Objective  To examine the resumption of purchase behavior and its influencing factors after food safety incidents among the residents in Shanxi province for providing evidence to the improvement of food safety risk management.

  Methods  A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted among 2 275 adult residents ( ≥ 18 years) recruited in 70 districts/counties of 11 municipalities of Shanxi province using stratified random sampling from December 2020 through March 2021.

  Results  Of the 1 991 participants with valid responses, 1 045 (52.5%) reported the unwillingness to resume purchase behavior after a food safety crisis in comparison to 946 (47.5%) reporting the willingness to resume purchase behavior. The results of unconditional multivariate logistic regression analysis results showed that the participants with following characteristics are more likely to resume purchase behavior after a food safety incident: male gender, with a family annual income of more than 5 000 yuan (RMB) per capita per month, suffering from chronic disease, being generally concerned about food safety, and having confidence in enterprises′ capability on food safety management; in contrast, the participants being female, with a food safety knowledge score of equal to or higher than the average score, considering a generally higher domestic food safety risk, and believing in government management on food safety were less likely to resume purchase behavior after a food safety accidents.

  Conclusion  Slightly more than a half of adult residents in Shanxi province would resume purchase behavior after a food safety incident and the residents′ willingness to resume purchase behavior after food safety incident is mainly influenced by the consideration on domestic overall risk of unsafe food, concerns about food safety, household annual income per capita, and the confidence in government management on food safety.