Food Safety Issues In Fast-food Industry In The Context Of Economic Globalization

Just as an old proverb goes on in China,"people regard food as their prime want", it is obvious that food quality is an important part of the measure indicators of quality of life. Food Safety is related to people's quality of life and the economic development and social harmony and stability in a country. The emergence and development of fast-food industry is the result of the accelerating pace of people's lives in the modern society. Fast food has become an important part of diet in daily life, with the increasing specialization development. The fast food industry is going across national boundaries gradually and become a global industry in the process of globalization, especially the Western-style fast food such as KFC and McDonald's occupy the large part of the global market.Recent years, food safety problems occur frequently on a global scale, and the harm is extremely serious, especially in China. Food culture has two thousand years history in China. China has the culinary culture more than two thousand years, therefore, research on the successful experience of Western-style fast food in China is not only useful for grasping the meaningful experience of Western-style fast food which we should learn from and finding the measure to resolve the food problems in China such as food safety, but also good for exploring the valuable suggestions of the development of Chinese fast food with Chinese characteristics. The reasons for China's food safety problems are diverse. Accordingly, to seek the solution to the problem should consider the full range of it:It should be based not only on the local, but also on the whole world; it is necessary not only to consider the corporate social responsibility of the food industry and consumer awareness of food safety, but also to can not ignore the important role of legislation, law enforcement, public opinion, international cooperation, and other factors. In this paper, the theoretical basis is the Global Value Chains theory and Corporate Social Responsibility theory. On the basis of the sample survey on Consumers of Western-style fast-food restaurant in Wuhan City and San Francisco Bay area, the attitudes and behavior of these consumers is surveyed with the Quantitative and qualitative research methods.In the context of global economic integration, food security issues of globalization, this paper argues that food companies should bear the social responsibility in the food safety issues in international comparison. On this basis, this paper is to explore the strategies to the healthy development of China's fast food industry.The study found that:(1) The respondents in Wuhan and the San Francisco Bay Area is not the same on gender composition. The majority of respondents in Wuhan City are women; while the ones in the San Francisco Bay Area are dominated by men.(2) The respondents in Wuhan and the San Francisco Bay Area also showed significant differences in the composition of the age. The majority of respondents in Wuhan City are young people; while most of the ones in San Francisco Bay Area are the middle-aged. This study explains these two differences by introducing the difference between the residents of the two regions on Western-style fast-food dining positioning and labor market gender.(3) In contrast, the consumer in China has initially have food safety knowledge, but nutritionally balanced awareness is still weak; Legal rights awareness needs to be strengthened; This study showed that, the level of education of the balanced has a certain degree of impact on both nutrition awareness and legal rights awareness, combined on binary regression analysis. Both respondents also showed a certain degree of difference on what social responsibility the food enterprises shall bear to deal with food safety issues.On this basis, contacting the background of economic globalization, effective countermeasures of food safety issues are discussed respectively from the end of production and sales, the consumer side and external behavior body, based on the entire food industry value chain perspective. We need not only to be based on the actual situation of the local, but also to look to the global industrial chain to find the food safety issues solutions. At the same time to strive to solve food safety problems in China, we should contribute to the international range of food safety issues. Only in this way, we can look forward to the realization of this "people's livelihood and the bottom line". Finally, several reflections about how to strengthen Chinese fast food security in the context of globalization are supplemented at the end of the article, mainly including:improving access to the food and beverage industry standards; improving bad dining environment and quality of service; contacting local characteristics and fostering international brands.