As food quality becomes more complex, consumer s are tending to reduce their involvement in the food purchase decision -making process. Consequently, prices are becoming more significant as they represent an easy choice criterion when consumer s have less information about the differences between the product and process quality inherent in food items (including environme n tal or social issues). The organic food sector provides high, complex food quality profiles and has therefore been

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... affected by this developme n t. Consequently some SMEs in the food business sector are starting to emphasize certain quality factors, such as sustainable production and processing, as a means of communicating their added value to consu mer s. Based on published scientific and unpublished literature, this paper provides an overview of the main instru me n ts and media of commu nication on food quality, illustrated by case studies. It also presents the results of a test by means of an information display matrix, conducted in order to analyse the consu mer information and quality assessme nt behaviour involved in apple purchase in Switzerland. Keywords food quality, food indicators, means of communication, food miles, social standar ds, consu me r behaviour.