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..

Brussell sprouts were not good in 3 supermarkets over christmas. Wondered if it was a bad year for sprouts?

Same as this. And as for cheese...yuck!!!! Its that plastic muck pretending to be real 😠

Yes, very much so. I bought some fruit from an ordinary supermarket recently and it didn't taste good at all.

I'm only shopping at Waitrose and M&S now if I can possibly help it - the food is more expensive but it's actually far better value for money, since the quality is much higher, it lasts longer and therefore less goes to waste.

I get deliveries from Sainsbury's, Tesco and sometimes Morrison's. Fresh fruit and veg quality has become poorer in all of them. I feel bad that I return at least one item every time. A few times I've had to phone because I've not noticed things were mouldy.

I can't do my own shopping due to mobility issues so I'm trying to get used to using more frozen and tinned food.

i think it's partly due to staffing issues .. stores are running on minimal
staff .. full store filling overnight has been cutback so more build up in the warehouse. i worked nights at tesco for 5 years , i left in june 🙌. when i joined the had people working on every aisle . when i left it was 1 person working 2-3 aisles 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’ve noticed that the ‘room to roam’ chicken has declined in quality.

Yes I've noticed a decline in the quality of fresh fruit and veg. It seemed to coincide with the dropping of best before dates and I think that's what's caused it.

I think during lockdown the restaurant supplies were diverted into the consumer retail chain so we got better stuff in supermarkets for a while and now the quality has dropped off again.

I buy fruit and veg from a twice weekly market.

What I have noticed with supermarkets is the range and choice has reduced, in part I think because of the pandemic, partly cost pressures (avoid anything having to be reduced or thrown away), but also Brexit.

Sainsbury quality is shocking lately.
Morrisons and Tesco aren't that much better.
Pointless buying a bag of carrots to last a few days, as by day 2 they're bendy. Sprouts were v poor over Christmas.
I bought a courgette and an orange pepper today - anyone want to guess if they'll make it through the night? 🤦‍♀️ My lasagne might be a bit pitiful if they don't.

I don’t know, presumably It’s Brexit isn’t it- much slower supply chain and fewer staff available to handle at both the producer and retailer end? Plus rising basic utilities costs and fuel costs making the whole thing more expensive and at different legs of the journey suppliers probably cutting corners wherever they can on chilled storage and transport.

The supermarkets are being fined or charged by how much waste they dispose of so I was told by one of the delivery drivers so they try to keep things on the shelves for longer and deliver shorter life stuff to customers.

I’ve switch to thigh meat from breast meat, I find it better.

Yes - extremely short dated and much food wastage, despite being nearly double the price.

It’s waxy, rubbery tasteless cheese I’ve noticed. Almost across the board apart from the most expensive stuff

And carrots rarely last more than a day or two without going vile at the moment

Yes! Asda chicken soup used to be cheap and nice .. the yellow label stuff is DREADFUL .. 🤮
I'm shopping at Morrisons and Aldi instead now .. better quality of the products I want

I really haven't noticed the quality declining, but I've certainly noticed the prices rising.
I can't remember the last time I bought beef, it's just too expensive.

We're veggi so go through a lot of fresh fruit and veg. I generally pick it up every 2-3 days and store it all in the fridge. I've noticed since we moved the integrated fridge doesn't keep it fresh at all. Gone back to using the American one we brought with us in the garage and everything seems to be okay.

I think the lack of expiration dates means people need to shop more often vs doing a weekly shop.

It isn’t a fine - they are just charged for disposal. This is why they give so much away to community larders/charities too. (And food banks but they want longer dated stuff)

Cheese has gone weird - I've noticed that some doesn't seem to melt properly anymore.

Can't say that I've noticed anything like this tbh.

@42isthemeaning 100% - it’s really peculiar now when it melts. God knows what they’ve put in it to make it go further…

Yes it's quite depressing food shopping, the sad half empty aisles and huge reduction in choice.
We are lucky to have a good butcher locally and although about 10% dearer than supermarket the quality is so much better for chicken, sausage and mince type choices.
Greengrocers have all gone though apart from the odd farm shops that are really expensive.
Our local town has a really good indoor market but unless you live in town it's not convenient enough.
Recent order from Sainsbury's after the bank holiday so I suppose fruit and veg is low I had to chuck the cucumber and tomatoes and the apples are just about edible but soft.

We do most of our shopping at Asda and Tesco as we live rurally and don’t have an Aldi/lidl and these two supermarkets are both the closest (30-40 mins drive) and both seem fine although we do go to a butchers and greengrocers in the same town for meat/fruit and veg so can’t comment on fresh produce unfortunately, but this year for Xmas we decided to go to the M&S in our closest city for our Xmas food like we do every year and the quality of their Xmas offerings were over priced, bland and not very appealing when it was cooked ( their red cabbage was ok though)

I have a serious issue with food waste and unfortunately a lot went in the bin! I’m still angry about it now! I took a couple of bits back for a refund but lots of it wasn’t worth it so yes I agree that the quality has declined but the price has shot up