Variety-Seeking Behavior and Willingness to Pay for Staple Foods: Evidence from Online Food Delivery in China

Food security has always been the leading priority of national strategic deployment. Given the dual background of the continuous upgrading of dietary structures and the rapid growth of the food delivery industry, takeaway staple food waste has become increasingly prominent. However, a gap remains in the existing literature concerning the diversification behavior of consumers' staple food in the context of food delivery, while even less discussion involves the driving mechanism of diversified willingness to pay (WTP). Based on 1046 survey data points related to consumption behavior concerning food and beverage takeaway staple food, this paper systematically examined the main influencing factors of consumers' variety-seeking behavior and their WTP for staple food diversification. The following findings were obtained. There is substantial consumer demand for staple food diversification: over 80% of respondents preferred varied staple options and showed positive WTP. Dietary knowledge exerts a consistently positive and significant influence on both staple food variety-seeking behavior and consumers' WTP for multigrain rice. An intriguing age-related pattern emerges: older consumers exhibit stronger staple food variety-seeking behavior, yet they are less willing to pay a premium for multigrain rice. In addition, dietary knowledge and frugality awareness positively affect WTP for diversified staple food portions, but personal characteristics appeared to have no significant impacts on WTP for small portions of rice. These findings provide demand-side empirical evidence and policy implications for reducing takeaway staple food waste and consolidating the foundations of food security.