How public opinion of food safety affects green food purchase intentions: The mediating role of insecurity and the moderating role of green label trust

Abstract

Widespread public opinion of food safety (POFS) has exacerbated consumer concerns about food safety and health, then driving consumers to purchase green food. However, the mechanisms at play in such concerns to consumer behaviour towards green food consumption have not explored, especially in the environment of social media. To fill up this gap, this research adopted a sequential two-stage mixed-methods approach to identify and examine the effects and mechanisms of public opinion of food safety on consumers' green food purchase intentions. In the initial qualitative research phase, the public comments on the microblogging platform was analyzed and we identified four top hot topics: public opinion of food safety, insecurity, green label trust (GLT) and green food purchase intentions (GFPI) based on text mining. In the quantitative phase of the survey-based research, we introduced the protection motivation theory and the hyper-attention cognitive model to construct a conceptual model. Based on this conceptual model, we conducted an empirical test with 1087 online questionnaires. The result showed that POFS had a significant positive effect on consumers' GFPI; consumer insecurity mediated the relationship between POFS and GFPI, and GLT played a moderating role between them. This study illustrates a psychological mechanism by which public opinion of food safety motivates consumers to switch to green food and provides new insights into green food consumption behaviour. It is an essential reference for encouraging green food consumption and promoting sustainability in the food industry.