BEIJING - Public complaints about food and medicine hit 770,000 last year in China, an increase of 36.94 percent over the previous year, according to figures released by the complaint center of the China Food and Drug Administration on Thursday.

Complaints about regular food, accounting for 78.16 percent of registered cases, rose 64.82 percent year on year, while complaints involving medicine and health food accounted for 10.5 percent and 5.12 percent respectively of the total, according to the center.

The complaints were mainly for production or operation without a license, selling substandard or fake products, fraudulent advertising and irregular labeling. Complaints were especially common against those selling online or via WeChat and other mobile phone applications.

The center's director Lyu Fuquan attributed the high proportion of food-related complaints to the importance of food in daily life, problems in the operation of small eateries and food vendors, and the variety and relatively low-tech nature of the food industry.

"Public tip-offs, which led to the discovery of more than half of the major cases investigated, have become a major channel for cracking down on illegal activities," Lyu said, vowing more rewards for whistleblowers in the future.