Consumers are very concerned in "Protected Designation of Origin" (PDO) products, namely meat, since they associate these products to quality and healthy foods. Thus, it is necessary to implement analytical methodologies that could assure consumers about the products they purchase. Since this kind of meat is usually sold with no information concerning cattle sex, age and slaughter season, these...

Traceability and authentication of meat and meat products are major concern for consumers, producers and retailers. In Europe, several areas produce high quality dry cured hams under Protected Designation Origin. Efficient and objective methods must be developed to assess origin of dry cured hams. This paper is focused on methods to assess geographical origin, rearing systems and processing con...

Purpose Using a generic cheese as an anchor product, in this study consumers' preferences for different EU quality schemes have been investigated. Specifically, the aims to understand whether “Protected Designation of Origin” (PDO), “Organic” and “Mountain Product” labels are independent or if there some synergies existing between them, questioning – at same time alleged exchange value plays po...

European horticulture, especially in the southern states, must exploit new qualities to increase added value of its vegetables. This article aims analyze situation geographical quality labels Protected Designation Origin (PDO) and Geographical Indication (PGI) ascertain whether they are useful for this purpose. To end, we studied registers current horticultural products awarded PDO or PGI statu...

The protected area approach has extended from conserving biodiversity to improving human well-being. However, the relationship between conservation and socioeconomic and cultural development continues to be controversial. This paper combines land use variables with socioeconomic and cultural variables through multivariate ordination analysis and evaluates their evolution in two areas inside and...

The olive tree (Olea europaea L.) has been cultivated around the Mediterranean basin since ancient times, ‘Arbequina’ being one of most widely grown varieties. To improve knowledge on ripening-related firmness changes in fruit, cell wall metabolism was studied irrigated and rain-fed olives at ‘Les Garrigues’, a Protected Designation Origin (PDO) Catalonia (NE Spain) where harsh environmental co...