Abstract: According to an analysis of 1,001 food incidents in China, food fraud is the major root cause of food incidents in China. Based on routine activity theory, the article constructs food firms, consumers and inspection institutions tripartite evolutionary game model. The model studies inspection relationship between inspection institutions and food firms, and cooperative relationship between consumers and inspection institutions in the game. Analysis is conducted on evolutionary perspective, and Matlab is used for simulation verification. Results indicate penalty and compensation scales reduce food fraud motivation; if food fraud motivation is small, traditional inspection method effectively deters non-compliance; if consumer participation in co-regulation is based on words of mouth and complains, co-regulation inspection method can't effectively deter non-compliance in evolution. The research conclusion is useful in further exploring co-regulation mechanism design in food fraud prevention.

Key words: social co-regulation, food safety, inspection game, tripartite evolutionary game