Studies which analyze price-quality relations in the consumer goods market are mainly more than ten years old and deal marginally with food products. In this survey, the sceptical findings are confirmed with a special focus on the food market. The results show that food quality, risk avoidance and increase in quality benefits are not determined by price levels. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that private labels in general – and the private labels of the discounter in particular – have a better price-quality ratio than manufacturer brands and private labels of supermarkets and hypermarkets.