A survey of adult citizens in 10 cities in China revealed that the public’s perceived risk level of the current food safety is high, reflecting their concern about the food safety and a crisis of trust in the government food safety administration.However，the public’s high perceived control inhibits the perceived severity of food safety risks，so public has a high level of confidence in their daily food consumption.The study confirms that the Chinese public has a significant knowledge overconfidence with regard to food safety，i.e. the public’s self-reported subjective knowledge is significantly higher than their objective knowledge，and that it is mainly subjective knowledge that affects public confidence in food safety.This explains，at least partly，why traditional efforts to educate the public and improve their objective knowledge in science popularization are not so effective.It is suggested that improving the public’s subjective knowledge and perceived control might be the keys to enhance their confidence in food safety.