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Poor quality fruit & veg. What's yours like?

wulbert

wulbert

pfm Member
I'm noticing a fall-off in the quality of our fruit & veg (mainly bought from Lidl & Sainsburys). Just had a pear that I ended up binning and then the same with a peach. This seems to have started a few weeks ago. A friend tells me he now only buys apples & bananas, because soft fruit has become so unreliable.

Just wondering if this is a "thing" nationally, or are we just unlucky here in Glasgow. What's your fruit & veg quality like? Has it changed recently?
 
I am a massive fruit, veg and salad eater. I have noted the opposite to you the last few weeks. Soft summer fruits have improved. For taste at least. Longevity not so much. I buy in most of the supermarkets as convenient to my travels and occasionally on the market. With the exception of the occasional blip I’m happy enough.
 
I buy all my fruit & veggies from local organic grocers, and quality is generally high. The availabilty and quality of tomatoes has been poor recently, but that could be seasonal. I also try to make it to farmers markets when I can as you can find some wonderful fresh organic and biodynamic produce. I NEVER buy non-organic produce from the big Supermarkets who pay pennies on the dime to the farmers who spray their crops with glyphosates.
 
West London here. Fruit from Tesco has been good this summer - big sweet strawberries and blackberries, nice raspberries too. Cherries are more variable.

I'm a fan of persimmon aka Sharon fruit - bigger Tescos have them at times. And passion fruit. Cape gooseberries are delicious but rare these days.

Street markets are very variable - strawberries rot within 2 days. Avocados often disgusting inside. I assume they're all frozen and once defrosted go bad very fast.
 
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Bodhi said:
I buy all my fruit & veggies from local organic grocers, and quality is generally high. The availabilty and quality of tomatoes has been poor recently, but that could be seasonal. I also try to make it to farmers markets when I can as you can find some wonderful fresh organic and biodynamic produce. I NEVER buy non-organic produce from the big Supermarkets who pay pennies on the dime to the farmers who spray their crops with glyophosphates.
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Presumably you mean glyphosate, nobody sprays their crops with it unless they want them to die. You can easily check out a label online for about 20 different versions
 
dweezil said:
Presumably you mean glyphosate, nobody sprays their crops with it unless they want them to die. You can easily check out a label online for about 20 different versions
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Ok maybe I was over-generalising. But all non-organic/biodynamic crops are sprayed with pesticides, and some with yes, glyphosate. They are typically the farmers who use Bayer/Monsanto terminator seeds which are highly resistant to roundup. So yes, know your labels. Like everything in life, what you choose to put in your stomach is a choice.
 
Although no one seems to want to admit to it, there is in my experience significant regional differences in the quality of fresh produce particularly between North and South of the Border.

Your experience with fresh fruit and vegetables mirrors my experience in Edinburgh and the Lothians to the extent we are seriously considering regularly shopping at Waitrose.
 
Would help to know which part of the country people are in?

We used to get our fruit & veg from an organic shop (brilliant bread too) but it closed down over the winter due to poor sales (and no nearby parking). I've since tried the (only other) proper fruit & veg shop in the high street, but since it also sells sandwiches and coffee, I get pissed off queueing to buy my carrots behind a line of people waiting for lattes and sarnies. I'll go back there and see what their stuff looks like.
 
Copperjacket said:
Although no one seems to want to admit to it, there is in my experience significant regional differences in the quality of fresh produce particularly between North and South of the Border.

Your experience with fresh fruit and vegetables mirrors my experience in Edinburgh and the Lothians to the extent we are seriously considering regularly shopping at Waitrose.
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That is partly what I'm wondering. I reckon London & the South East will always get the pick of any crop. But if import quality is dropping off, then us northerners will feel it first.
 
wulbert said:
Would help to know which part of the country people are in?

We used to get our fruit & veg from an organic shop (brilliant bread too) but it closed down over the winter due to poor sales (and no nearby parking). I've since tried the (only other) proper fruit & veg shop in the high street, but since it also sells sandwiches and coffee, I get pissed off queueing to buy my carrots behind a line of people waiting for lattes and sarnies. I'll go back there and see what their stuff looks like.
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I live in Melb, Australia. A couple of possible options...there may be organic grocers who deliver to your area. In my neck, there are a few online organic grocers who only do deliveries, whilst a few shops also offer delivery. Also any local farmers markets might be worth a visit.
 
ASDA frozen veg and tinned fruit are fine. A couple of weeks ago I ate a fresh salad as usual and copped a spectacular e-coli infection from the lettuce.. I gather that ASDA may be prosecuted about their prepared sandwich packets containing lettuce.
 
wulbert said:
I'm noticing a fall-off in the quality of our fruit & veg (mainly bought from Lidl & Sainsburys). Just had a pear that I ended up binning and then the same with a peach. This seems to have started a few weeks ago. A friend tells me he now only buys apples & bananas, because soft fruit has become so unreliable.

Just wondering if this is a "thing" nationally, or are we just unlucky here in Glasgow. What's your fruit & veg quality like? Has it changed recently?
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I'm with you on this, bought some bluberries two days ago and half are rotten. Spuds are crap aswell, dont even mention the overpriced tasteless "jersey" spuds. Limp lettuce, after two days(Oh Matron),its generally very poor, and as a veggie, its really poor.
 
Pravda said:
overpriced tasteless "jersey" spuds
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jersey royals from the coop were tasty and lasted a good period of time

Little gems from Ocado stay crisp for about 5 days, if they go a bit limp braise them in butter, with onion and peas (and perhaps a splash of white vermouth)
 
Define quality.

Was the fruit just already over ripe or was it actually going off? because there's a big difference. In Brazil you'll frequently find over ripe fruit on the shelf. At least it's over ripe from our UK perspective. Doesn't seem to bother most Brazilians though, and it often tastes better than the rather bland fruit we have here.
 
Thing is people don't want our food corrupted by preservatives etc, but then many then complain that food spoils too quickly. Supermarkets can't win. You can't have food that is both free from chemicals etc but last weeks.
 
herb said:
ASDA frozen veg and tinned fruit are fine. A couple of weeks ago I ate a fresh salad as usual and copped a spectacular e-coli infection from the lettuce.. I gather that ASDA may be prosecuted about their prepared sandwich packets containing lettuce.
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With the exception of additional salt and/or sugars, from a vitamin and minerals etc perspective tinned and frozen has been shown multiple times to be superior nutritionally to "fresh" fruit.

Also, freezing does absolutely nothing to diminish the amount or quality of fibre in vegetables, even if it ends up as mush on your plate makes zero difference to the fibre. The claim that fresh veg is superior is a myth for fibre is a myth.
 
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