The Study Of Consumer Behavior In Food Traceability System

Theoretical research and global experience shows that food traceability system has basic function to ensure food safety, has become one of the principal means to prevent food safety risks. The outbreaks of "Sanlu milk powder" and other major food safety incidents in China again highlight the importance and urgency of promoting and popularizing Chinese food traceability system. However, food traceability system is very complex, involving many actors. Consumers, producers and the government is the most important"Three of the main body". Consumers are the main user of food traceability system, their knowledge, attitude and willingness to pay to certified traceable food has determine the power and hierarchy of food traceability system, inherently provides markets demand of certified traceable food, and impact the production behavior of producers and the government's institutional arrangements. Researching consumer behavior of food traceability system has basic, critical position in the process of building the Chinese food traceability system. Therefore, under the background of speeding up social development and promoting social harmony, studying the behavior of consumers in food traceability system has a very important value. Enrichment and development with Chinese characteristics, food consumption, economic theory, investigating the impact of consumer demand on producer behavior in the food supply chain, and provide advisory services for government decision-making, constitute the whole purpose of this paper.This research mainly starts from the combination of theoretical and empirical level. In theory, this paper seeks to use consumer economics, consumer behavior and information asymmetries and other multi-disciplinary theory and method, follow the basic laws of consumer economics, from the particularity of food consumption and the basic characteristics of the current food consumption environment in China, studying the universal law of consumer behavior in food traceability system. In the empirical level, we take urban consumers in Jiangsu Province, for example, study consumer knowledge of food traceability system, attitude, willingness to pay and the premium level to systematic demonstrate consumers consumption behavior of certified traceable food and their main features, innovative using Interval Censored model to study the factors which impact premium level of consumer paid to certified traceable food, and attempts to made policy framework to effectively promote and guide consumer behavior to support food traceability system.Main conclusions of this paper are: (1) the basic characteristics of consumer behavior on certified traceable food are the same with ordinary food, for example consumer behavior on certified traceable food is influenced by individual characteristics, psychological factors and external environmental factors, but the characteristics of consumer behavior on certified traceable food consumer behavior has its own laws, mainly: perception of food safety risk and needs of food safety information affect consumer's potential demand for certified traceable food; consumers'demands for information like food authentication, the sources of breed and health information of production processes are very urgent; consumer acceptance of food traceability is an ongoing process; factors which affect consumer willingness to pay and the pay levels for certified traceable food are different. (2) consumption of certified traceable food in different regions have different characteristics, in economically underdeveloped areas, the significant factor affecting the premium of the consumer to pay is only income; in economically underdeveloped regions, income, concerns about food safety, attitude and education of consumers are significant factors; in the economically developed areas, the factors deicide consumers to pay high prices for certified traceable food are mainly higher income levels and the need for food safety information. (3) From a consumer perspective, laws and regulations which support food traceability system are rare, it is difficult to provide enough support for the construction of food traceability system; the government institutional arrangements and the schemes about traceability are seriously missing, the reasonable cost-sharing mechanism has yet not constructed.The Innovations of this research are that firstly, we completely studied consumption characteristics of Chinese consumers on certified traceable foods, enriched and developed the food safety economics with Chinese characteristics; secondly, we did the empirical research on consumer consumption behavior on certified traceable food at the provincial level, and used large-scale and large-sample for the first time in China. The conclusion can provide effective decision-making scope of consultation for government; thirdly, we first use Interval Censored regression model to analize the factors affecting premium level of consumer, research paper has published in the domestic authority publications and international publications, access to domestic and international academic recognition.the research of consumer behavior in Food traceability system is worthy of further attention, the focus of future research might be: the use of experimental economics research methods will play an important role in this area, can perfect food Consumer Economics with Chinese characteristics; close the research of consumers, manufacturers and government behavior in traceability system, in particular to construct the mechaniam of sharing additional cost of producing certified traceable food is no doubt of a important content in the future; proposing a package of government policy proposals according to actual infact of consumption of rural residents, which will be of great significance for urban and rural development, and for rural residents to early share and enjoy the food safety.