime classification system results in some serious food safety violations not being accurately categorized under the appropriate criminal charges. Secondly, the conflict in legal terminology leads to ambiguities and inconsistencies in defining key concepts, affecting the uniformity of legal application. Thirdly, the imbalance in the allocation of penalties is evident in the overly broad range of statutory penalties and the lack of clear gradation, failing to accurately match the severity of the criminal acts and the perpetrator's malice. Additionally, the absence of targeted punitive measures, such as disqualification penalties, significantly weakens the deterrent effect of the law. To address these issues, this study proposes systematic recommendations for optimizing the penalty gradient, reconstructing the crime classification system to tighten the criminal law net and ensure accurate characterization of harmful acts, refining the penalty gradient by scientifically setting a clear and balanced range of statutory penalties based on the nature of the act, its consequences, and the perpetrator's subjective elements, and introducing disqualification penalties and punitive compensation systems to enhance the deterrent effect through the deprivation of reoffending ability and economic penalties.