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.

I use a local vegbox scheme.

Positives:

• produce is very fresh
• lasts well
• usually has more flavour than supermarket veg
• supports regenerative farms
• fewer food miles
• helps us to eat seasonally for the majority of our meals
• free soil with every purchase

Negatives:

• produce needs washing before storing in the fridge (unless you like a fridge lined with soil)
• more expensive than buying in most (not all) supermarkets
• occasional stowaways to be dealt with
• greater 'mental load' - need to decide how to use whatever turns up
• however beautiful the produce is, it is possible to get cabbage / beetroot / parsnip / vegetable-of-your-choice fatigue

Not an option for everyone but I use a local farm shop for my fruit and veg now, worked out it costs about £2 more per week but is much better quality.

I found supermarket fruit in particular was going mouldy within days even in the fridge.

After I watched a segment on this morning a couple of weeks ago I have also started to acid wash berries - 2 teaspoons of citric acid in 60mp boiling water, add 400ml of cold water - leave fruit to agitate for about 5 min, drain, dry and store in fridge in airtight container. Strawberries, blackberries and blueberries all lasted all week with this method. Can also use lemon juice or vinegar but they can leave a bit of a taste so I use powdered citric acid.

You make good points and I do a lot of these too.

Same here. I genuinely don't understand threads like this. Most of the produce we buy (usually from Lidl, Aldi or Morrisons) lasts at least 5 days, often a week or even more.

Maybe it’s the stuff I’m buying. It’s just DP and I and he has been away for work recently. So I’ve been buying those pre-packaged boxes of watermelon, melon, pineapple etc or salad that you can get from Tesco, Sainsbury’s and M&S. the watermelon in particular never seems to last.

I also bought some bananas last week and they’re already brown and tearing away from the bunch

Yup we had a banana go brown and mushy and I’m sure I only bought it a couple of days ago. Went to get some strawberries out of the fridge this evening and they’re all mouldy.
This will only get worse now with the Brexit food checks coming in.

Thank you so much for all the tips, the date code is really useful

Probably. I thought you were talking about things like broccoli, carrots, peppers etc.

I wouldn't expect prepared fruit or fresh berries to last more than a day or two tbh and if it did, I'd be suspicious about what they'd done to it.

I rarely have anything go off. Occasionally a lemon. That's all.

Buy your greengrocery from a large supermarket with fast turnover, or from an old fashioned green grocer.

I prefer to choose my own food so avoid supermarket deliveries.

Salad & veg in the fridge, Take root veg out of plastic bags so they stay dry. Fruit in a bowl at room temperature.

If you have veg left at the end of the week, use it up in a glorious veggie chilli 🙂

Do you mean the pre sliced stuff?

ye any of that kind of pre prepared stuff never lasts!

I try to avoid it if I can unless I know I will definitely use it within 1 or max 2 days of getting it!