Quality Beef Schemes and Consumer Perception

Meat quality is currently conditioned to the fulfilment of different requirements concerning food safety and other ethic and social aspects. Nevertheless, restrictions and other considerations spreading faster than the above mentioned aspects could be applied in order to gain higher consumer satisfaction, which is to say, a higher quality. On the other hand, many different studies point to the existence of important shifts that manifest the need to increase the knowledge about consumer preferences and the fundamental need to support product differentiation by means of a quality labelling or different quality assurance schemes. This work analyzes different strategies related to the beef quality in a Spanish region (Castile and Leon), guaranteeing such quality with the presence of a quality labelling or a particular distinctive or brand, at the same time that some aspects concerning consumer behaviour behind beef quality are manifested. Data coming from the statistical treatment of different interviews are complemented with the information supplied by other secondary information sources, in order to construct the theoretical model to identify the main strategies to perform to promote the consumption of this product.