Introduction

This chapter is an introduction to the book. It summarizes fundamental messages and concepts and describes the structure of the work. The concepts of quality and excellence in the agri-food context are introduced and defined. References to the current agri-food regulation on quality and excellence are highlighted. The concept of sustainability is also introduced and defined, even if it is taken up and deepened in the first chapter of the book. In the end, this introductory part describes how the chapters are organized. It illustrates the organization of the case studies and the reasons behind the choice of the five products of excellence analyzed in the rest of the book.