Chinese Urban Consumer’s Perception of Food-Safety Indicators

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Chinese Urban Consumer’s Perception of Food-Safety Indicators

Journal Title: Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research (BJSTR) - Year 2019, Vol 19, Issue 3

Abstract

Households in 10 Chinese cities were asked to rank six food-safety indicators (venue, appearance, brand, certification, expiration date, and price) in importance for five food groups including meat, milk, vegetables, fruit, and juice. The results suggest that different food-safety factors are important for different commodities. Consistent patterns are found in terms of which factor had the first and second highest probabilities of being chosen as the most important food-safety indicator within food categories. Venue and expiration date are the most important factors for meat, expiration date and brand for milk and juice, and price and venue for vegetables and fruits. Certification was not ranked as the number one or number two indicator of food safety for any of the five goods suggesting that either the household consumers do not trust the certifications or are not aware of the meanings of the certification labels.Food safety incidents in China have ignited demand for safer food and increased regulation of food products by the Chinese government [1,2]. In Chinese news are reports of sales of pork adulterated with the drug clenbuterol; pork sold as beef after being soaked in borax; rice contaminated with cadmium; arsenic-laced soy sauce; popcorn and mushrooms treated with fluorescent bleach; bean sprouts tainted with an animal antibiotic; and wine diluted with sugared water and chemicals. Even eggs have turned out not to be eggs at all but man-made concoctions of chemicals, gelatin and paraffin [3]. In the first half of 2012, China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce detected over 15,000 cases of inferior foods and closed over 5,700 unlicensed food businesses [4]. In response to these incidents as well as others, the Chinese government revised the 2009 food safety law to impose stricter controls and supervision of food production and management [5]. However, while some progress had been made, the head of China’s Food and Drug Administration reported there were over 500,000 food safety violations during the first 9 months of 2016 [6]. Given the prevalence of food safety incidents and violations as well as consumer’s increasing concern over the safety of their food, what do consumers perceive as indicators of safe foods? Do consumers perceive that food purchased at large supermarkets is safer than that from traditional wet markets? Do they trust their ability to evaluate the appearance of products? Does government certification of food safety matter? Do certain brands elicit trust in the safety of their products? Does an expiration date on the product matter? In this paper, how consumers perceive indicators of safety for meat, milk, fruit, vegetables, and juice products and how the importance of these indicators vary with economic and demographic variables are analyzed. The analysis uses a unique data set developed from a series of household surveys conducted in 10 cities in China. As part of the surveys, respondents were asked to rank in order of importance their perceived top indicators of food safety among purchase venue, certification, brand, price, appearance, and expiration date for meat, milk, fruit, vegetable and juice.The results suggest that the top indicator of food safety as perceived by the Chinese consumers varies by food product. Venue is the top indicator of safety for meat, date milk. Price for vegetables and fruit, and both brand and date for juices. The results also suggest that economic growth, as well as demographic and education trends, will likely increase the extent to which consumers use these indicators to determine the safety of these five foods in the future.

Authors and Affiliations

Thomas I Wahl, James L Seale, Junfei Bai

Keywords

EP ID EP621811
DOI 10.26717/BJSTR.2019.19.003309
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