A Study On The Problem Of Food Safety Information Asymmetry Based On The Investigation Of Consumers Cogniton Level

Objective:Based on the theory of information asymmetry, firstly, through the questionnaire survey, this study learned the consumer’s attention degree for food safety information,cognitive and other aspects. Then, this study analyzed the causes of the problem of food safety information asymmetry from three aspects of food enterprises, consumers and food safety supervision department(government). Finally, some suggestions were put forward to solve the problem of asymmetric information of food safety.Methods:1. Literature review. In this paper, the research status of food safety information asymmetry at home and abroad was studied by using the method of literature research.2. Questionnaire survey. In 2014, by organizing and training some of the students in Shanxi Medical University, the research group conducted a questionnaire survey of food safety related content. The selection principle of the survey object is making Shanxi Province as the center and spreading to the surrounding provinces and cities. Survey objects are 12,000 consumers, covering 23 provinces(municipalities) of the 318 counties(districts), which were determined by accidental sampling.The survey included the basic demographic characteristics, basic issues of food safety,genetically modified food, infant dairy products, special rectification, school canteen food quality certification and food allergens etc. After the pre investigation of 30 consumers in Shuozhou of Shanxi Province, the research group revised the content of questionnaire.After the training, the investigators went to 318 counties(districts) to conduct questionnaire surveys, which was using anonymous fill in the way.In this paper, I used some of the relevant issues about the consumer and food safety basic information and food quality certification informationto to study. The results of the data analysis are only responsible for this survey.3. Data analysis. This article used Epi Data to input the data and used SPSS19.0 toestablish the corresponding database to analyze data.This paper made statistical description by frequency, percentage and other indicators. The influencing factors were analyzed by chi square test.4. Comparative analysis. This paper, by analyzing the causes of the problem of asymmetric information of food safety in our country, compared with foreign advanced national food safety regulatory system and information disclosure of the advantages,experience and weakness.Results:1. The result of questionnaire survey showed that,in the 9719 consumers, 57.6% of them paid attention to food safety information in their daily life, 59.7% of them understood the food quality certification information, 50.1% of them were aware of the concept of "green food",27.5% of them were aware of the food quality certification safety level,78.1% of them in the purchase of food would pay attention to the packaging of food quality certification logo,and consumers’ understanding extent of food quality certification was related to the behavior that they observed the food quality certification logos on the package.2. The reasons for the asymmetric information of the food safety information include the food enterprises themselves reasons, as well as the food production chain is lengthy and complicated. The consumers’ information at a information disadvantage, and because of their own reasons, it is difficult to determine and evaluate the safety of food. Food safety supervision department of food safety information disclosure mechanism and traceability mechanism is weak.Conclusions:To improve the food safety supervision system, to exert government function, to emphasizing the role of the third party organizations in society, forming a good social governance mechanism, to framework for the concept of food safety information cloud platform.