The Study Of Consumers’ Response To Food Safety Incident

Food safety is closely related to people’s health as well as the sound development of the food industry. However, hazards in food safety can be found everywhere. Even the most stringent and costly regulation cannot guarantee100%safety of food. Food safety incidents causing danger and serious impact take place both home and abroad, such as the Mad Cow Incident, the Foot-and-mouth Disease, the Avian Influenza Incident, the Poisonous Cucumber Incident in Germany, and the recent Melamine Incident in China. So it is an important part of the food safety regulation study to know how to deal with the impact of the food safety incidents.The impact of food safety incidents on consumers is mainly reflected in three aspects:(1) consumers get more aware of the hazards in food safety and get into a panic;(2) consumers have lost confidence in administration and enterprises;(3) consumers take measures to avoid the hazards in food safety and there appears a fierce fluctuation in the food market. Accordingly, in order to deal with the impact of food safety incidents successfully, we should stimulate food consumption as well as reduce consumers’concerns about food safety hazards.There are serious problems in the policies in China of dealing with the impact of the food safety incidents. As a result, consumers are in a state of panic following the incidents and have little confidence in administration and enterprises, and the recovery witnessed in the food market is quite slow. In a word, the study of consumers’response to food safety incidents is of great significance to the formulation of policies dealing with the impact.Taking the Melamine Incident as an instance and based on the data collected from the post-incident questionnaire, this study aims to analyze how consumers’ response to food safety incidents is influenced by their awareness of and confidence in food safety, how their awareness and confidence changes after the occurrence of food safety incidents, and which factors are imposing an influence upon consumers’ awareness, confidence and response, so as to propose effective suggestions to the policies of reducing consumers’concerns, maintaining their confidence and stabilizing the food market. The key points and conclusions of the study are as follows: Analysis of how consumers’response to food safety incidents is influenced by their awareness of and confidence in food safety. According to existing theories, people’s behavior is determined by their intention, which under emergencies is mainly influenced by their awareness of risks and sense of control. Family characteristics, knowledge of risks and the sense of control are key factors that influence the awareness of risks:those who have a higher estimation of the danger of risks as well as the uncertainty of dangers would be more aware of risks; those who have a strong sense of control, which is based on the long-term trust, would be less aware. Those who are more aware of risks tend to take measures.Description of how consumers’ awareness and confidence changes after the occurrence of food safety incidents. According to the statistics, the urban consumers of Nanjing city now have a long-term concern about the quality of dairy products, and they don’t have much confidence in administration and enterprises. Compared with half a year ago before the Melamine Incident took place, consumers now have a negative view of dairy products and are more concerned about the quality of home-made products. However, they still examine the causes and impacts of the Incident in such a rational way that the recovery of dairy product consumption is on the way. Also, consumers’confidence in administration and enterprises is at a low level. There is a lack of confidence among them in the capability of administration in dealing with food safety hazards, the sense of responsibility of regulation departments as well as the information of food safety released by the government; and they deeply doubt the effectiveness of enterprises’ quality control measures and the validity of the information given. Besides, consumers don’t quite believe in the information on TV, Internet and other media, which signifies that the food market in China now is stuck in a crisis of confidence. In three years after the Melamine Incident, the negative impact of the Incident on the food market still exists. The administration should take the current situation into full account and reevaluate the effectiveness of the emergency response mechanism for food safety incidents.Study of the factors imposing an influence upon consumers’ awareness of food safety risks. The study has found out that, consumers’ attitudes towards the quality of dairy products are influenced by their educational attainment, knowledge of the incident, their awareness of the government’s response, and the attitude towards the quality of alternative products. The influence of different factors varies in direction and extent. To be specific, a higher level of educational attainment, more knowledge of the incident and the approval for the government’s response will reduce the concern about the product quality. Those who have a long-concern about food safety will be more vulnerable. The study of the factors points out that even if the consumers forget about the food safety incidents, their concern might not be reduced accordingly and the frequent occurrence of food safety incidents will make them more concerned.Study of the factors imposing an influence upon consumers’confidence. According to the statistics, the Melamine Incident witnessed a dramatic drop of consumers’ confidence in food safety, and they don’t have confidence in the inspection-free and brand-name products as before, which means that the Incident has imposed a quite negative influence. The quantitative analysis in the study reveals that before the Incident, consumers’confidence in food safety was mainly influenced by the confidence in mechanisms and the capability of administration, which is no longer a key factor after the Incident. After the Melamine Incident, the response of the government and enterprises becomes the most important factor, while the income, family structure and educational attainment of consumers also impose an influence.Study of the factors imposing an influence upon consumers’ response. The Incident makes the consumers worried about the quality of dairy products. As a result, most of them take such measures as reduce the amount of consumption and shift to other brands to avoid the risks. According the quantitative analysis, consumers’consumption decisions are influenced by the factors of their awareness of risks, gender and income. Besides, their consumption behavior varies at different periods after the Incident took place. Further analysis of the factors points out that, consumers’ confidence in administration, knowledge of the Incident and the amount of time they spend on investigation all have an influence on their awareness of food safety risks.In the end, the paper proposes suggestions to the policies in China of dealing with food safety incidents. First, information and intervention aimed at different consumers can reduce the over-estimated risks among them. Secondly, with the improvement of the regulation mechanisms and the protection and introduction of home-made products, the organizations protecting consumers’interests can be established, so is consumers’ confidence in regulation departments and food manufactories. By doing so, they will get more confident in the quality of home-made food. Thirdly, based on consumers’psychology of avoiding risks after food safety incidents, the administration can give reports of enterprises with high-quality products while exposing those illegal manufactories, so as to avoid the crisis in the whole food industry.