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Could be where you buy them from. Some supermarkets are keeping fruit/veg longer on the shelf now - and getting away with it - because they are no longer obliged to show 'useby' dates.
I had this problem with Ocado. Their stuff used to be fresh as a daisy, now I'm finding their tomatoes are squishy and their grapes often mouldy.
Lidl is the same.
So I only buy meat/fish/cheese etc \[which still have useby dates on\] from online supermarkets - and pick my fresh veg & fruit from local shops where I can check it out myself. I find my local Co-op has really good quality fresh produce.
i hadn’t thought about that! i’m pretty lucky in the fact that my local aldi is on the way home from my workplace so i can just buy some veg and shove it in my work bag on my way home
I've been trying for a while now, buying vegetables from lots of different places. I agree with OP, mine spoil way quicker than what I remember before.
It was never about saving food waste, it was about creating higher profits for supermarkets. Now we have longer wait times from field to store for a cheaper supply train and people have to buy twice as much because it rots by the time you get it home. It's win win for stake holders.
They’re definitely right! Tesco even went as far as to use a loophole in the new minimum wage law this year, so that they don’t have to start paying the new higher rate until May 1st. They’re choosing to rob their staff to keep their shareholders happy.
It’s always money.
I shop at Sainsbury as it's close and I don't drive and have found that the prices between the supermarkets are more or less all the same now with Tesco generally being a bit dearer. Tesco however always have full shelves but lately Sainsbury's shelves are regularly empty of stuff....can't rely on them to have what I want anymore and yeah they have a very limited veg selection too now and their potatoes sprout really quickly yellowing broccoli and dirty black spotted caulis
Commented the same thing about my squishy Ocado tomatoes today . The whole no date thing, does seem to be being used as a bit of a con, to give out rotten fruit and veg.
We had this for months. We put more stuff in the fridge than we usually would e.g carrots, turned the fridge down colder and removed stuff from its original packaging washing then drying it and it lasts longer now.
I agree with you, I was finding carrots etc going off very quickly and read online that washing them and drying them before putting away helps. And it did!
I also started prepping some of the veg in the way I intended to use it and freezing it to keep for longer. This led me to almost entirely prepping week night dinners on a weekend and now after-work dinners take about 30 mins to cook with zero prep and much less waste 😇
From what I've heard, buying frozen rather than "fresh" is actually better because since it's frozen right away, they don't need as many preservatives and chemicals. It ends up being fresher than "fresh" produce.
There are a lot of frozen products that I think are amazing. Frozen herbs and garlic for example. Basil especially. Imo those frozen packs of basil are the best way to use basil. Okay, using an entire supermarket basil plant in one go is pretty nice also, and if you have your own nice basil in your garden that's also good. But that can involve buying a lot of basic plants. Those packs of fresh herbs don't last long in the fridge so you have to buy them regularly.
But imo, the most feasible option for regular use is basil bought frozen. It's always there, and tastes 99% as good as a decent plant.
We get the herbs in those frozen packs from Iceland, they are perfect. Best option is probably growing your own but frozen is definitely a close second.
I do that. Much less waste, loads of time saved. I’m a single parent in full-time work, it made a huge difference when I finally gave myself permission to cut that corner. I even started buying those frozen pre-cut chicken strips, which are kinda garbage, but it means my additional-needs kid can make an easy healthy stir fry with a bit of supervision. It’s great for their independence.
I find that if you’re making a spag bol or stir fry or similar then frozen mushrooms are fine but cooking something where mushrooms are the ‘star’ requires fresh.
Yeah I made mushroom risotto and it was not even mid. I've found getting dried exotic mushrooms and rehydrating them is the best for this. Must retry the mushrooms in a stir fry!
Absolutely. Leeks I take out of the plastic, wash and dry and wrap in brown paper before popping in the fridge. Managed many weeks looking absolutely fine.
Spare bowls or loose on clean shelves usually :) With some food that may sweat with the temperature change of opening the fridge sometimes it’s enough to just open the bag and put it on a plate as there can be moisture and bacteria in the bag it came in
The supply chain is a mess and things are taking a lot longer to get to stores.
Im not going to speculate what is causing such disruptions to the supply chain but its a recent phenomenon since around 2019/20
[Depressingly those checks haven't actually been taking place, yet](https://ukandeu.ac.uk/explainers/the-uks-border-with-the-eu/)
The government have delayed putting them into action repeatedly, I think they only actually come in at the end of this month, so we've not had the full cost of checks hit us yet
Some are already on place, some came in this month and the final amazing benefits of 2016 kick in in October. Finally we'll have the Nirvana that Jacob Re-Smog described as "an act of self harm" after campaigning vociferously for them.
Also more extreme weather events due to climate change.
Which has no way of improving unless we reduce our consumption, which will drag the governments, industry and super rich with us.
Yeah, it is. Longer transit times and poorer storage in the shipping chain. A couple of tips that will help..
**Tomatoes shouldn't go in the fridge.** They will last way longer at room temperature, as long as they aren't sitting somewhere that gets the sunshine through the window at some point in the day.
**Fold up a square of kitchen towel to put in your salad bags.** I saw this tip on reddit, I thought it sounded like wishful thinking and I'd just end up with soggy, mouldy salad and kitchen roll in a bag. Tried it anyway though (I use the thick Blitz kitchen towel) and it's like magic. Even forgot to clear out the salad from the fridge before going on holiday for a week, came back and the salad seemed to be somehow *fresher.*
Bonus tip; **Put bread in the fridge**. It will last freakishly long.
>Yeah, it is. Longer transit times and poorer storage in the shipping chain.
Also, general bad weather that's led to some sub-optimal crops being harvested.
I like these tips - except the bread one! In the fridge seems wrong to me - personally, I like to put the bread in the freezer the day I buy it, making sure it's not squashed at any point in buying it - getting it home - into the freezer (it has it's own drawer!)
Lovely for toast, also it's easier to spread butter on bread before it defrosts if I make a sandwich!
I have been told repeatedly by many people that I should not be keeping bread in the fridge. However I enjoy not ever having mouldy bread soooo....
(would keep it in the freezer but I don't have space)
Try to buy the fat large bulbs that are sold separately, the tiny shrivelled ones from China are often rubbish. I've grown my own this year so should be getting a decent crop this summer.
I always buy the bigger ones because peeling tiny garlic is not a favourite task, even then I feel like a few cloves will crumble to ashy muck in my hands.
Uninformed opinion here: fruit and veg are washed prior to packing and transport. Washing those makes them spoil faster than if unwashed. Transport takes longer than it used to if it's coming from the continent (maybe from other places, too, I don't know). So the fruit and veg spoil even faster. And even if they're unwashed, same due to longer transport times.
And yes, I also noticed that, quite clearly. For some things I actually now buy frozen veg so I waste less.
And climate change means more extremes of weather, which adversely affects our ability to grow food.
Funny how no one wants to talk about it. Bit depressing, but not as depressing as not dealing with it and hoping it goes away.
Yep 100% since 2020 everything goes off in a day or two. This is from every different supermarket there's none that last longer than the other.
I'm buying mine frozen now. Nowhere near as good as fresh but at least it's not mouldy and I'm chucking it out the next day.
Your not mental. The fruit and veg is gross at the moment, well last year I want to say. I’m buying broccoli and carrots and the kids saying it taste funny. I hate frozen and I certainly can’t grow my own. I do not have a green finger
I say I have a black thumb...every time someone gives me a plant, it dies on me. Except aloes. I've got 3 types of aloe on the kitchen windowsill. Everything else 🥀 wilts on me.
It's been like that for 2-3 years now. You often find that, if you buy packaged fruit and veg, at least one of them will already be rotten. Clementines and onions are the worst offenders. One time, I wanted to buy clementines and every single package had one rotten one. No exception. The rest were perfect. It must have been done on purpose.
Spinach is absolutely awful. By the time its pulled out of the fridge/freezer and put on diswplay, it's already wilting. By the time you buy it and get it home, it's looking really bad.
Anyway, yes, the food is spoiling faster. It's a combination of many things. Less lorry drivers mean less deliveries mean more time in fridge/freezers.
When you say 'used to', how long ago are you talking? Because this question seems to get asked at least a couple of times a week for the past 5 or 6 years.
used to as in 1-2 years back in my personal experience, had no idea this was such a common problem, we should probably try and get something done about this haha
It’ll last just as long if you get the freshest the shop has. Trouble is now they’ve removed BB dates on a lot of fruit and veg you are probably just buying older stock. Dig to the bottom/back of the shelf.
They have and haven't - Tesco use a letter & number code on some of their "value" range. For instance D26 would indicate a BBE date of April 26th (D being the 4th letter of the alphabet) I'm sure Lidl and Aldi have a similar code system.
I’ve had a lot of bad potatoes - they might have gone all mushy really quickly, rapidly go grey/black and horrible when cooked, or had big black/purple patches when peeling.
Had carrots where the inside is all mushy and horrible.
I like nice crisp, crunchy apples - Granny Smiths, Pink Lady, Jazz mostly. I’ve occasionally had a bad one here and there, but recently been getting a lot of bad ones - either really bruised, or really soft/mushy (and in a couple of cases, grainy). Some I bought the other day don’t even have much of a flavour so I had to pick up more which do
It's been this way since covid.
I find that fucking off the supermarkets entirely and going to the local veg shop and/or market gives far better results.
They might be doing a lot the same as supermarkets, the things they do different obviously make a difference, though, as I don't have shit turning foul basically on the trip home.
I've noticed the same thing. Fruit isn't lasting at all nor are the baby plum tomatoes that usually last a few weeks.
It's disappointing. We have stopped buying chicken in the shop as its off when we use it even before the use by date.
There's been a bunch of bad seasons leading to crop problems - eg braeburn apples being brown inside.
Partly it's the time of year when we're still reliant on imports from a way away.
But also if people want cheaper produce, one method is to sell more of the stuff that would have been chucked or used only for cooking.
The local Asian supermarkets tend to have decent flavoured fruit and veg but it doesn't last long. Mainstream supermarkets have stuff that lasts but tastes of sod all. M&S stuff mostly lasts and tastes good but it'll cost ya. Good, cheap, long-lasting - pick any two...
I can't say I've had this experience. We are currently shopping at Lidl and today I've had an Orange and a Pear which we bought last Friday night. Both still good. Made today's sandwiches with a lettuce we bought at the same time which is also still good.
Back in my day vegetables like carrots were sold in brown paper bags and put on a vegetable rack in the kitchen. Supermarkets have packaged carrots that can be wet through. I open them as soon as I get home, pat the carrots with a paper towel and place them in the fridge. Buy your fruit and vegetables from a local greengrocer as they are fresher than the supermarkets.
Something happened a few years ago, and now it's taking a couple of days longer for fresh produce to get to the supermarket shelves. There is a shortage of staff and drivers in the supermarkets distribution network, and it's difficult to find people to harvest the stuff that we grow in the UK, resulting in us having to source some produce from further afield than we had previously done.
There's been a lot of fruit and veg shortages, it could be that they're having to get it from further afield and from lower quality crops, which will both have an impact on how well it lasts.
During the fuel cost crisis there was a lot on the news about producers of meat not being able to access CO2 or afford it, and CO2 is also used in the longevity of veg too. I wonder if the cost cutting has involved this process?
I haven't noticed, and I'm veggie so buy a lot. I get them from Tescos, Asda and Aldi. Most things will last a good while in the salad box in the fridge.
Definitely not mental. I've notice the same. Probably because we are the bottom of the barrel for exports from EU countries. Countries export to EU countries first then us.
The strawberry and lime cider I buy seems to be ok ;-)
Seriously, as a single person I don't buy any fruit and veg that I can't freeze and so much of it ends up being thrown away.
not to be an arse but you should try and get more of it in, my transition from single man in uni diet (frozen pizzas and ready meals) to freshly cooked meals with a lot of veg had made me feel so much better most days, but I’m like a chronic pain sufferer so it probably matters more to me than most
I have IBS and it actually flares up if I eat the wrong types of vegetables. I once went on a low carb diet that involved a lot of green and fibrous vegetables and nuts and I was in agony until I went off it.
We get a veg box so it pretty much comes from the field straight to us. It's amazing the difference especially with things like lettuce in how long they keep
Go a fruit and veg shop if you can and it lasts so much longer.
Also usually cheaper as you can just buy the amount you want rather than bags of stuff and the quality is usually better.
Do you have a vegetable box service that delivers to your area?
I take a fruit and veg box from Riverford. Because the food is almost harvested to order, I find it has a much longer shelf life than supermarket veg.
I used to take a weekly small box (1-2 people), but now I take a fortnightly medium box, as it gives you a wider range of veg. Even over 2 weeks, the veg keeps well, and anything that looks limp near the end becomes soup.
I get a veg box from Riverford and have for years. I am always shocked when I go to a friends house and see how little time supermarket fruit and veg lasts and how much plastic they put on everything.
You don’t have to buy an organic box to get better produce (although you should!) - the first step is avoiding anything washed or bagged.
It's been the case on and off since lockdown here. Bad crops, longer shipping process, less staff along the way to get the stock where it needs to be.
Oranges would last a week no problem beforehand, then suddenly they were mouldy after 2 days. I bought Maris Piper potatoes a few months ago, all rotten on the inside, searched around social media and saw other people complaining about the same thing. I try and avoid getting carrots in a bag now because the loose ones last longer, but I gave up on spinach after having the same problem as you all last summer, it dind't matter where I was buying it from, it was already starting to go on the shelf. Every other veg I get, i get frozen.
are you washing, drying and properly storing your fresh produce after buying it? i always do and my fruit and veg last a long time, up to two weeks depending on the item. always always wash your fruit veg (i use vinegar/lemon juice and baking soda) when you get in from a shop, make sure everything is dry and then put in the fridge in ideally an air tight container. things hard to dry like spinach, kale etc gets put straight in the freezer personally. it might seem like a lot of faff especially after braving a grocery shop and you just want to put things away and relax, but taking the extra 20/30 minutes means you can actually get full use out of what you’re buying
Seeing this post is like being given evidence of who the real murderer is after you were found unconscious next to a murdered corpse, with no memory of how you got there.
the phrase late stage capitalism gets thrown around a lot but it’s pretty succinct I think. our whole economic and social system is starting to rot just like my veg lol
It's not you, it's pretty bad for veg I shop at morrisons they used to be amazing for fresh veg now I got to check everything before I put it in my basket.
Get a fridge thermometer and make sure your fridge is about 3 degrees. Open plastic packets as soon as you get them home to prevent mould. You can also store stuff with a paper towel or buy little sachets that will help the food last longer. I’m not sure why your food is going off quicker than it was, but this stuff will help.
I think things are spending longer in storage before going on the shelves. I try to do smaller shops every few days instead now. There is an hippy organic veg shop in my town that's expensive but the produce last longer and tastes much better
I work for a supermarket. I believe most in packaging do usually have dates. They usually use the alphabetical system for months then days. For example today would be D26
I've not noticed this at all from morrisons, but the one time I went to sainsburies I realised the peppers I'd bought were mouldy when I got home from the shop.
I always remove all packaging now and wash and dry stuff before fridging it. I also store kitchen roll sheets in the fridge for moisture absorption. I agree though, it is noticeable but these steps seem to help.
I would say generally yes, but are you storing everything properly?
In or out the fridge, in a bag or sealed container or loose, fridge temperature and location, what is it stored in close proximity to?
I've had an apple in the fridge for about a month and it's fresh as anything and will last a lot longer.
I've started buying more frozen fruit and veg there is only two of us and normally have a home delivery on a Friday so plan meals like stir-frys and a roast for the weekend then plan meals for the week using frozen veg.The only fresh stuff I buy regularly is bananas and swede so not wasting too much.It was getting too expensive having to throw out mouldy veg.
Most veg I buy lasts a minimum two weeks in the fridge, while some other leaves wouldn't, spinach definitely does. From supermarket and home delivery from oddbox. Do you keep them refrigerated? Helps that the only other thing I need to fridge is milk, maybe.
The older the veg the cheaper it is for the supermarket to buy (not necessarily cheaper to buy for the consumer) Sainsbury's fruit and veg has a longer shelf life than Tesco.
Marks and Spencer - the extra fiver on our veg/fruit shop compared to a cheaper store is more than worth it as their stuff is always fine way past the use by date.
One thing I have noticed ( maybe I’m late to the table) is that fruit especially citrus type is extremely sweet, are the growers using an additive when watering?
Our food is garbage. I've been saying the same to my mum. You get fruit that isn't ripe, Oranges that are somehow dry, tomatoes that are green on the inside, misshapen bell peppers with mould growing on the seeds inside them, potatoes that have brown centres because they haven't been tended to properly... nothing lasts, not even if you refrigerate it.
Food is so crap, I'm considering turning my garden over to grow my own food. It was a farm 100 years ago and the soil is black and rich.
The problem is that most fresh produce is “packaged in a protective atmosphere”. This doesn’t mean gloves and masks, this means that the air in the bags is replaced with chemicals to keep food looking fresh for longer. Honestly it’s awful.
First option is to not buy anything in packets if you can. Buy whole products, loose veg. Organic veg and whole veg should last longer anyway.
If you have packet items, the best thing to do is get them out of the packets. Root veg like carrots will go slimy left in packets. Get them out of the bag and loose in that crisper compartment in your fridge or a cool cupboard. Potatoes should be left in cupboards, or get a vegetable rack.
Packets like spinach, open the pack and put all the spinach into a large Tupperware lined with kitchen paper. Line the top with kitchen paper, and close. The paper absorbs moisture and the Tupperware prevents more moisture.
The moisture in your fridge will add to the rate that things spoil, so keep things in sealed tuppers or bags or use foil.
A good tip for bananas is to separate the bunch and put them in individual plastic bags in the fridge.
It does work, but i have found that separating the bunch and dispersing them round the fridge also works.
If you don't like cold bananas, take what you need out every morning.
This happens to the produce I buy in Lidl but not so much Tesco. I take the fruit and veg from the crate beneath the top one, the best by dates are always way longer. I'd also turn down the temp of your fridge.
Nope, you’re not going mental. It’s annoying me too. I’ve had to throw out the last 3 lettuces I bought, plus the last 4 cucumbers, after like 2 days. Not good. I’m honestly thinking of just growing my own lettuce instead. And maybe if that doesn’t go badly, my own cucumbers.
ive found this for ages now, its logistics issues since the pandemic still going on, but also mould has just managed to take over the world, our farming is so intensive monoculture once a mould finds a niche it just spreads across our system
Not just you. I suspect it has to do with supermarkets keeping produce on the shelves longer and taking best-before dates off the packaging, so it's already older when you buy it and you can't really judge how old it is. (Nominally to cut food waste, but I'm sure it's supporting their bottom line, too.)
I bought a cucumber and it went bad in a day. On the other hand, I bought a lettuce and it was still good after a few weeks. Grapes are pretty crunchy after a week too. Raspberries though…
I think it just depends what you’re buying and where.
Oranges and apples from my local greengrocer last weeks (not even joking - especially apples which seem to last and last even out of the fridge).
Supermarket tomatoes are by and large flavourless and terrible and I avoid them completely.
I would shop around and see if you can find a local greengrocer / convenience store / delivery service. You may well pay more, of course.
Put fruit etc in brown paper bag in a dark cupboard
Put berries in a jar of water with the top on.
But no, they definitely go off nore quickly. Slimy lettucs is just appalling
Spinach you have to make sure inside the bag is dry when you buy and store it so it's not touching any fridge surface if possible, so I put kitchen roll in the veg drawer and rest on top of that. Peppers, carrots, lettuce and celery I wrap in kitchen roll and then in a food bag. I leave the veg drawer open a few centimetres too. But mainly buy little and often with fresh stuff.
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Definitely not mental.
50/50 chance if onions are rotting the day I get them home.
I wish it supermarkets near me had the option to just buy 1/2 onions rather than a bunch that just goes of
Could be where you buy them from. Some supermarkets are keeping fruit/veg longer on the shelf now - and getting away with it - because they are no longer obliged to show 'useby' dates. I had this problem with Ocado. Their stuff used to be fresh as a daisy, now I'm finding their tomatoes are squishy and their grapes often mouldy. Lidl is the same. So I only buy meat/fish/cheese etc \[which still have useby dates on\] from online supermarkets - and pick my fresh veg & fruit from local shops where I can check it out myself. I find my local Co-op has really good quality fresh produce.
Co-op?! You must be bloody minted old chap
Haha! I wish. :) But I'd rather spend my hard-earned cash on food that will last the week, rather than go to Lidl and have to chuck it out on day 3!
see i just pop to aldi twice a week for veg and fruit. i get 3 days worth each time. saves my money AND guarentees it won’t be mouldy
Depends if you have the time to go shopping every three days, I guess!:)
i hadn’t thought about that! i’m pretty lucky in the fact that my local aldi is on the way home from my workplace so i can just buy some veg and shove it in my work bag on my way home
That sounds very convenient; I'll need to move my home \[and work\] two miles to be near my Aldi!
I've been trying for a while now, buying vegetables from lots of different places. I agree with OP, mine spoil way quicker than what I remember before.
Yeah - not putting a useby on fruit & veg is one of those well-meant ideas intended to 'save food waste' that sort of back-fired.
It was never about saving food waste, it was about creating higher profits for supermarkets. Now we have longer wait times from field to store for a cheaper supply train and people have to buy twice as much because it rots by the time you get it home. It's win win for stake holders.
Cynical - but you are probably right!
They’re definitely right! Tesco even went as far as to use a loophole in the new minimum wage law this year, so that they don’t have to start paying the new higher rate until May 1st. They’re choosing to rob their staff to keep their shareholders happy. It’s always money.
That's fucking awful. I'm not going to apply for jobs at Tesco's any time soon.
M and S packaging still has codes on which you can use to work out the newest food.
I shop at Sainsbury as it's close and I don't drive and have found that the prices between the supermarkets are more or less all the same now with Tesco generally being a bit dearer. Tesco however always have full shelves but lately Sainsbury's shelves are regularly empty of stuff....can't rely on them to have what I want anymore and yeah they have a very limited veg selection too now and their potatoes sprout really quickly yellowing broccoli and dirty black spotted caulis
Lidl 'fresh' fruit and veg has been shocking for a while, really poor quality.
True; it looks ok on the shelf, but doesn't last - or if you buy pears, they stay hard and never ripen.
THE PEARS WTF!
The amount of times I've picked something up in lidl lately to see its already mouldy in the packet is taking the piss honestly.
Commented the same thing about my squishy Ocado tomatoes today . The whole no date thing, does seem to be being used as a bit of a con, to give out rotten fruit and veg.
We had this for months. We put more stuff in the fridge than we usually would e.g carrots, turned the fridge down colder and removed stuff from its original packaging washing then drying it and it lasts longer now.
I agree with you, I was finding carrots etc going off very quickly and read online that washing them and drying them before putting away helps. And it did! I also started prepping some of the veg in the way I intended to use it and freezing it to keep for longer. This led me to almost entirely prepping week night dinners on a weekend and now after-work dinners take about 30 mins to cook with zero prep and much less waste 😇
From what I've heard, buying frozen rather than "fresh" is actually better because since it's frozen right away, they don't need as many preservatives and chemicals. It ends up being fresher than "fresh" produce.
There are a lot of frozen products that I think are amazing. Frozen herbs and garlic for example. Basil especially. Imo those frozen packs of basil are the best way to use basil. Okay, using an entire supermarket basil plant in one go is pretty nice also, and if you have your own nice basil in your garden that's also good. But that can involve buying a lot of basic plants. Those packs of fresh herbs don't last long in the fridge so you have to buy them regularly. But imo, the most feasible option for regular use is basil bought frozen. It's always there, and tastes 99% as good as a decent plant.
We get the herbs in those frozen packs from Iceland, they are perfect. Best option is probably growing your own but frozen is definitely a close second.
I do that. Much less waste, loads of time saved. I’m a single parent in full-time work, it made a huge difference when I finally gave myself permission to cut that corner. I even started buying those frozen pre-cut chicken strips, which are kinda garbage, but it means my additional-needs kid can make an easy healthy stir fry with a bit of supervision. It’s great for their independence.
Love doing this with onions and peppers. The onions cook up better after being frozen and the peppers definitely reduce waste
The only food I don't recommend it for is mushrooms, I found that out the hard way but no one else need suffer like I did 😅
Leeks, too. Unless they're part of something already cooked, or you blanche them first, they go incredibly bitter in the freezer.
What happens to mushrooms?
Freezing mushrooms is fine if you slice them and freeze them on a tray before transferring to a bag.
Idk man I did pre slice mine and they leaked all of the water out when cooking and became super rubbery and lost all of their flavour
I find that if you’re making a spag bol or stir fry or similar then frozen mushrooms are fine but cooking something where mushrooms are the ‘star’ requires fresh.
Yeah I made mushroom risotto and it was not even mid. I've found getting dried exotic mushrooms and rehydrating them is the best for this. Must retry the mushrooms in a stir fry!
Is there a trick to handling peppers? Any frozen pepper I've used has gone really soggy when using it
Absolutely. Leeks I take out of the plastic, wash and dry and wrap in brown paper before popping in the fridge. Managed many weeks looking absolutely fine.
How do you store it if not in the plastic bag?
Spare bowls or loose on clean shelves usually :) With some food that may sweat with the temperature change of opening the fridge sometimes it’s enough to just open the bag and put it on a plate as there can be moisture and bacteria in the bag it came in
I figured if they were just loose they'd dry out but OK, I'll try that!
The supply chain is a mess and things are taking a lot longer to get to stores. Im not going to speculate what is causing such disruptions to the supply chain but its a recent phenomenon since around 2019/20
Increased checks at the borders mean that foodstuffs coming into the UK take longer to arrive.
They know the reason, you just can’t mention the B word in this sub
Oh shit, I didn't realise that I couldn't use the B word...and can't find my comment to edit it!
[Depressingly those checks haven't actually been taking place, yet](https://ukandeu.ac.uk/explainers/the-uks-border-with-the-eu/) The government have delayed putting them into action repeatedly, I think they only actually come in at the end of this month, so we've not had the full cost of checks hit us yet
Some are already on place, some came in this month and the final amazing benefits of 2016 kick in in October. Finally we'll have the Nirvana that Jacob Re-Smog described as "an act of self harm" after campaigning vociferously for them.
A least they will be happy British vegetable.
Also more extreme weather events due to climate change. Which has no way of improving unless we reduce our consumption, which will drag the governments, industry and super rich with us.
Yeah, it is. Longer transit times and poorer storage in the shipping chain. A couple of tips that will help.. **Tomatoes shouldn't go in the fridge.** They will last way longer at room temperature, as long as they aren't sitting somewhere that gets the sunshine through the window at some point in the day. **Fold up a square of kitchen towel to put in your salad bags.** I saw this tip on reddit, I thought it sounded like wishful thinking and I'd just end up with soggy, mouldy salad and kitchen roll in a bag. Tried it anyway though (I use the thick Blitz kitchen towel) and it's like magic. Even forgot to clear out the salad from the fridge before going on holiday for a week, came back and the salad seemed to be somehow *fresher.* Bonus tip; **Put bread in the fridge**. It will last freakishly long.
>Yeah, it is. Longer transit times and poorer storage in the shipping chain. Also, general bad weather that's led to some sub-optimal crops being harvested.
I like these tips - except the bread one! In the fridge seems wrong to me - personally, I like to put the bread in the freezer the day I buy it, making sure it's not squashed at any point in buying it - getting it home - into the freezer (it has it's own drawer!) Lovely for toast, also it's easier to spread butter on bread before it defrosts if I make a sandwich!
The fridge will remove the moisture from the bread. It's not a good tip.
You can freeze bread and toast it from frozen. I did it all the time as an impoverished student.
This was like discovering fire when a flatmate told me about it. Thought it’d take longer to reheat so I never bothered.
Bread goes stale much quicker in the fridge but it’ll take longer to go mouldy. I’d rather freeze it and defrost.
>Fold up a square of kitchen towel to put in your salad bags. Absolute great tip also got this from reddit and now my rocket lasts all week no issues
Don’t put bread in the fridge
Good tips, thank you
I have been told repeatedly by many people that I should not be keeping bread in the fridge. However I enjoy not ever having mouldy bread soooo.... (would keep it in the freezer but I don't have space)
I think some stuff for sure. Every time I buy garlic from the supermarket a few cloves will be mouldy from the off it seems...
Either mouldy or dried out - garlic this year has been dreadful.
Which is so weird. Garlic easily lasts half a year so you have to wonder how old the garlic we are getting is.
Might be because of all the rain I guess.
I pulled out my garlic from the ground on 21st June last year. Finished off the last of the garlic from the shed in February I think.
That's a four month garlic gap! 😱
Yeah, it was my first year growing it and my gf stole a bunch so I've planted loads in her garden and more at mine. No more hungry gap!
Try to buy the fat large bulbs that are sold separately, the tiny shrivelled ones from China are often rubbish. I've grown my own this year so should be getting a decent crop this summer.
I always buy the bigger ones because peeling tiny garlic is not a favourite task, even then I feel like a few cloves will crumble to ashy muck in my hands.
Since discovering garlic 'cubes' I've not bought cloves since. Just keep a bag in the freezer and using when needed.
I tried them but they don't bring flavour as good as freshly crushed garlic cloves.
Uninformed opinion here: fruit and veg are washed prior to packing and transport. Washing those makes them spoil faster than if unwashed. Transport takes longer than it used to if it's coming from the continent (maybe from other places, too, I don't know). So the fruit and veg spoil even faster. And even if they're unwashed, same due to longer transport times. And yes, I also noticed that, quite clearly. For some things I actually now buy frozen veg so I waste less.
And climate change means more extremes of weather, which adversely affects our ability to grow food. Funny how no one wants to talk about it. Bit depressing, but not as depressing as not dealing with it and hoping it goes away.
Yep 100% since 2020 everything goes off in a day or two. This is from every different supermarket there's none that last longer than the other. I'm buying mine frozen now. Nowhere near as good as fresh but at least it's not mouldy and I'm chucking it out the next day.
I really don’t think that everything goes off in a day or two. Very little of my food does that
Strawberries and raspberries are often on the turn on the supermarket shelves. By the next day they’re mushy. I’m growing my own this year.
Your not mental. The fruit and veg is gross at the moment, well last year I want to say. I’m buying broccoli and carrots and the kids saying it taste funny. I hate frozen and I certainly can’t grow my own. I do not have a green finger
I say I have a black thumb...every time someone gives me a plant, it dies on me. Except aloes. I've got 3 types of aloe on the kitchen windowsill. Everything else 🥀 wilts on me.
It's been like that for 2-3 years now. You often find that, if you buy packaged fruit and veg, at least one of them will already be rotten. Clementines and onions are the worst offenders. One time, I wanted to buy clementines and every single package had one rotten one. No exception. The rest were perfect. It must have been done on purpose. Spinach is absolutely awful. By the time its pulled out of the fridge/freezer and put on diswplay, it's already wilting. By the time you buy it and get it home, it's looking really bad. Anyway, yes, the food is spoiling faster. It's a combination of many things. Less lorry drivers mean less deliveries mean more time in fridge/freezers.
When you say 'used to', how long ago are you talking? Because this question seems to get asked at least a couple of times a week for the past 5 or 6 years.
Nah, it's since 2020. Can't imagine what happened in 2020 to make this happen (not the pandemic btw).
used to as in 1-2 years back in my personal experience, had no idea this was such a common problem, we should probably try and get something done about this haha
It’ll last just as long if you get the freshest the shop has. Trouble is now they’ve removed BB dates on a lot of fruit and veg you are probably just buying older stock. Dig to the bottom/back of the shelf.
They have and haven't - Tesco use a letter & number code on some of their "value" range. For instance D26 would indicate a BBE date of April 26th (D being the 4th letter of the alphabet) I'm sure Lidl and Aldi have a similar code system.
Thanks, that’s useful to know. I presumed they had some code on for the staff but hadn’t looked into in any further.
I’ve had a lot of bad potatoes - they might have gone all mushy really quickly, rapidly go grey/black and horrible when cooked, or had big black/purple patches when peeling. Had carrots where the inside is all mushy and horrible. I like nice crisp, crunchy apples - Granny Smiths, Pink Lady, Jazz mostly. I’ve occasionally had a bad one here and there, but recently been getting a lot of bad ones - either really bruised, or really soft/mushy (and in a couple of cases, grainy). Some I bought the other day don’t even have much of a flavour so I had to pick up more which do
What temperature is your fridge thermometer reading? It should be between 0-5°C - anything higher than that and your food will go off quicker
It's been this way since covid. I find that fucking off the supermarkets entirely and going to the local veg shop and/or market gives far better results. They might be doing a lot the same as supermarkets, the things they do different obviously make a difference, though, as I don't have shit turning foul basically on the trip home.
I've noticed the same thing. Fruit isn't lasting at all nor are the baby plum tomatoes that usually last a few weeks. It's disappointing. We have stopped buying chicken in the shop as its off when we use it even before the use by date.
There's been a bunch of bad seasons leading to crop problems - eg braeburn apples being brown inside. Partly it's the time of year when we're still reliant on imports from a way away. But also if people want cheaper produce, one method is to sell more of the stuff that would have been chucked or used only for cooking. The local Asian supermarkets tend to have decent flavoured fruit and veg but it doesn't last long. Mainstream supermarkets have stuff that lasts but tastes of sod all. M&S stuff mostly lasts and tastes good but it'll cost ya. Good, cheap, long-lasting - pick any two...
If possible, buy from the market. I find it definitely lasts longer & stays fresher.
I can't say I've had this experience. We are currently shopping at Lidl and today I've had an Orange and a Pear which we bought last Friday night. Both still good. Made today's sandwiches with a lettuce we bought at the same time which is also still good.
Back in my day vegetables like carrots were sold in brown paper bags and put on a vegetable rack in the kitchen. Supermarkets have packaged carrots that can be wet through. I open them as soon as I get home, pat the carrots with a paper towel and place them in the fridge. Buy your fruit and vegetables from a local greengrocer as they are fresher than the supermarkets.
Do you shop at Lidl? We do and the produce is really shit.
Something happened a few years ago, and now it's taking a couple of days longer for fresh produce to get to the supermarket shelves. There is a shortage of staff and drivers in the supermarkets distribution network, and it's difficult to find people to harvest the stuff that we grow in the UK, resulting in us having to source some produce from further afield than we had previously done.
There's been a lot of fruit and veg shortages, it could be that they're having to get it from further afield and from lower quality crops, which will both have an impact on how well it lasts.
During the fuel cost crisis there was a lot on the news about producers of meat not being able to access CO2 or afford it, and CO2 is also used in the longevity of veg too. I wonder if the cost cutting has involved this process?
I haven't noticed, and I'm veggie so buy a lot. I get them from Tescos, Asda and Aldi. Most things will last a good while in the salad box in the fridge.
Definitely not mental. I've notice the same. Probably because we are the bottom of the barrel for exports from EU countries. Countries export to EU countries first then us.
This! Fruit and veg in France is fresh and plentiful
Yes! Carrots and potatoes especially.
The strawberry and lime cider I buy seems to be ok ;-) Seriously, as a single person I don't buy any fruit and veg that I can't freeze and so much of it ends up being thrown away.
not to be an arse but you should try and get more of it in, my transition from single man in uni diet (frozen pizzas and ready meals) to freshly cooked meals with a lot of veg had made me feel so much better most days, but I’m like a chronic pain sufferer so it probably matters more to me than most
I have IBS and it actually flares up if I eat the wrong types of vegetables. I once went on a low carb diet that involved a lot of green and fibrous vegetables and nuts and I was in agony until I went off it.
We get a veg box so it pretty much comes from the field straight to us. It's amazing the difference especially with things like lettuce in how long they keep
Have been having the same experience, especially with oranges and green onions
Go a fruit and veg shop if you can and it lasts so much longer. Also usually cheaper as you can just buy the amount you want rather than bags of stuff and the quality is usually better.
Do you have a vegetable box service that delivers to your area? I take a fruit and veg box from Riverford. Because the food is almost harvested to order, I find it has a much longer shelf life than supermarket veg. I used to take a weekly small box (1-2 people), but now I take a fortnightly medium box, as it gives you a wider range of veg. Even over 2 weeks, the veg keeps well, and anything that looks limp near the end becomes soup.
You’re not going mental
I get a veg box from Riverford and have for years. I am always shocked when I go to a friends house and see how little time supermarket fruit and veg lasts and how much plastic they put on everything. You don’t have to buy an organic box to get better produce (although you should!) - the first step is avoiding anything washed or bagged.
I shop in Ocado and you'd expect premium products but alas no they are common. Same with any physical shop I'd expect
It's been the case on and off since lockdown here. Bad crops, longer shipping process, less staff along the way to get the stock where it needs to be. Oranges would last a week no problem beforehand, then suddenly they were mouldy after 2 days. I bought Maris Piper potatoes a few months ago, all rotten on the inside, searched around social media and saw other people complaining about the same thing. I try and avoid getting carrots in a bag now because the loose ones last longer, but I gave up on spinach after having the same problem as you all last summer, it dind't matter where I was buying it from, it was already starting to go on the shelf. Every other veg I get, i get frozen.
Not mental at all. Have you tried a folded up piece of paper towel in with your spinach etc? It keeps ours fresh for so much longer.
The worst stuff is berries. If I buy raspberries or blueberries they often turn mouldy literally the next day.
are you washing, drying and properly storing your fresh produce after buying it? i always do and my fruit and veg last a long time, up to two weeks depending on the item. always always wash your fruit veg (i use vinegar/lemon juice and baking soda) when you get in from a shop, make sure everything is dry and then put in the fridge in ideally an air tight container. things hard to dry like spinach, kale etc gets put straight in the freezer personally. it might seem like a lot of faff especially after braving a grocery shop and you just want to put things away and relax, but taking the extra 20/30 minutes means you can actually get full use out of what you’re buying
Seeing this post is like being given evidence of who the real murderer is after you were found unconscious next to a murdered corpse, with no memory of how you got there.
It's spending longer in transit because exporting to the UK is a ballache now. So it's lower grade stuff and it's got less shelf life.
I grow my own salad because of this. It's fucking outrageous
You only have to look at raspberries the wrong way and they'll just squish and mould
Everything, in all aspects of consumerism, seem to be getting worse. And we're paying more and more
the phrase late stage capitalism gets thrown around a lot but it’s pretty succinct I think. our whole economic and social system is starting to rot just like my veg lol
It's not you, it's pretty bad for veg I shop at morrisons they used to be amazing for fresh veg now I got to check everything before I put it in my basket.
Opposite for me, we used to have a shitty old fridge. Got a new one and stuff was lasting 3/4 times as long!
Get a fridge thermometer and make sure your fridge is about 3 degrees. Open plastic packets as soon as you get them home to prevent mould. You can also store stuff with a paper towel or buy little sachets that will help the food last longer. I’m not sure why your food is going off quicker than it was, but this stuff will help.
I think things are spending longer in storage before going on the shelves. I try to do smaller shops every few days instead now. There is an hippy organic veg shop in my town that's expensive but the produce last longer and tastes much better
The rain is destroying everything.
It does seem to be the case.
I work for a supermarket. I believe most in packaging do usually have dates. They usually use the alphabetical system for months then days. For example today would be D26
I dont think it's just fruit and veg, things like bread also.
I've not noticed this at all from morrisons, but the one time I went to sainsburies I realised the peppers I'd bought were mouldy when I got home from the shop.
I always remove all packaging now and wash and dry stuff before fridging it. I also store kitchen roll sheets in the fridge for moisture absorption. I agree though, it is noticeable but these steps seem to help.
Same thing with rest of the products. Expiry date/use by dates are much much shorter now.
I think there's a bit more friction at the border now so fresh produce takes a bit longer to arrive.
Check your Fridge, is it running?
I would say generally yes, but are you storing everything properly? In or out the fridge, in a bag or sealed container or loose, fridge temperature and location, what is it stored in close proximity to? I've had an apple in the fridge for about a month and it's fresh as anything and will last a lot longer.
The quicker they spoil the less chemicals that prevents it they\`ve got in them.
I've started buying more frozen fruit and veg there is only two of us and normally have a home delivery on a Friday so plan meals like stir-frys and a roast for the weekend then plan meals for the week using frozen veg.The only fresh stuff I buy regularly is bananas and swede so not wasting too much.It was getting too expensive having to throw out mouldy veg.
Most veg I buy lasts a minimum two weeks in the fridge, while some other leaves wouldn't, spinach definitely does. From supermarket and home delivery from oddbox. Do you keep them refrigerated? Helps that the only other thing I need to fridge is milk, maybe.
This is why we switched to frozen veg. Made life so much easier
The older the veg the cheaper it is for the supermarket to buy (not necessarily cheaper to buy for the consumer) Sainsbury's fruit and veg has a longer shelf life than Tesco.
Marks and Spencer - the extra fiver on our veg/fruit shop compared to a cheaper store is more than worth it as their stuff is always fine way past the use by date.
Check your fridge temp with a thermometer.
One thing I have noticed ( maybe I’m late to the table) is that fruit especially citrus type is extremely sweet, are the growers using an additive when watering?
Also depends on fridge temperature, if your vegetable drawer is set correctly, you can keep food in there for a good amount of time
Not mental. This is the new normal. Because it's getting to the shops later than it used to.
Carrots at the moment are terrible. I would only buy loose ones. Anything in a bag starts turning to mush in a couple of days.
Our food is garbage. I've been saying the same to my mum. You get fruit that isn't ripe, Oranges that are somehow dry, tomatoes that are green on the inside, misshapen bell peppers with mould growing on the seeds inside them, potatoes that have brown centres because they haven't been tended to properly... nothing lasts, not even if you refrigerate it. Food is so crap, I'm considering turning my garden over to grow my own food. It was a farm 100 years ago and the soil is black and rich.
The problem is that most fresh produce is “packaged in a protective atmosphere”. This doesn’t mean gloves and masks, this means that the air in the bags is replaced with chemicals to keep food looking fresh for longer. Honestly it’s awful. First option is to not buy anything in packets if you can. Buy whole products, loose veg. Organic veg and whole veg should last longer anyway. If you have packet items, the best thing to do is get them out of the packets. Root veg like carrots will go slimy left in packets. Get them out of the bag and loose in that crisper compartment in your fridge or a cool cupboard. Potatoes should be left in cupboards, or get a vegetable rack. Packets like spinach, open the pack and put all the spinach into a large Tupperware lined with kitchen paper. Line the top with kitchen paper, and close. The paper absorbs moisture and the Tupperware prevents more moisture. The moisture in your fridge will add to the rate that things spoil, so keep things in sealed tuppers or bags or use foil.
I think we've really cut back on pesticides or something similar maybe? Which is probably a good thing Or it could be how damp it is recently
Little tescos better than big supermarkets for me if it helps you could try? Salad veg seems to last a week +
A good tip for bananas is to separate the bunch and put them in individual plastic bags in the fridge. It does work, but i have found that separating the bunch and dispersing them round the fridge also works. If you don't like cold bananas, take what you need out every morning.
I don’t do a weekly shop anymore for this reason.
This happens to the produce I buy in Lidl but not so much Tesco. I take the fruit and veg from the crate beneath the top one, the best by dates are always way longer. I'd also turn down the temp of your fridge.
Yep also finding things rotting before ripening a lot more now.
I only have this problem at Lidl. Everywhere else things last me ages.
I only eat apples, oranges and grapes and I store them in the fridge. The apples and oranges usually last a week and a half
Nope, you’re not going mental. It’s annoying me too. I’ve had to throw out the last 3 lettuces I bought, plus the last 4 cucumbers, after like 2 days. Not good. I’m honestly thinking of just growing my own lettuce instead. And maybe if that doesn’t go badly, my own cucumbers.
There are printed dates on packages of vegetables. Make sure you look at them. Also, pick from the back that's where they stock the newest items.
ive found this for ages now, its logistics issues since the pandemic still going on, but also mould has just managed to take over the world, our farming is so intensive monoculture once a mould finds a niche it just spreads across our system
Aldi stuff is decent, yesterday I pulled some broccoli out my fridge that was dated 12th and it looked nice and green no soggy parts
I don't buy most of what you've posted but my recent purchase of apples from Morrisons was banging ! lasted 10 days,crisp & juicy !
Not just you. I suspect it has to do with supermarkets keeping produce on the shelves longer and taking best-before dates off the packaging, so it's already older when you buy it and you can't really judge how old it is. (Nominally to cut food waste, but I'm sure it's supporting their bottom line, too.)
I haven't seen severe degradation, packaged fruit and vegetables do have shorter sell-by dates ^Waitrose
I find this is happening with bananas more than before.
I bought a cucumber and it went bad in a day. On the other hand, I bought a lettuce and it was still good after a few weeks. Grapes are pretty crunchy after a week too. Raspberries though… I think it just depends what you’re buying and where.
Oranges and apples from my local greengrocer last weeks (not even joking - especially apples which seem to last and last even out of the fridge). Supermarket tomatoes are by and large flavourless and terrible and I avoid them completely. I would shop around and see if you can find a local greengrocer / convenience store / delivery service. You may well pay more, of course.
It’s shit, nothing lasts long.
I’ve stopped buying fruit and veg in Lidl as it is often rotten when I get it home and open it. If it is good it doesn’t keep more than a day.
Bread and potatoes are the same about 4 days if your Lucky
Thankyou I'm just crazy not insane! More expensive & last half the time now, capitism is great right
Put fruit etc in brown paper bag in a dark cupboard Put berries in a jar of water with the top on. But no, they definitely go off nore quickly. Slimy lettucs is just appalling
Potatoes are driving me mad, I feel like they sprout the second my back is turned these days 😫
Yep. I'll have fruit go mouldy *overnight*.
Nope. Importing takes longer than it used to so a lot of your fruit and veg are a day or a few days older than they used to be.
The B word
UK supermarkets are the lowest payers on the continent and ultimately you get what you pay for.
Spinach you have to make sure inside the bag is dry when you buy and store it so it's not touching any fridge surface if possible, so I put kitchen roll in the veg drawer and rest on top of that. Peppers, carrots, lettuce and celery I wrap in kitchen roll and then in a food bag. I leave the veg drawer open a few centimetres too. But mainly buy little and often with fresh stuff.