Anyone noticed that the quality of food has declined ?

[FixundFoxi]

Just wondered if anyone had noticed that the quality of fruit and veg has declined massively ? Peppers are bruised, wrinkled and soft, carrots bendy and gnarled looking, even potatoes are soft. Most the meat has sell by dates of a day or two.
Don't have a Waitrose locally (up north) so seems to be universal to ordinary supermarkets like Sainsbos and Asda..

Not really

I found at Tesco recently they’d got lower and lower in quality. Morrisons are a tad more expensive but don’t seem to have gone down the super cheap route and last longer. Aldi and Lidl seemed to have improved a lot from years ago.

The lack of use by dates by Sainsbury’s definitely means they can give you much older veg. Doesn’t really save on food waste when my veg is manky a day after getting it.

Sainsbury’s have gone down a ‘No date, less waste’ route which locally at least seems to translate into everything being less fresh. I’ve noticed the boxes still have ‘display until’ notices on their stock labels but sometimes these can be several days before the date they are on display. Overall, you really need to be careful what you pick up.

No, quite happy with Aldi.

Yes and lots of empty shelves!

I regularly buy chicken pieces or mini-fillets from Waitrose. Definitely noticed lowering of quality.

We shop at Sainsbury's and have definitely found the quality of fruit and veg has gone downhill .
we don't live anywhere near Waitrose anymore , but I never rated them anyway , I used to live down south and found Waitrose awful for fruit and veg . I found their meat good though . I used to like buying their frozen stewing steak . I think it was Hereford beef .
Has anyone else found Waitrose awful for fruit and veg? What is that all about .

And empty shelves.

Yes, the Brexit supply chain issue hasn't helped, plus some crazy weather, plus worker shortages.

Didn't know that about sainsburys.

Nik2015 · Today 21:13
Yes and lots of empty shelves!“

Inevitable - Brexit.

Yes, in several different shops

Doesn’t really save on food waste when my veg is manky a day after getting it.

You’re right. It saves on Sainsbury’s food waste, it doesn’t save on the customer’s. It just gets thrown away somewhere else, by us, after we’ve spent money on it. It’s pretty clever how they’ve managed to sell this to people using the food waste argument.

Yes, definitely. Short dates on things delivered, fruit and veg not lasting and on occasion, when I've not checked properly in the rush to pack, soft fruit being mouldy in the bag before I've even got it home. And is it me, or is chicken just super rubbery?

Yes. Especially apples - they've been awful for ages. Lots of rotten ones.

Our nearest Asda is terrible for this, everything fresh looks like it's seen better days, it is generally a terrible terrible shop though, always a mess, floor filthy, never fully stocked shelves, I've seen two members of staff having a screaming row with swearing, in the middle of the shop while colleagues just watched (nothing against Asda generally just this one).
Tesco, Waitrose, M&S and the greengrocer are fine.
Can't get a good sized cauliflower anywhere though!

Yep definitely (Asda).

Bought some stew veg this week and every carrot was soft and soggy/ rotten. Green, shrivelled clementines, soft tomatoes.
I claim a refund every time now. It's not the fact I need my 40p back for a bag of carrots but I'm hoping if everyone did the same maybe they'd see that having no BB dates is not working.

Guessing here but energy costs mean refrigeration, transport and growing costs eg heat etc in greenhouses have gone up a lot which has affected fruit and veg quality.

I'm overseas in a smartish place and quality is also down.

And it’s all far more expensive. Everything has gone up 20-30% minimum.

By the way I've never really rated Asda either they've always been awful for quality too .

I've noticed the quality is much worse with home delivery where you are relying on the shopper to make your selection. Used to be excellent a few years ago but it's now poor. Also the new no sell by date thing just seems to be an excuse to sell you rotten fruit and veg and then supermarkets complain that customers cherry pick the best products, we are just trying to get something that is still safe to eat.

The chicken 😩 Honestly I thought it was just me and I went round all the supermarkets trying to find decent chicken and I can't so I've stopped eating it. It honesty knocks me sick!

Also I might add, I bought a bunch of bananas today from Aldi and threw two away immediately when I got home- they were brown, gooey and busted open.

Took my strawberries out of the fridge which I had kept in air right container and they were furry. I only bought them 2 days ago.

And I bought a multipack of walkers from BnM today had a bag and realised they were out of date by two months.

Frozen peas and sweetcorn from all the major supermarkets seem to be inferior. There are brown peas and stalky bits in the sweetcorn.