Urban Consumer Trust and Food Certifications in China.

Roberta Moruzzo,Yaojia Tang,Francesco Riccioli,Fabio Boncinelli,Jinjin Zhao,Alessandra Guidi,Tommaso Massai,Lara Tinacci,Zhaozhong Zhang

doi:10.3390/foods9091153

Roberta Moruzzo, Yaojia Tang + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9091153

Copy DOI

Abstract

China has experienced frequent food safety incidents that have undermined consumer trust in the food supply chain. To overcome this problem, China requalified the legislative framework and adopted a comprehensive food certification system over the years. Here, we investigated the influences of food traceability and Chinese certifications (QS/SC—food quality safety market access/production system, hazard-free, green, and organic) on Chinese consumer trust of food safety for different types of products: fish, meat, milk, eggs, and rice. Data were collected through face-to-face surveys conducted in rural and urban Chinese areas. With a sample of 757 questionnaires, we ran a logit model. The results show consumers’ uncertainty and skepticism of certifications guaranteeing food safety attributes, especially for animal-based products. We found that price is used as a cue of safety by Chinese consumers. Individuals with higher education seem less influenced by certifications and other cues included in the analysis. The findings demonstrate that Chinese policy makers should implement new strategies to enhance consumer food safety trust, and design policies by considering different categories (e.g., vegetables, meat, fish, etc.) of food.

Highlights

The fast development of the Chinese food industry has been accompanied by frequent food safety incidents [1,2] that have undermined consumer trust in food safety [3,4,5,6] and have limited the international reputation of the Chinese food industry [7,8,9,10,11,12]
We investigated the determinants of food safety perception of Chinese consumers
We examined the role of food certifications to better understand consumer awareness of their existence and consumer preferences for food safety information attributes

Summary

Introduction

The fast development of the Chinese food industry has been accompanied by frequent food safety incidents [1,2] that have undermined consumer trust in food safety [3,4,5,6] and have limited the international reputation of the Chinese food industry [7,8,9,10,11,12]. To enhance consumer trust in food, in 2003, the Chinese government introduced the food quality safety market access system (QS system), meaning “authorized manufacturing for enterprises”, which is the industrial product manufacturing license. After applying for this license can food enterprises be allowed to enter the market for processing or trading [16]. System [17], which was released by the government. These licenses consist of the letters SC followed by 14-digit numbers providing information about the product and the producers. To indicate QS/SC licensing, we only use “SC” in this paper. This change in policy emphasized the responsibilities of enterprises in ensuring food safety instead of government regulation

Methods

Results

Conclusion