Chinese Parents’ Safety Concerns and Willingness to Pay for Child Milk Beverages: A Case Study from Beijing

Pei Xu, Yan Yang and Todd Lone

Chinese Economy, 2017, vol. 50, issue 3, 141-156

Abstract: China’s burgeoning economic growth in the last two decades has not come without challenges, one of which has been significant food safety problems, especially food supplied to children. News about fake milk formula and tainted milk were recurrently publicized in the period 2003 to 2008, resulting in millions of frightened parents and plunging consumer confidence in domestically produced milk products. This study focuses on the factors affecting parents’ perceptions of and willingness to pay for milk-based beverages targeted toward children 3–6 years old. Using data gathered from 207 questionnaires completed in Beijing in October and December of 2013, this study discovered that child milk-based beverages are a common daily food for children: 71% of the surveyed parents reported that his/her child consumes the beverage at least once a day and 50% of the children consume it twice or more per day. The main reasons behind the high consumption rates include: 1) “my kid likes the taste” (73%); 2) “child milk beverages are safer than regular milk” (52%); and 3) “I think the milk beverage is nutritious” (43%). Almost all survey participants consider brand an important factor in changing purchase decisions (98%); the vast majority of parents (over 93%) consider brand and their child’s taste preference when making purchases. Conditional logit model results show that Chinese national branded products brought additional food safety assurance to parents and that Chinese parents seek lower priced milk-based beverages for their children. This study suggests that the government may react to the expanding demand for milk beverages by improving food safety standards and providing additional food safety information; both of which will contribute to a more informed consumption decision.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1080/10971475.2017.1297647

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