Consumers’ quality judgement depends on their knowledge concerning certain quality attributes. Against this background this paper presents the results of a consumer survey conducted in 2004. We focus on measuring consumers’ cognitive structures regarding pork and potatoes. On this account we apply a free-association technique and a variation of concept mapping. Our analysis shows that consumers’ cognitive structures are quite complex and heterogeneous. Product characteristics such as ‘taste’ and ‘fat content’ dominate consumers’ knowledge. To predict the eating quality of pork consumers prefer intrinsic quality cues. In contrast to that extrinsic quality cues are used to predict the origin of the given product. With regard to potatoes the intrinsic quality cue ‘appearance’ as well as the extrinsic quality cue ‘kind’ are used to predict the palatability. This knowledge enables marketers to invent consumer-oriented marketing activities.