This paper studies the impacts of food safety risk perception on the different dimensions of governmental trust. A logistic regression model was constructed based on the multidimensional analysis of government trust (i.e., competence, benevolence and honesty) with food safety risk perception, economic growth, combating corruption, social trust, political participation and demographic characteristics as explanatory variables. The main findings are that respondents with low levels of food risk perception, high political participation and a positive evaluation of economic growth and anti-corruption performance show high levels of trust in government competence, benevolence and honesty. Social trust has a spillover effect, which has a significant impact on government competence and benevolence but has no significant impact on the honesty of the government, which reflects the distinction between different dimensions of the public’s trust in their government. Highly educated people have low levels of trust in government competence, high levels of trust in government benevolence, and no significant impact on the judgment of government honesty. In general, the public speak lowly of the status of food safety and have limited interest in political participation. The government is better to strengthen food safety supervision and develop social capital to further enhance the public’s governmental trust.

In many developing countries, the public is shifting its focus from economic growth to quality-of-life issues. As a result, there is extensive demand for better public administration of quality-of-life issues, ranging from air pollution to food safety problems, that threaten ordinary peoples’ health and daily lives. This article analyzes the determinants of public perceptions of food safety and the administrative effects of regional governance in different provinces with nationwide survey data. A two-level hierarchical linear regression model (HLM) with provincial factors as background-level variables and demographic factors as individual-level variables was developed to measure the influence of these factors on public perceptions of food safety. The results showed that female, young, and well-educated urban residents perceived greater risks to food safety than other groups. Administrative fiscal expenditures and local normative documents in different provinces did not have significant effects on public perceptions of food safety. However, food safety inspections weakened public perceptions of food safety. We thereby suggest that provincial governments invest in more efficient food safety projects and enhance the publicity of normative documents in popular media.