摘要：The agri‐food sector and food consumption models have experienced both worldwide and in Europe a process of change that still appears ongoing. The main effects of this change are clearly visible in a whole series of new developments. The most interesting of these appears to be the role played by food product quality as a basis on which to implement modern marketing policies targeting an increasingly segmented market. This obviously makes it necessary for food consumption analysts to shed light on what it means, within today’s European and world consumption scenarios, to produce quality goods. On this point, in recent years the concept of quality may be said to have undergone rapid evolution. Quality has gone from meaning only intrinsic product attributes, hence synonymous with excellence, to a broader definition full of different meanings. Currently, it is widely recognised that, in modern consumer markets, food product quality is made up by both a set of intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics (Grunert, 2002) and by the way such characteristics are guaranteed and communicated to end consumers (Caswell and Joseph, 2007). As a result, purchase choices are affected not only by elements such as taste and price, but also by product range in the outlet, communication strategies, by the level of food safety, production process characteristics, nutritional aspects, origin and
