Study on children's consumption behavior and influencing factors toward unsafe snacks in the rural area

Based on a survey toward 320 children aged from 5 to 12 in the rural area of Jiangxi province, this study used binary logistic regression method to analysis the significance of factors affecting children's consumption behavior. The results show that grandparents and mothers were the main members of purchasing snacks, however, 20.3% of children bought the snacks themselves. They randomly chose the purchasing place and were inclined to choose street foods or small shops where were easily found unsafe snacks. The top 5 of unsafe snacks which children frequently consumed were beverage, cake/pie, candies, dairy products and sausage. Parents' preference on snacks, education background, children's age and whether children purchase snacks themselves significantly and positively affected children's consumption behavior, while parents' satisfaction degree toward the snack safety status, and attitude toward the snacks with high level of sugar, salt and fat had negative effect.