Chinese food scandal further erodes consumer trust

Yet another Chinese food scandal has irreparably eroded consumer trust in the government and food safety regulations, according to research from the University of Illinois (U of I).

Producers of Wuchang, a brand of gourmet rice that has a particular scent, had reportedly been tampering with the product for about a decade, adding in less-expensive rice that had been aromatised to bulk out the real deal.

While few people interviewed by U of I researchers understood the exact details or potential health risks that the tainted rice could cause, the public’s perception of the risk it posed was considered to be high.

“Over half the people we interviewed were aware of the product tampering, but only very vaguely,” said U of I agricultural communications professor Lulu Rodriguez.

“In this case, their trust of society, such as the government, food-safety regulations and the mass media was eroded. This incident came in the wake of other food safety scandals in China. We hear people say in the interviews, “We are left to fend for ourselves”.

“They seemed to feel like they need to make use of whatever information sources they have and make do because the government cannot be trusted. And the government tried to place the blame on local agencies.”

It seems that even the rice retailers knew something fishy was going on. “Production was not jiving with what was being sold,” Rodriguez said.

Only 800,000 tons of Wuchang rice was produced but up to 10 million tons were sold. Adding just one pound (450 g) of fragrance to 10 tons of rice enabled producers to pass lower-quality rice off as the more expensive Wuchang brand rice. The story was finally broken by the Chinese Central TV, which said that the government was doing its best and the culprits would be dealt with accordingly. But the general public was still concerned about the issue.

“Fortunately, there wasn’t any real health risk, but that didn’t stop people from thinking about health-related concerns. It is food, after all, and the public didn’t know exactly what was being added to the rice,” said Rodriguez.

“It shows that if you have the public perception as a communicator, you have a problem even if the accusations are not correct.”

The perception of risk resulted in changes in consumer behaviour: people stopped buying Wuchang brand rice.

“More openness is needed. This incident reminded me of the horrible way that the SARS epidemic was handled, in which the Chinese government delayed notifying the World Health Organization of the outbreak for three months. Keeping quiet just makes people more nervous.

“We hope that there can be mechanisms developed that can re-establish trust. Trust is very difficult to build and very easy to destroy.”

The U of I study was published in the International Journal of food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health.