Public cognition of the application of blockchain in food safety management—Data from China’s Zhihu platform

Food safety is a worldwide problem, mainly caused by environmental pollution, production and management of enterprises, government supervision failure and other reasons. Blockchain technology, as an emerging technology, has strong pertinency and applicability to food traceability due to its characteristics of decentralization, traceability and immutability. Therefore, it is expected to be effectively applied in food safety management and improve the guarantee level of food safety. However, for some reasons, blockchain has not been widely used in food safety management. So further study on the advantages and challenges of its application is beneficial to the sustainable development of food enterprises, consumers and the government. Its application can provide traceable information for food companies, consumers and governments. This can not only ensure the food safety of enterprises, but also improve the level of government supervision, so as to establish the trust between consumers, enterprises and the government, which improves the efficiency and level of food safety management. Based on the information adoption model, this study takes 202 text data related to blockchain and food safety on the Zhihu platform as the research object. On the basis of summarizing part of the public opinions, this paper puts forward the viewpoints of argument on the application of blockchain in food safety management. Then, Tobit regression is used to conduct a quantitative analysis on the influencing factors of the acceptance and adoption of relevant text content on Zhihu platform. Finally, it is found that four factors are significant at a confidence level of 0.1, specifically as follows. The two viewpoints of Advantages of Blockchain Technology and High Costs have significant promotion effects on the public’s recognition and adoption but two viewpoints of Promotion of National Policy Opinions and Blockchain Requires Supervision have significant negative effects on the public’s recognition and adoption. Based on the regression results and combined with the current technological level and development status of blockchain technology, this study provides relevant policy suggestions, which has a positive effect on improving food sustainability. •Focus on the public’s arguments in the Q&A community.•Refer to theories related to information adoption.•Study the impact of arguments in the text on the public recognition and adoption.•Contribute to promoting the application of blockcha