Understanding the awareness of family food safety knowledge of children's parents in China and its influencing factors is of positive significance to carry out accurate food safety education and reduce family foodborne diseases. Therefore, this study conducted a questionnaire survey among 13 923 parents of children aged 3-12 in 7 cities to collect basic information, household food safety knowledge and needs. The average score of parents on family food safety knowledge was 18.6 points (out of 29 points), and the pass rate was 68.7%. The main mistakes included food storage and food poisoning. Multivariate logistic regression analysis shows that the pass rate of parents' family food safety knowledge was affected by region, education level, occupation, relations with children, paying attention to food safety or not, getting related information from their child or not. The top three contents that parents were concerned about were abuse of food additives (84.9%), poor hygiene (82.9%) and pesticide/drug residues (82.7%). The main sources of information trusted by parents were TV/radio/advertisement (76.1%), books/newspapers/periodicals (70.4%), weibo/wechat and other new media (57.7%). The level of parents on family food safety is low. It is necessary to carry out dissemination through the combination of traditional media and new media and the form of small hands holding big hands, and pay special attention to parents with low education level and engaged in the food industry, as well as children's fathers and nannies.