Study On Factors And Mechanism Of Self-protection Behavior Of Consumers' Food Safety

Food safety is related to national economy and people's livelihood.It is not only an important part of the public management system,but also an important part of national security.However,frequent domestic food safety incidents in recent years not only exposed the serious situation of China's food safety issues,but also aroused the public's trust toward the food system.The improvement of food safety requires the collaboration of the “full food chain”.At present,China's policy formulation and theoretical research mainly focus on the “food supply chain”.However,as a key link in combating food-borne diseases,the consumer link has caused a large number of food poisonings and death rates to become the focus of foreign governments and scholars.However,our country's researchers have less theoretical discussion on the consumer segment,which makes it lack of a specific conceptual model to give theoretical guidance to the government and related organizations' policy development and intervention paths.This study is to ascertain the factors affecting consumer food safety self-protection behavior,clarify the mechanism of action of various factors,and provide ideas for guiding consumers to take appropriate self-protection behavior.The consumer food safety self-protection behavior is concerned with the consumer segment.It refers to the risk perception based on individuals and the spontaneous use of consumers to control and eliminate harmful substances in food(including: physical,chemical,microbiological,etc.).Prevents acute,sub-acute and chronic harm to the human body and ultimately results in reduced risk.Based on this concept,there are only two time points which consumers can implement this behavior: when buying food and after buying the food processing phase.Because there are great differences in the factors and mechanisms of action between these two stages,this paper only discusses the consumer food safety self-protection behavior during the post-purchase food processing stage.This study uses grounded theory as the method,theoretical sampling and constant comparison as the principle,rooted in the raw data obtained by focus group interviews and personal in-depth interviews,and three-level coding through open coding,axial coding,and selective coding.Theoretical saturation was used as index of complete model,and multiple measures were used to ensure the reliability and validity of the research process and model construction.Seven main categories affecting consumers' self-protection behavior were identified: self-protection consciousness,food safety knowledge,personality,home-country culture,physical environment,social environment and quality of life.Four typical behavioral paradigms were discovered: normative standards,blind action,knowing and dispelling,and arbitrary.A model were built that be called "factor-situation-behavior" model of consumer food safety self-protection behavior.Through the analysis of the path relationships among various categories,it was found that the moderating effect of situation variables is the key reason that influences the “consistency of self-protection consciousness—self-protection behavior” and “consistency of food safety knowledge—self-protection behavior”.The moderating effect significantly affects this phenomenon and puts forward the concept of “the trap of high knowledge”.Based on the main conclusions of this study,guidance is given to the relevant departments in formulating policies and implementing ideas.This study is a useful attempt to grounded theory in the consumer behavior of food safety,and will certainly provide a useful reference for similar research in ideas and methods.