Objective  To study current situation of health education on food safety among rural residents in Shanxi province for developing strategies on the improvement of education programs.

  Methods  We conducted a questionnaire survey among 1 410 rural residents selected with quota sampling in 60 counties or districts of Shanxi province between December 2016 and March 2017. Chi-square test and Ridit analysis were adopted in data analysis.

  Results  Of all the participants, 48.6% reported concerns on health education on food safety and the ratio differed significantly by education level (χ² = 32.736) and age (χ² = 38.858) among the participants (both P < 0.01), with the lowest ratio among the participants with the education of junior high school and below (45.2%, \bar R = 0.468) and aged 65 years and older (33.4%, \bar R = 0.406). Only 22.4% of the participants reported a satisfaction to current situation of health education on food safety and the satisfaction was significantly influenced by the participants′ occupation (χ² = 42.460, P < 0.05), with the highest satisfaction ratio among farmers, foresters and fishermen (31.2%, \bar R = 0.576). There were 46.8% of the participants did not complain to relevant agencies when they encountered food safety events. The majority of the participants acquired information on food safety via mobile phone (reported by 70.6% of the participants) and television (69.4%).

  Conclusion  Concerns on food safety, satisfaction to food safety education programs, cognition on consumers′ right for food safety, and acquirement of food safety information are all at a low level among rural residents in Shanxi province, suggesting that health education on food safety needs to be promoted among the population especially among those with lower education and at elder ages.