These recommendations provide terms that encompass product, con-
sumer and market orientations to quality. They confine the measurement
of quality to the characteristics of the fruit or vegetable. These charac-
teristics must be identified and can be reported individually or as a com-
posite. “Acceptability” would be the term reserved for understanding
consumer response. Quality limit links quality and acceptability. Eco-
nomic factors are implicit in all definitions. Collection of economic data
in quality improvement studies, while preferable, is not required. The
concept of keeping quality provides a means of incorporating physio-
logical changes and storage stability into these studies. All terms de-
scribed are readily quantifiable.
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