Foods 2021, 10, 105. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10010105 www.mdpi.com/journal/foods Review Consumer Preference, Quality, and Safety of Organic and Conventional Fresh Fruits, Vegetables, and Cereals S.M.E. Rahman 1,† , Mahmuda Akter Mele 2,† , Young‐Tack Lee 3 and Mohammad Zahirul Islam 3, * 1 Department of Animal Science, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh; ehsan_bau@yahoo.com or syedrahman@bau.edu.bd 2 Department of Horticulture, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 24341, Korea; mele@kangwon.ac.kr 3 Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, Gachon University, Seongnam 13120, Korea; ytlee@gachon.ac.kr * Correspondence: zahirul@gachon.ac.kr † S.M.E. Rahman and Mahmuda Akter Mele share co‐first authorship. Abstract: Growing and purchasing demand for organic fresh produce is increasing rapidly. Consumers are aware of health, environmental safety, pesticide harmfulness, nutrients, bioactive compounds, and safe food. Many research works are available on organic and conventional fresh produce. As organic fresh produce growing and purchasing demand is increasing, it has become necessary to review the recent trends in quality, safety, and consumer preferences of organic and conventional fresh food products. A few reports have been compiled on organic and conventional fresh produce. Researchers have started working on organic and conventional fresh produce with the help of modern technology to improve nutritional and functional quality, safety, and consumer preferences. Nutritional and functional quality, safety, and consumer preferences depend on cultivation techniques, treatment, crop cultivar, and appearance of products. Therefore, it is necessary to compile the literature on organic and conventional fresh produce based on quality, safety, and consumer preferences. Keywords: antioxidant; phenolic content; sugar content; vitamin C 1. Introduction Organic and conventional fruit, vegetable, and cereal quality, safety, and preferences are becoming an issue for producers and consumers considered in the literature. Consumers demand quality and safety of fresh produce. Fresh produce quality reflects on taste, color, nutritional value, and microbial safety [1,2]. As it is grown in an organic manner, there undoubtedly are no synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, which can be harmful to human health. While synthetic pesticides are not authorized in many countries for organic farming, growers use manure and compost as organic fertilizer [3,4]. Growing and consumption trends are increasing daily. For example, there has been around 90% sales increase in North America and Europe [5]. The organic food industry is convincing the public that it is healthier, tastier, and better for the environment. Consumers prefer organic produce due to socioeconomics and attitudes to human health and the environment. The conventional system typically uses synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, which can be harmful to human health if growers use them improperly [4,6]. For the careful application of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, growers need proper knowledge about plant nutrients and food safety. Adequate application of fertilizers, pesticides, and manure can be beneficial for human health. It is very difficult to compare organic and conventional foods. A valid comparison requires the same cultivar, proximity of the farms, similar growing media, same climate Citation: Rahman, S.M.E.; Mele, M.A.; Lee, Y.‐T.; Islam, M.Z. Consumer Preference, Quality, and Safety of Organic and Conventional Fresh Fruits, Vegetables and Cereals. Foods 2021, 10, 105. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10010105 Received: 21 November 2020 Accepted: 31 December 2020 Published: 6 January 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses /by/4.0/).