Consumer Preferences for Traceable Food with Different Functions of Safety Information Attributes: Evidence from a Menu-Based Choice Experiment in China

Abstract

It is of great value to study consumer demand for safe foods in promoting the development of a safe food market system and the reduction of food safety risks, as well as foodborne diseases in China. This paper takes traceable pork as an example and constructs food safety information attributes with ex ante quality verification and ex post traceability. Interactions between safety information attributes and the consumer’s response to cost-driven price changes were investigated for 345 consumers in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, China, using a menu-based choice (MBC) experiment and multivariate probit (MVP) model as analysis tools. The results suggest that food safety information attributes are important to consumers, as the consumers preferred pork quality inspection attributes to pre-incident quality assurance functions. Therefore, it is beneficial to include pork quality inspection attributes in the traceable pork attribute systems during the initial construction of traceable pork markets in China. Attribute price was an important factor that affected consumers’ choice of information attributes. When customization cannot be achieved, a profile composed of elastic pork quality inspection attribute and supply chain–internal traceability attribute would be the most preferred traceable pork product in the market based on the need of building a fully functional traceable food system and reducing food safety risks. In addition, there was a strong substitution relationship between different information attributes, and there was heterogeneity in consumers’ choice of information attributes. Therefore, the government should support manufacturers in producing multi-level safe food to meet diverse consumer demand.

An Empirical Study on the Dairy Product Consumers’ Intention to Adopt the Food Traceability’s Technology: Push-Pull-Mooring Model Integrated by D&M ISS Model and TPB With ITM

“…Unsafe food containing infectious viruses, damaging bacteria, parasites, or chemicals can cause more than 200 diseases, and approximately 3.3 million people worldwide die each year from diarrhea to cancers ( Krishnamurthy, 2020 ). In low- and middle-income countries, unsafe food costs $110 billion a year in lost productivity and healthcare costs ( Hou et al, 2019 ). Also, some researches have confirmed that similar to SARS-CoV-1 and other eight coronaviruses, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is expected to behave similarly at freezing temperatures, which means it could remain contagious under −20°C for up to 2 years ( Rizou et al, 2020 ).…”

Theoretical and Practical Issues of Research on the Consumption Needs for Safe Foods in Vietnam Using the Willingness to Pay Model

“…By setting menus for the shopping experience, the study collected the alternative choices of participants. Based on a MBC experience auction, the corresponding reactions of consumers when product attributions change are captured (Hou et al, 2020a). Generally, MBC is a complicated procedure and expensive to use (Hou et al, 2020b).…”

“…WTP can also be estimated with RPL, which limits three disadvantages of MNL by allowing random taste variation and alternative percept patterns, and correcting unobserved factors (Alfnes et al, 2006). Furthermore, since the WTP for the food attributes contributes to the consumer's WTP for a food, a model that can estimate WTP for each attribute's contribution is necessary (Hou et al, 2020a). In empirical research, MVP was used to access the WTP for multiple choices of substitute attributes.…”

Determining How Chinese Consumers that Purchase Western Food Products Prioritize Food Safety Cues: A Conjoint Study on Adult Milk Powder

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