Objective:

To determine the structure of the human values amongst local consumers of “queso Crema de Chiapas” and “queso Bola de Ocosingo”, and to identify the meanings and communalities that native consumers give to these cheeses.

Methodology:

A survey was applied (n1 = 230; n2 = 200) in which each consumer selected the 13 most important values and the 13 least important values, from a list of 40 human values. With the Euclidean distances of the proximity matrices generated with the orderings of the human values, a non-metric dimensional analysis was applied and the first two dimensions were plotted, in addition, the averages and standard deviations for each value were obtained. An image of each of the cheeses studied was showed to the same consumers and they were asked to write three words associated with the image, the answers were grouped by affinity to form categories. A test of k proportions and the Marascuilo procedure were applied to the frequencies of words associated in each category.

Results:

For the “queso Bola de Ocosingo” the human values of respect for tradition, educated and obedient were presented in the eighth, ninth and twenty-eighth places; the highest percentage of commonality of meaning corresponded to the category of hedonism (34.27%) and thirdly the meaning of identity (7.17%). For the “queso Crema of Chiapas” educated, respect for tradition and obedient occupied the fourth, the sixth and the eighth place of importance and the highest percentages of commonality of meanings were presented for the categories of process (10.05%), attributes of appearance ( 13.29%), identity (14.18%), hedonism (15.66%) and food dishes and pairings (16.55%), all statistically equal.

Limitations:

Due to the sample sizes used, the margin of error was 7%.

Conclusions:

The structure of the human values, amongst consumers of the two varieties of cheese was different, the motivational values of tradition and conservation were more important amongst “queso Crema de Chiapas” consumers than amongst “queso Bola de Ocosingo“ consumers. The percentage of the commonality for the meaning of identity was greater in the “queso Crema de Chiapas” than in the “queso Bola de Ocosingo”.

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