What percentage of your shop is fresh fruit and veg?

[bignoseswan]

Mine is quite high, its nearly all fresh fruit and veg so about 80% along with some pulses and milk eggs etc. We are a vegetarian household so it makes sense that we do buy more veg and as vegetarian ready meals and convenience foods typically suck we make our own food from scratch daily to ensure we have something tasty.

Met a colleague in the supermarket today who commented on the "crazy" amounts of fresh veg we had (which will only do us 3 days until our delivery comes). Her trolley has some potatoes and an onion in and everything else was in a packet or box. I previously hadn't noticed how much fresh produce we had compared to other shoppers but as I went to the till it did look like most people had very little veg in their shopping (the produce section is at the entrance and most people would pass through that section first).

However the produce section is well stocked and has all sorts in cavolo nero, celeriac, fresh herbs, ginger, aubergines so people are buying it.

So I am just curious how much of your trolley is fresh fruit and veg?

Possibly, but if I was eating 80% fruit and veg, I wouldn’t be getting enough protein or carbs, I’d be hungry and wouldn’t have much energy. I do quite a lot of sports/exercise.

I’m vegan so I do eat a lot of fruit/veg but 80% wouldn’t work for me.

Hardly any, if judgy types looked at my main weekly trolley they'd think we ate very little fruit and veg. However we have an allotment and an organic veg box delivery and pop in to the shops for topups if needed so they'd be wrong.

Glad someone else spends over £100 a week on fruit and Veg, I still look on MN and some people can do a week shop for 4 for £80 including cleaning and toiletries, it makes me think impossible.

Is that not incredibly expensive?

Well perhaps in every respect. If you make most meals from scratch using mostly or all veg then you will have a lot of veg in your trolly. For example a veg curry might require fresh onions, garlic, ginger, chilli, herbs and tomatoes for the sauce and then you would add in other veg for bulk so cauliflower, squash and some kind of pulse for example and you might have an Indian salad on the side or some raita as well as rice. So the veg would be the largest cost, space and source of calories and that is just one meal.

@lifebeginsaftercoffee I know you directed that at Teenangels but anyway. It is expensive to shop this way and I know its not affordable or practical for everyone, having said that we do prioritise good quality food over and above other things.

Many people couldn't afford to spend £100 a week on fruit and veg, no matter how much they prioritised it.

There's also nothing wrong with frozen fruits or vegetables - so just because people are missing "fresh" stuff doesn't mean they're not eating their five (or more) a day.

I'd guess around 70%. I make vegetable soups that use a ton of veg several times a week and have either soup or salad for lunch most days. Then I'd guess at least 4 meals a week would have veg as the main element - vegetable curries, chilli (although also use tins in that) stews or stir fries. So that is a lot of veg. Fruit less so, definitely more in summer.
But my supermarket shop also contains toiletries and cleaning products so that pushes the % down a bit.

I'm guessing it's the 7 punnets of strawberries/blueberries/raspberries and everything else for the smoothies each week that caused @lifebeginsaftercoffee's comment?

That indeed is a very expensive breakfast every day. I don't make many smoothies but we would use frozen berries for things like that.

@lifebeginsaftercoffee I do say in my reply that I know it isn't affordable for everyone. On the other hand some people could afford it and its just not a priority for them, that's up to them but they still feel its ok to scoff at those of us who do make it a priority.

I don't mind using some frozen stuff myself in the winter and if people prefer to use frozen that's fine. There are differences in how freezing affects the nutritional content of foods and some do lose nutrients but its better of course than other options for many. None of this is a personal attack on anyone so don't get so upset about it.

A lot of potatoes with a variety of flavours
Cheese and onion
Smokey bacon
Ready salted etc

@Sux2buthen 😂

As it looks on the supermarket conveyor belt, about 50% is fruit & veg. But that's partly because we buy our meat from the butchers.
Overall, probably about 40% is fruit & veg. Kids love fruit & we are trying to incorporate more veg in our main meals.

Today I got a basket of shopping with satsumas and baking potatoes as the only veg. I would have got bananas too but they only had a few rotten ones. I already had strawberries, avocados, pears, kiwi, carrots and peas at home. I’d say about 25% maybe more.

Oh I forgot salad. I also have lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and spring onions at home.

Just done a shop for five days of food:
lettuces
two kinds of tomatoes
cucumber
red peppers
chillis
onions
mushrooms
spinach
garlic
yoghurty coleslaw
two kinds of cheese
mortadella
milk
eggs
tinfoil trays
(all fresh veg bought loose from a local market-type place)

I’m not vegetarian, but tend to eat meat mostly when out or as a takeaway.

About 60% but I used to be vegetarian and still cook many vegetarian dishes through the week.
It doesn't have to be expensive I often buy wonky veg boxes which saves a lot and stick to season veg. I don't buy berries in Winter and use some frozen veg (especially spinach and peas)

Not a vegetarian household but my shop is about fresh 1/3 greengrocery by value, mostly seasonal, and then additionally, frozen peas, sweetcorn, spinach and tinned kidney beans etc. The rest of my shop is meat, fish, dairy, coffee and cleaning stuff.

I grow fruit, salad & veg in the summer, which adds to the total. Make my own jam.

My ds probably eats 30% UPFs by volume- his snacks. All his meals are cooked from fresh ingredients. He only drinks water which is good.

I aim for 30 different fruit & veg a week and usually manage 28.

It takes effort to avoid UPFs

My trolley looks awful. Because I have a big delivery from my fantastic greengrocer.

I'm not remotely upset why on earth would I be?

@lifebeginsaftercoffee glad to hear it.

Well for the week's food I got a bunch of bananas, blueberries, grapes, two bags of salad leaves, courgette, four peppers, red onions, potatoes, a butternut squash, fresh mushrooms, and a bag of frozen mushrooms. We already had apples, oranges, cherry tomatoes, white onions and a cucumber at home which will all feature in this weeks food consumption. I provide my kids with veg, but they don't actually eat a lot of it. And one of them loves fruit and the other only eats apples and bananas. Funnily enough they both love chocolate, biscuits and crisps though 😬 so on percentage of food they consume they're low on the fruit and veg, the percentage the bin eats is pretty high so I think it's in a pretty healthy condition

Not a huge amount as we can’t afford it. We do try and eat as healthily as we can though but lots of our veg tends to be frozen or tinned. We will buy bananas, apples, some kind of soft fruit for the toddler, and a couple of bits of fresh veg like cucumber, tomatoes, and cheaper veg like potatoes, carrots.

We're not vegetarian, and my trolley always has lots of fruit and veg in. All our meals are cooked from scratch. A typical week will have broccoli, spinach, cabbage, carrots, parsnips, sprouts, garlic, ginger, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, raddish, beetroot, spring onions, apples, oranges, satsumas and kiwis. Potatoes are always bought by the sack full from a local farm.
There's 3 adults to cater for.

Frozen and tinned are brilliant - full of the good stuff, and easier to keep fresh and avoid food waste