Trust and Food Quality in the Valorisation of Geographical Indication Initiatives

Mario Fernández-Zarza, Santiago Amaya-Corchuelo, Giovanni Belletti and Encarnación Aguilar-Criado
Additional contact information
Mario Fernández-Zarza: Department of Tourism and Gastronomy, University of La Salle Bajio, 37150 Guanajuato, Mexico
Santiago Amaya-Corchuelo: Department of General Economic, University of Cadiz, 11406 Jerez, Spain
Encarnación Aguilar-Criado: Department of Social Anthropology, University of Seville, 41004 Seville, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-22

Abstract: This text delves into the elements on which the notion of quality of a product is built. We believe that, in addition to the standards that regulate a given quality seal, there are other elements that consumers link to the excellence that distinguishes them. In order to deepen these notions, we have chosen two localised agri-food systems (LAS), the first case corresponds to Iberian acorn-ham from Spain and the second to chorizo from Toluca in Mexico. We resorted to a mixed methodology by combining quantitative and qualitative techniques whereby a study of those food systems in two different socio-political contexts was approached. This methodology has allowed us to identify the importance of informal instruments, based not only on institutionalised certification, but on informal mechanisms such as trust and proximity between producers and consumers. The results of this study show how the food quality categories may be guided from various logics depending on the context, categories, and sort of stakeholders involved. Finally, we propose a categorisation of food quality based on the conceptual framework of trust. This categorisation allows the Geographical Indications (GIs) valorisation initiatives to visualise the elements on which they can be guided to work with the different qualities in their LAS.

Keywords: trust; food quality; geographical indications; Iberian ham; chorizo Toluca; localised agri-food systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/6/3168/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/6/3168/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:6:p:3168-:d:516501

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().