Chinese consumers regard New Zealand milk products as less safe than those produced in our key dairy competitors like the United States and Europe, Massey University research suggests.
The university surveyed 531 people in Lanzhou, the capital of China's Gansu province, in October last year - two months after Fonterra's botulism botch up.
The false food scare spooked consumers in the world's second biggest economy and is likely to have influenced the survey results.
Just over 28 per cent of respondents rated New Zealand's dairy products as "not very safe", a much higher percentage than for products from Australia (14.8 per cent), the US (13.2 per cent) and European Union (12.5 per cent).
This country fared much better than China in the survey, however, with 64.9 per cent of respondents rating Chinese dairy products not safe.