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Numerous food fraud (FF) problems have been identified in China's rejected imported foods. However, a limited number of studies have been conducted on this area. We studied rejected imported foods involving FF in China in 2009–2019, focusing on the country of origin, port of entry, food category, fraudulent method, and adulterated substances. The definition of FF in this study centers on the intrinsic state of foods due to the difficulty in making a rigorous judgment on the subjective intentionality of rejected imported foods. The results of our study were as follows: 1) 30.35% (8722/28744) of all rejected imported foods involved FF; 2) rejected imported foods involving FF came from 112 countries and regions, with Taiwan province of China, Japan, and the United States ranking the top three; 3) the ports of entry of these foods were distributed in 24 provinces, of which Shanghai (29.07%), Fujian (15.93%), and Guangdong (15.57%) were the top three; 4) processed foods accounted for the highest proportion of FF (87.70%), followed by edible agricultural products (12.30%), and the specific food categories mainly included drinks (14.77%), candy products (9.11%), cookies (7.74%), meat and offal (7.14%), pastries (5.91%), tea and its products (5.17%), condiments (5.02%), alcoholic (5.01%); 5) artificially enhanced (41.07%), missing/inappropriate certificates (35.28%), and illegal imports (22.21%) were the main FF types; 6) food additives, prohibited veterinary drugs, non-edible substances, and low-cost substitutes were the main adulterants. Given that smuggled foods were not in the rejected imported food samples, FF in this part of imported food was not included in the scope of this paper. The results of this study help to grasp the characteristics of the FF problem of imported foods in China and provide a reference for its prevention and control.

National food safety and sample inspection is important for the discovery of food safety problems in China. Due to increases in sample quantity since 2014, many food fraud (FF) problems, such as lean meat essence and malachite green added, have been identified through sample inspections. To gain insights into the current situation of FF, we studied failed samples involved FF identified through sample inspection from 2014 to July 2018. The regional distribution, food categories, food sampling sites, FF types and adulterated substances of these samples were analyzed. Unlike many studies, the definition of FF in this study focused on the intrinsic state of the food rather than the subjective intent of the behavior. Unintentional FF might occur due to lack of knowledge, facilities or resources. The results showed the following: 1) of the 26,708 batches of failed samples, 17.98% involved FF; 2) the failed samples that involved FF were sampled and produced in more than 30 provinces, and Hubei, Shandong and Sichuan were the top three providences; 3) the failed samples involving FF were mainly found in circulation links, which accounted for 63.99% of the failed samples; and 4) processed foods exhibited the highest rate of failed samples involving FF. The subcategories of food involving FF mainly included (i) alcohol, (ii) aquatic products, (iii) eggs, (iv) processed aquatic products, and (v) pastries, which accounted for 17.91%, 13.47%, 5.46%, 5.19%, and 5.12% of failed samples involving FF, respectively. 5) In addition, artificial enhancement was identified as the major FF type, accounting for 99.79% of failed samples involving FF. 6) Food additives and banned veterinary drugs were the major adulterated substances, accounting for 87.79% of all adulterations in failed samples involving FF. The results of this study might not be completely consistent with the actual situation of FF because sample inspection is limited by the current test items and sampling range. The results of this study are helpful for understanding the current situation and characteristics of FF, updating the FF database, and providing a reference for the prevention and control of FF in China.