This research tries to understand the consumer's perception of quality of food and analyze different contributions concerning it. The Testing Model has been designed based on the main dimensions of perceived quality of food, results will emphasize the sensitive perception that permits to assess this quality by the consumer.

Quality is in the eye of the beholder. Therefore, the firm's marketing strategy must be carried out by taking into consideration not only the consumers' objectively measurable needs and expectations but also their subjective perceptions as to what actually constitutes a quality product. Turning to Olson and Jacoby's distinction regarding the difference between a product's intrinsic and extrinsic attributes, the authors performed the estimation of structural equation models in order to assess the contribution of fruit product attributes to the Spanish consumers' perception of quality. In this article, the authors demonstrate that: (a) perceived quality in fruit products is a multidimensional concept depending on both intrinsic and extrinsic attributes; (b) intrinsic attributes exert a greater influence on perceived quality in fruit products than do extrinsic attributes; and (c) a very limited number of attributes (only seven out of twenty) stand out as being statistically Dra. M a Aránzazu Sulé Alonso is Associate Professor,

The Perceived Quality Model designed and estimated in a previous work is applied to different samplings, taking into account the type of establishment that consumers usually go to when buying fresh fruits. For this purpose, an analysis of the invariance of the different factorial structures was made, all of which indicate that firms in the Spanish fruit sector should compete in the markets with a strategy of quality differentiation.