Resumo:

Modern consumers evaluate several food products’ attributes before purchasing: price, quality, freshness, taste, practicality and nutritional contents are analyzed in order to provide maximum benefts at reasonable expenditure. Wider spread and easier access to health and food security information brought to consumers new parameters that help rearrange their structures of preferences. New information strategies privilege the use of quality signals, such as labeling, traceability, certifcation, brand names and adoption of minimum quality standards. The new information strategies recently emerged in response to new behavioral characteristics of the consumer and new competition haracteristics of the food market. The main feature of Brazilian fresh markets is the lack of minimum standards and very strong information asymmetries. Consequently, endogenous and exogenous uncertainties are high. The market for fresh food is directed affected by the indiscriminate use of pesticides.