Buying fresh fruit/veg

[settingss]

I am having really back luck with buying fresh fruit and veg recently- just seems like everything goes off the next day. Does anyone have any tips to avoid this? Most of the food doesn’t have a best before date.

Perhaps it is the rain affecting crops. I noticed last week's baby potatoes were especially black and strawberries are a soggy mess in no time.

Most of our fresh produce is brought for other countries, by the time it reaches us it’s often ten days old.

I rarely have anything go off? Everything goes in fridge. Of course there’s no dates - nothing should have dates, it’s all a scam to make us waste more.

If they are in packaging there will be a best before date but it is sometimes a code e.g. F23 would mean best before June 23rd.

Where are you buying it from?

What are you buying and how are you storing it?

Same here op, lettuce and spinach that still had days gone before, bananas skipped ripening and just went bad!!!! Potatoes have a particularly quick turnaround time now too. Not sure what’s going on- only in the last few weeks and is the same with anything we get from the vegetable shop (normally buy Aldi or lidl)

how are you storing it?

we store most in the fridge and meal plan so that we use up soft fruit before apples for example.
and for certain things (sweetcorn, peas) frozen is better than 'fresh'.

but the wet weather certainly doesn't help.

Same. I buy from several different shops and it’s all across the board, old food, flown in from other countries. Amazingly, I know how to read the use by date and put it in the fridge!!

I always buy the pack with the longest date and if it's something I won't eat quickly, like a pack of carrots, it lives in the fridge. Lasts a good week or so that way, I don't have any issues with it going off

How does the wet weather here affect food flown in from other countries?

@dementedpixie thanks for that! I have been trying to figure their coding out but it didn't seem to align like that, but now you've said this, I'll try again.

not for 'use by' but for which is the oldest packet of something ( like radish/celery) to use first when people move things around.

@settingss I suggest you get your fridge tested. I had thought my old one was fine, but noticed a huge difference when I got my new fridge (had a new space for one)

I have a new fridge but the old food flown in from other countries still doesn’t last long.

They have been removed to reduce food waste on fruit / vegetables

Sorry, should clarify, that's just Tesco

I buy loads of frozen veg. Its so convenient.

But with fruit only buy fresh. I pay close attention to the use by dates and we try to eat with in a day or two of purchase.

They haven't been removed completely so that the retailer can rotate their stock effectively. They still have a way to display dates using a code.

I haven’t noticed anything going off more quickly, at all.

So the letter denotes the month. F is the 6th letter and means June as that's the 6th month. And the number next to the letter is the best before date e.g.

Dare I say Brexit could be having an affect? The red tape might be eating into storage time

It won’t be possible for everyone but since I moved to compressed hours I now go to the local market and hit the busiest greengrocer stall. They turnover produce so quickly on a Friday that it is a lot fresher, cheaper and there’s so much more variety.

One of the things I have found which has been helpful is removing all the veg from the plastic packaging and drying it before putting it into veg bags or paper bags in the fridge or cool dark cupboard for potatoes. Do it with harder fruit too apples, pears etc.

also my friend has discovered that (she grows her own) if she keeps the dirt on her potatoes they last much longer than if she cleans them off before storing them.

fruit and veg really sweats in the plastic and being soggy just makes it start to rot!

obviously can’t do that for bagged salad or lettuce or soft fruit. But I quite often line what I’m keeping fruit in with kitchen roll which I keep an eye on and change when needed as it draws moisture away too.

actually iv done that with the veg drawer in my fridge in that past too if iv not had paper or veg bags to hand

also in winter if you have a cool garage etc veg likes it instead of the fridge again I think because it’s dryer but obviously summer can be too hot for that.

Of course for lots of things you could either but frozen or if you don’t like the idea but fresh chop it to then freeze it

I’ve found this too. Getting the plastic off can help a bit then storing in the fridge. Berries are an eat the same day thing.

I pop some fridge liners in the fruit and veg drawers:

planitproducts.co.uk/collections/kitchen

I think I get them (the green ones). from Poundland

I tend to get most of my fruit and veg from Ocado or a market stall; maybe their stock rotation/theoughput of own label stuff is better?

If I have a plastic bag of veg, I always open it up and stuff a sheet of kitchen towel in it too.