To understand the current situation of purchasing behavior and safety cognition of parents towards children's snacks, and to provide effective suggestions according to the characteristics of parents to protect children's health.Methods The purchasing behavior and safety cognition of 350 parents towards children's snacks in the rural area of Hebei Province were investigated by questionnaire. Arandom class from each grade from grade 1 to 6 was chosen and all studentsin the class were chosen as targets. The questionnaire was answered by children's parents. The results were analyzed by both descriptive statistics and factor analysis and cluster analysis by SPSS 21.0, parents were divided into different groups with different safety cognition. Results 60.3% of parents chose the small shops as the No.1 choice to purchase snacks and 70% of parents chose convenience as the No.1 factor when consider where to buy. 86.6% and 81.4% of the parents concerned the shelf-life and date of manufacture as main safety factors. The top 5 snacks parents purchased for children were sausages, candies, cake/pies, dairy products and instant noodles. 63.9% parents purchased sausages frequently. Parents did not pay much attention on the children's self-purchasing behavior and did not provide effective guidance. According to the degree of the safety cognition of snacks, parents were classified into three groups:passive parents, autognosis parents and learning parents.Conclusion It was critical to improve safety cognition of parents in rural area. The classification of parents according to their characteristics could promote a better education result through their well-directed way.