Food quality from a consumer's perspective

Consumers' quality judgement depends on their knowledge concerning certain quality attributes. Against this background this paper presents the results of two qualitative methods for measuring consumers' cognitive structures. On this account we apply a free-association technique and a variation of concept mapping adequate for the research object quality of pork. Our analysis shows that consumers' cognitive structures are quite complex and heterogeneous. Product characteristics dominate consumers' knowledge concerning the quality of pork. To predict the eating quality consumers prefer intrinsic quality cues. In contrast to that extrinsic quality cues are used to predict the origin of the given product.