Table 1.

The 12 attributes of fruits and vegetables used for the best–worst scaling analysis and associated references.

Fruit & Vegetable Quality Attributes	Attribute Description	References
Brand (or seller)	Brand allows the consumer to identify and discriminate a product. The evaluation of the brand associates “research”, in relation to the “experience” of the characteristics of a product, together with information about the manufacturer.	[33,34,35]
Organic label	Organic certification has been recognized, in various studies, as an attribute that positively influences consumer choices at the time of purchase.	[36,37,38]
Quality certifications	This attribute is often related to greater product safety and wholesomeness that, in FV, often results in the reduction of pesticide risk.	[39,40]
Origin	Product origin is an intrinsic cue, linked to the consumer information acquisition of product/producer identification in addition to product quality assessment. Consumers believe in a higher quality of domestic food, in comparison to foreign products.	[41,42,43]
Price	Several studies have given evidence that the selection of fresh fruit and vegetables is often not influenced by price. Thus, considering a broader product category in our study, fruit and vegetables, price becomes relevant.	[16,44,45]
Offer	The evaluation of special offers (promotional prices) for fruit and vegetables is an important tool for this category of products, often characterized by medium–high prices. This factor often depends on the place of purchase and seasonality.	[46,47,48]
Appearance	The outward appearance of FV is one of the attributes that highly influences decisions at the time of purchase.	[46,49,50]
Local	Local production has a lower perception of risk, which helps to increase loyalty to local producers and to guarantee the sustainability of local companies.	[3,51,52,53,54,55,56,57]
Geographical indication label	The consumer attitude towards certified products (e.g., Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI)) has been studied in various researches, evaluating different fruit and vegetable products and confirming the recognition by consumers of a higher quality compared to a conventional or commercial product, with higher organoleptic and taste properties.	[58,59,60,61]
Seasonality	The consumption of seasonal fruit and vegetables is associated with consumer choice behavior oriented towards an ecological product; one that avoids excessive packaging (such as tin and plastic) and waste, and which is considered to have a higher organoleptic quality and freshness.	[62,63,64]
Variety	Greater attention to this attribute differs by various types of consumers, especially in identifying targets that are more attentive to the variety (cultivars).	[65,66,67]
Freshness	Freshness is a very important quality criterion for FV acceptability. Consumer assessment of freshness of fruit and vegetables occurs through the analysis of sensory and visual aspects of the product appearance during purchase, but also during/after consumption.	[20,22,68,69]

FV: fruit and vegetable.