How long would you expect the shelf life to be on fresh fruit delivered by supermarket?

[bebeboeuf]

I’ve recebtly changed from one suppler to a new one which is more expensive but I thought this would mean better produce.

My last shop delivered yesterday contained these.

This is the worst so far but other items haven’t been great either and have had some meat with very short dates on too.

These strawberries delivered yesterday had a use by date of today

Think about it. If you are a supermarket, the focus is on selling as much as possible. Customers usually check the dates and go for the longest expiration, so who will you offload all the short dates onto? Online customers.
Or they just don’t bother checking and grab the nearest item, and the short expiration dates are at the front of the shelves.
That said, food should be delivered in an edible condition, and those aren’t, but how complicated is it to get a refund/replacement?

Fruit will go off faster if it gets bashed around, I believe.

It depends on the fruit. I would expect apples and bananas and citrus to last much longer than berries and soft summer fruits, such as peaches.

At the supermarket I have experience of, fruit with the longest date possible should be picked for online customers; if it expires that day or the day after it should be "short lifed" which will be highlighted in the pre delivery email and on delivery paperwork so that you can choose whether to accept it or not.

Depends on if it was off main site - in which case the number of days it advertises e.g. 5 days, 7 days etc. Or if I bought on sale in which case only a day or two max.

To be like that today, they would not have been fit for sale yesterday. I would expect soft fruit to have a home life of at least 3 days from online delivery. The website might specify what you should expect?

I don't think price is a good indicator of freshness. From my experience of online grocery-shopping, Tesco is best for fresh produce and Waitrose is worst. (And I recently bought a fruit jelly from M&S, got it home and it was furry altho well in date.)

I haven't found any guidelines for the shelf life of produce sent to customers from online orders unlike other supermarkets which seem to advertise this.
I have emailed to request it and if they are happy to send out fruit and salad items with less than 3 days shelf life again then I will go back to my previous supermarket.

Its so wasteful. The photo doesn't quite show just how bad they were either as I tried to pick out a few good ones but it just revealed a sea of white growth beneath.

It wasn't a discounted item, it was full price. If I had purchased an item with that sort of shelf life within the store I am not too sure if they would be discounted or not.

I have been online shopping now since about 2006.

Had a quick response to my email which said :

‘’We try to allow a minimum of 2-3 days date starting from the day of delivery. In the case of our soft fruit such as strawberries, blueberries etc and our loose vegetables, they do come to us with just a day or two before they reach their best before.

As we don't use any kinds of preservatives or pesticides to help improve their shelf life, the longest best before date you'll receive for these products is two days after your delivery but in many cases, it will just be one day based on the time your order is picked and leaves the branch. ‘’

It probably didn’t help having it delivered on a bank holiday Monday to be fair to them.

They have given a refund

Get the Rubbermaid fresh boxes on Amazon for soft fruit (if they don’t turn up already moulding!) They have to ship them from America, so slightly pricey but so so worth it.

They prolong the life of strawbs/raspberries for over a week. No idea how they work but they’re great and I’m throwing out loads less food since using them. They also work great for cut herbs and salad leaves. Easily get 10 days out of them now. I use them for all my fresh fruit and veg.

www.amazon.co.uk/Square-Rubbermaid-FreshWorks-Produce-Container/dp/B074V24NS3/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?s=gateway&keywords=rubbermaid+freshworks&sprefix=rubbermaid+fresh&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1559119343&sr=8-4