Objective To investigate the contamination of food-borne pathogens in catering food in Anhui province,so as to provide scientific basis for control and prevention of food-borne pathogens and monitoring of catering food. Methods According to the "requirements of sample collection and detection in food safety risk monitoring program of Anhui Province from 2016 to 2018",1314 samples of 9 kinds of catering food were collected from 2016 to 2018.Bacillus cereus,Staphylococcus aureus,Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella were detected in each food sample,and the detection rate of pathogenic bacteria was analyzed. Results A total of 1 314 catering food samples were detected,and the total detection rate of food-borne pathogens was 9.44%.The difference in detection rate of different years have statistically significant (χ²=19.344,P＜0.001).The detection rate of Bacillus cereus was 7.84% which was the highest among 4 food-borne pathogens,the detection rate of Salmonella was 0.38%,which was the lowest.The detection rate of box lunch was 18.64% which was the highest among difference catering food.The detection rate of Bacillus cereus in box lunch was found to be the highest (16.95%),the detection rate of Staphylococcus aureus in Chinese salad was the highest (1.88%),the detection rate of Listeria monocytogenes in sushi was the highest (3.39%),and the detection rate of Salmonella in hot dishes was the highest (0.95%).The detection rate of food-borne pathogens in online store was the highest (17.25%) among all of the different sampling locations,and the detection rate of fast food restaurant/snack bar/dinking shop was 2.00%,which was the lowest. Conclusion The results showed that food-borne pathogens contamination in catering food with varying degrees were existed in Anhui,so hygienic supervision on catering food should be strengthened to prevent the occurrence of food-borne diseases.