Food safety concerns in urban China: Consumer preferences for pig process attributes. (February 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cicia, Gianni; Caracciolo, Francesco; Cembalo, Luigi; Del Giudice, Teresa; Grunert, Klaus G.; Krystallis, Athanasios; Lombardi, Pasquale; Zhou, Yanfeng
• Is Part Of: Food control. Volume 60(2016:Feb.)
• Page Start: 166
• Page End: 173
• Publication Date: 2016-02
• Subjects: Chinese consumers -- Pig farming -- Contingent experiment; Food -- Quality -- Periodicals; Food -- Analysis -- Periodicals; Food handling -- Periodicals; Food industry and trade -- Quality control -- Periodicals; Aliments -- Industrie et commerce -- Qualité -- Contrôle -- Périodiques; Aliments -- Qualité -- Périodiques; Aliments -- Analyse -- Périodiques; Hygiène alimentaire -- Périodiques; Food -- Analysis; Food handling; Food -- Quality; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 664.07
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodcont.2015.07.012
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0956-7135

Abstract

Abstract: This study examines Chinese urban consumers' preferences for pig process attributes related to food safety. A consumer survey was conducted on 479 participants randomly selected in the cities of Nanjing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Changchun, Beijing and Guangzhou. The field survey was restricted to two kinds of retailing: supermarkets and local markets. The questionnaire included a contingent experiment to evaluate five different attributes of pig production processes, including food safety effort, stocking density as proxies of animal welfare, meat taste, origin of breeds and quality. Through a panel mixed logit model we found that respondents were highly sensitive to food safety albeit with heterogeneous preferences. Such heterogeneity is partially explained by socio-demographic variables. Our study suggests that very poor families living in smaller cities are those most concerned about food safety in urban China. Highlights: Our results show that Chinese consumers are highly sensitive to food safety albeit with heterogeneous preferences. Such heterogeneity could be explained by socio-demographic variables. Our study suggests that very poor families living in smaller cities are those most concerned about food safety in China.