This study tested whether information on positive food additives and negative food additives had an effect on consumers’ risk perception and their willingness to accept (WTA) food with additives. Consumers’ WTA was examined via a random nth-price auction of exchanging freshly squeezed orange juice without additives for orange juice with additives. Results show that consumers’ WTA differs with the order in which information was provided. Consumers are generally more sensitive to negative than positive information on additives. Female, middle-educated consumers are more susceptible to additive information and their WTA is more likely to change, while postgraduate-educated consumers are less sensitive to additive information. Consumers with higher food-safety satisfaction have lower WTA than those who are not satisfied with food safety. However, their satisfaction is easily affected by the negative-information intervention. Interestingly, consumers with relatively good knowledge of additives had higher WTA than those with no such knowledge. This study provides insight on how to establish effective food-safety-risk communication. Government and non-government agencies need to timely and accurately eliminate food-safety scares through the daily communication and disclosure of food-safety information, as well as prevent the misguidance of negative food safety-risk information.

Amid high-profile food scares, health concerns and threats of information imperfection and asymmetry, the Chinese pork industry faces increasing demands from consumers for assurances regarding quality and production methods in both the domestic and export markets. Using a real choice experiment (RCE), 316 consumers in Wuxi, located in China’s Jiangsu Province, were randomly surveyed to examine the impact of various factors (e.g., traceability, lean meat essence testing, animal welfare, appearance, and price) on consumers’ preference and willingness to pay (WTP) for pork products. A random parameter logit model was estimated, and the results show that having a traceable code is the second important factor after price for consumers, corresponding to a WTP of 4.76 yuan per catty, followed by a bright red appearance, a national stocking density standard of animal welfare, and detected no lean meat essence, corresponding to a WTP of more than 2 yuan per catty. In addition, there is a complementary interrelationship between a traceable code and a bright red appearance, detected no lean meat essence, and a national stocking density standard of animal welfare. The results concerning the latent class model (LCM) indicate that 56.9% of consumers are “quality-focused” consumers who are willing to pay a high price for traceable code, detected no lean meat essence, a national stocking density standard of animal welfare, and bright red appearance attributes. A further 28.1% are “price-sensitive” consumers who pay significant attention to the price, and the price that they pay for each product is meagre. The consumers with “preference combination attributes” attach greater value to interaction attributes, such as a traceable code combined with detected no lean meat essence or a bright red appearance and detected no lean meat essence combined with a national stocking density standard of animal welfare or a bright red appearance, accounting for 15% of consumers. The government should improve the traceability system, increase the intensity of lean meat essence testing, promote the welfare level of pigs, and promote public education and publicity on pork quality and safety attributes. Meanwhile, enterprises can formulate “differentiated” pork products, according to different consumer groups, and appropriately increase prices, according to production costs, in order to meet the requirements for pork quality and safety for consumers.

In this study, traceability in pork profile information with ex-ante quality assurance and ex-post traceability are constructed. Consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for traceability information is investigated in Wuxi, China, by combining the Multiple Price Lists method and the Becker–DeGroot–Marschak (BDM) experimental auction. The main factors affecting consumers’ WTP are also analyzed using a Tobit model. The results demonstrate that consumers have higher WTP for ex-ante quality assurance than for ex-post traceability. The highest WTP is for the ex-ante quality assurance attribute of pork quality inspection. Consumers’ WTP for traceability information is influenced by their individual characteristics, including age, education and income, as well as their concern and satisfaction about food safety and confidence in food safety labeling. The contribution of this paper is that it improves the meaning of traceable food information attributes and measures the significance of attributes to consumers. Furthermore, this paper introduces a Becker–DeGroot–Marschak experimental auction method which amends the measurement deviation of hypothetical experiments.

Ensuring food security has always been a top priority of the Chinese government. However, China’s grain supply is facing challenges due to limited resources for grain production and the growth of domestic grain consumption. Reducing post-harvest grain loss represents one of the most realistic and effective ways to ensure grain security in China. In view of the importance of grain sales in the post-harvest period, we conducted a survey, interviewing 1890 grain sellers across 54 regions in 9 provinces of China, to investigate the factors affecting post-harvest grain loss during sales. The results of the survey show that grain storage conditions have the greatest impact on post-harvest grain loss, followed by transportation. Display and sales have the least impact on grain loss. The Tobit regression model was used to analyze the main factors affecting post-harvest grain loss during sales. The findings suggest that the seller’s education level, years of working as a seller, the conditions of grain storage, and the supply and management level of public facilities in the market were negatively correlated with grain loss in the sales process, whereas the seller’s age, the separation of sales shops and storage warehouses, and the fall season were positively correlated with grain loss. Policy implications are also provided for potential future policy decisions.

We review relevant literature to propose the connotation and operation logic of food safety co-governance, systematically constitute by roles, functions, as well as the boundaries of public government, enterprise, and social forces. The major thesis is that social co-governance is a kind of societal-wide innovation (i.e., social innovation) that integrates diverse resources and efforts from multiple stakeholders for better and sustainable development of an economy’s food institution and system. We then put forward a prospect of the future research on food safety risk co-governance. Theoretical, practical, and policy implications are discussed.