Quality of Farmers' Market Produce: Flavor and Pesticide Residues

Previous research has demonstrated advantages of farmers' markets in price and social atmosphere. Following a multi‐method research strategy, additional investigations were done on produce flavor and pesticide residues. Double‐blind flavor trials with nine separate produce items showed a significant preference for farmers' market over supermarket produce on four items, and equivocal results for the remaining five items. Neither the farmers' market nor the supermarket produce contained detectable pesticide residues above the safe tolerance levels set by federal and state agencies.