Food safety is a priority for Chinese consumers. Here’s why

For Chinese consumers, food safety has become a condition of purchase. More than price or taste, factors such as provenance, health certifications and transparency throughout the production chain directly influence the decisions of people shopping at street markets, supermarkets or through their phones.

This demand did not emerge out of nowhere. It is the result of a succession of food safety incidents that have marked the country’s collective memory over the past few decades. One by one, these episodes forced the Chinese government to rebuild, virtually from scratch, its food inspection, monitoring and quality-control systems.

A distrust that dates back decades

One of the episodes most often cited by researchers as a turning point in China’s concern with food safety took place as early as 1988, when a hepatitis A outbreak struck the Shanghai region. According to a study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, the epidemic involved 292,301 recorded cases, with three peaks concentrated in January and February of that year—one of the largest foodborne outbreaks ever documented worldwide.

The investigation identified shellfish as the vehicle for the virus. Among the people who ate the food and developed hepatitis A, only 3.5% said they had cooked it before eating it. Among those who also ate the shellfish but did not become ill, 18.1% had cooked the food. In other words, eating uncooked shellfish was proportionally more common among infected people, reinforcing the association between preparation methods and the risk of contamination. 

The turning point: the melamine scandal

Two decades later, another episode would prove even more decisive in shaping the relationship between Chinese consumers and the food industry. In 2008, infant formula produced in China was contaminated with melamine, a substance used to artificially conceal protein concentrations in quality tests.

According to a bulletin from the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 54,000 children sought medical attention, around 13,000 were hospitalized and three deaths were confirmed. The investigation identified melamine in products from 22 different manufacturers.

The impact on consumer confidence was immediate and long-lasting. One month after the crisis, domestic milk powder consumption had fallen by half, according to data cited in a review published on ScienceDirect on competition among food safety attributes in China, which describes the episode as one of the most notorious in the country’s recent history, alongside other scandals that followed over the next decade, such as the contamination of pork with clenbuterol in 2011.

The episode’s significance remains evident in Chinese regulation to this day. In 2025, the country approved a new legal amendment, scheduled to take effect in December of that year, specifically strengthening oversight of liquid infant formula, among other traceability measures for the transportation chain involving bulk liquid food.

The response: stricter laws, traceability and fewer antibiotics

The successive food safety incidents led China to rebuild its food safety legislation. China’s Food Safety Law expanded inspections and producer accountability throughout the entire chain—from risk monitoring to the management of food safety accidents.

Control also expanded to animal production. Since July 2020, the country has banned the use of growth promoters in animal feed, a measure that accompanied international efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance and strengthened controls on chemical residues in animal products.

At the same time, demand for traceability grew. A study on perceptions of safety in agricultural products in China, conducted in Suzhou, showed that local consumers clearly prefer pork bearing a green certification seal and complete traceability information, even when paying more for it—a behavior that has remained consistent in surveys over the past decade as food safety incidents accumulated.

What Chinese consumers value today

 Concern about food safety also appears in purchasing decisions. A study published in the scientific journal Food Control, which interviewed 2,092 consumers in six Chinese cities, identified 65.9% of participants as “certification-oriented.” For this group, information about certification, traceability and product origin had a positive influence on their choices, with certification being the most important attribute.

The same behavior is particularly evident in animal-protein consumption. According to a McKinsey analysis of China’s meat market, product safety and quality are the main criteria Chinese consumers use when buying meat, ranking even ahead of healthfulness itself. The consultancy notes that this emphasis contrasts with the behavior of consumers in other countries surveyed, for whom price tends to carry much greater weight in purchasing decisions.

The prioritization of safety and quality is also beginning to influence the choice between chilled and freshly slaughtered or frozen beef. A study published in the journal Meat Science, involving 3,617 consumers mainly from northern and eastern China, found that 58.2% of respondents preferred chilled options.

The trend can also be seen in imports. According to Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), the value of China’s chilled beef imports grew 50-fold between 2014 and 2024. Australia remains the leading supplier in this segment, while South American countries such as Argentina and Uruguay also participate in the market.

The growth of this segment reinforces the importance of attributes such as quality, provenance and food safety for exporters competing for space in the Chinese market.

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What this means for global suppliers

This culture of historical distrust, combined with the regulatory response built over decades, helps explain why China has also become one of the world’s most demanding markets for imported products, with strict technical standards, registration and authorization requirements for foreign establishments, and inspections proportionate to the risk posed by each product.

In practice, compliance with sanitary requirements can even determine whether market access continues. In May 2026, three Brazilian meatpacking plants had their authorizations temporarily suspended by China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC), the authority responsible for controlling imports into the country, after synthetic hormones used as veterinary medicines were identified—substances prohibited under Chinese rules, according to Globo Rural. The Brazilian Association of Meat Exporting Industries (Abiec) said in a statement that the measure was preventive and came after residues were identified that did not comply with Chinese sanitary requirements. The episode, however, reinforces how compliance with food safety rules is a concrete condition for foreign suppliers to remain in this market.

For exporters such as Brazil, understanding this background is just as important as knowing the rules themselves: the demand for traceability, certification and sanitary compliance is not an arbitrary barrier, but a direct reflection of the relationship Chinese consumers have built with their food after decades of food safety crises.