A study on fraud of meat foods in China market: based on 1987 supervision and sampling inspection, import inspection and media reports

Abstract Economically motivated adulteration and food fraud (EMA / FF) is intentional conduct for economic gain, which have aroused great concern all over the world. Meat adulteration or fraud is one of the problems with the highest proportion in relevant cases, many food fraud problems have been found to occur frequently in meat products in China and abroad in recent ten years. Our research compilated 1,987 pieces of information on meat fraud and adulteration recorded by official circular information and media reports in China since 2012 to 2021, based on which we created a meat food fraud risk information database. The data covered fresh and frozen livestock, poultry, and various processed products. We conducted a summary analysis of EMA adulteration and fraud incidents by researching on fraudulent methods, types of contaminants, adulterated ingredients, involved foods and categories, risk links and sites, etc. The findings can be used not only to analyze meat food safety situations and study the burden of food fraud, but also help to promote the efficiency of detection and rapid screening, along with improving prevention and regulation of adulteration in the meat supply chain markets.