Food quality information cognition and public purchase decisions: research from China

Abstract

The quality information of food is provided to the public through relevant standards, which affect consumers’ consumption preferences and purchase decisions. The purchase decisions of consumers affect the management decision of food enterprises and the regulation strategy of governments. Many standards exist in the food industry, but an adequate supply of information does not equate to an adequate demand for information. This study examined the literature and used the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and the technology acceptance model to analyse the public’s behaviour towards food quality standard information through structural equation modelling. Through investigations in China, this study discussed the key influencing factors of the public’s cognition of food quality standard information and its influence on purchase decisions. We revealed that consumers’ reliance on food quality standard information and their satisfaction with it was not high. In addition, their use of such information was markedly low. This paper proposes policy suggestions from the perspective of information demand and explores methods for reducing information asymmetry in the food industry.