How to assess animal products qualitiy of mountain livestock farming systems?

In Europe, the recent decline of ruminant product consumption is accompanied by growing consumer/citizen demand for high-quality products. Expectations are related to both intrinsic quality (product safety, nutritional value and sensory features), and extrinsic quality (animal welfare, environmental footprint, cultural value or farmer income). With their naturalness image and specific intrinsic qualities, mountain products can meet current consumer/citizen demands. Their differentiation is crucial to overcome higher production costs due to limitations in land-use. Research of the past decades highlighted the individual farming practices determining animal products intrinsic quality. Some specific practices encountered in mountain livestock farming (i.e. use of permanent grasslands and local breeds) are among the key drivers of mountain products specificity. Nevertheless, the question of how mountain livestock practices or systems can influence simultaneously the various facets of the intrinsic and extrinsic quality of mountain products is less documented. In this presentation, the emphasis is on recent or ongoing researches that simultaneously take into account intrinsic (safety, nutritional value and sensory characteristics) and extrinsic (animal welfare, environmental footprint, etc.) quality traits. These first studies focused on nutritional quality and environmental impacts assessed by life cycle analyses or multi-criteria approaches. Methodological and conceptual obstacles need to be overcome to take into account other dimensions of the intrinsic (safety, sensory) and extrinsic quality. For the latter, the priority is the inclusion of animal welfare and ecosystem services provided by farms, some of which (i.e. preservation of biodiversity) are essential for characterising mountain farming systems and products.