Abstract
This article focuses on the conditions of emergence of food quality in Western European rural areas, and confronts the trajectories of agricultural areas with their capacity to develop qualification systems for products. We use an original methodology crossing agricultural and quality typologies at the scale of 200 rural units in three countries (France, Italy and Spain). The results show correlations although the cases are still complex. The fast transformations, as well as regional and national facts are also highlighted. Ultimately, this work leads to a new insight on quality by offering a broad and spatial analysis which can be considered as a first step in an international approach.