The Impacts of Urbanization and Dietary Knowledge on Seaweed Consumption in China.

Jingsi Peng,Shi Min,Minda Yang,Ping Qing

doi:10.3390/foods10061373

Abstract

Edible seaweed, a nutrient-rich and sustainable food, has a long dietary history in China. To get a better understanding of the seaweed consumption of consumers in China, this study investigates the quantity and trend of seaweed consumption of Chinese residents and employs a Tobit model to examine the effects of urbanization and dietary knowledge on seaweed consumption among residents. The results show an increasing trend of household seaweed consumption in China, including both seaweeds consumed at home (SAH) and seaweeds consumed away from home (SAFH). Households in urban areas consumed more seaweeds on average than those in rural areas. Urbanization promotes total household seaweed consumption, including SAH and SAFH, whilst dietary knowledge has a significantly positive impact on total household seaweed consumption and SAH. The findings supplement empirical evidence on the seaweed consumption behavior of Chinese residents and have important policy implications for further promoting Chinese seaweeds consumption in the context of urbanization and increasing dietary knowledge.

Highlights

Seaweed, as a sustainable marine plant, has great potential to help achieve SDGs, such reducing the ecological footprint, eliminating hunger, and helping with food security under the pressure of resource and environment
Based on the established econometric models controlling for the characteristics of household food decision makers and the fixed effects of year and province, this study empirically examined the impacts of urbanization and dietary knowledge on total seaweed consumption (TS), seaweed consumed at home (SAH), and seaweed consumed away from home (SAFH)
The results show that the key variables D, urbanization development index (UDI), and dietary knowledge index (DKI) always have significant and positive effects on TS regardless of controlling for any other variables

Summary

Introduction

As a sustainable marine plant, has great potential to help achieve SDGs (sustainable development goals), such reducing the ecological footprint, eliminating hunger, and helping with food security under the pressure of resource and environment. Seaweed mainly grows in coastal cities, so there are certain regional differences in consumption [5,6], but the development of urbanization provides market conditions for the settlement of differences. It is of great significance to explore whether dietary knowledge can improve residents’ seaweed consumption. As an important marine plant, seaweed may contribute to improving food security in coastal areas. Given the above potential benefits of seaweed, it will be of positive significance to explore the seaweed consumption of residents

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion