Analysis of the economically motivated food adulteration in China based on 6477 events from 2000 to 2020

Abstract

In order to investigate the epidemic characteristics of economically motivated food adulteration (EMA) in China, we analyzed the frequency and/or percentage of parameters of EMAs from 2000 to 2020. A total of 6477 EMAs were collected from a portal based in China and evaluated, the results showed that 69% of the EMAs were identified through supervisions and 95.7% EMAs were discovered in the sale process. The top three specifications of EMA information were listed as follows: the regions were Guangdong, Shandong, and Henan; the fraud means were illegal addition, substitution or dilution, and unqualified hygiene; the food types were meat, vegetable, and fruit. Our findings indicated that supervision of the production process of the main food types is of utmost importance to prevent EMA, according to adulterating phase, fraud means, and adulterer type.