Based on the continuous downturn puzzle of Chinese dairy consumption, with the perception of consumption risk as a starting point, the paper deeply analyzes the main factors which cause the downturn of dairy product consumption of Chinese residents. The results show that the income elasticity of dairy consumption of Chinese urban residents is still notable; the occurrence of dairy safety incidents improves the perception of consumption risk, and accordingly it reduces the promoting role of income to the dairy consumption; the safety incident is the key factor which leads to the fall of dairy consumption of urban residents in recent years, and the perception of consumption risk of lower income group is clearly higher than that of higher income group.