to think fruit and veg has changed dramatically in the last 20 years

[sPJPPp]

Fruit and vegetables are totally different to how they were a few decades ago. Broccoli has no bitterness and is quite sweet, mangos used to be mostly stone and now they have a tiny thin stone. Everything is sweeter or is it just me? I remember apples growing up that were sour, now they are like sugar bombs.

Anyway aibu to be worried about this?

I wouldn't be worried as such....there's nothing innately sinister about fruit and veg being bred for sweetness. We've been tinkering with plants since the Days of Yore. (I'm not referring to GM here though- just selective breeding). Whether you agree with the trend to sell ridiculously sweet grapes and pineapples in the supermarkets is a different issue, I think.

Why not redress the balance and plant a few heritage strawberries and tomatoes in your garden?

There are still sour apples, Granny Smiths are sour, for instance. Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, etc., were never sour that I can recall. There are more varieties now (I am loving Opal Apples at the moment). I haven't noticed a change in broccoli, but I don't think I ever would have described it as bitter.

who wants a mango that's mostly stone though?

and you can buy at least 10 varieties of apple in Tesco, not all of them are sweet

other things like tomatoes or carrots, the sweetness will depend on the variety and the time of year

Worried?

That we're carrying on selective breeding as we have been doing since before the invention of agriculture?

Why are you worried now was only the other day you felt smug about unlimited amount friends child ate in your presences

Anyway I like that I can buy strawberries the size of apples all year round

Depends upon the season they were picked as to sweetness I think. I grew up in a very hot country and I remember the fruit being a lot sweeter. In the UK I find the fruit to be on the bitter side. We had a mango tree in the garden and the fruit used to fall at your feet. Stones varied in size.

I understand what you mean about apples. Nasty, sweet shiny things with little or no taste. Granny Smiths aren't sour these days... really they aren't!

And pears? Yeckity yeckity things.

And those year round strawberries taste horrible.

Thankfully we live rurally, though we no longer live with our own apple tree. I can drive to a few really old orchards and buy real apples and pears, and the local greengrocer stocks seasonal and local too.

But I do prefer the mangoes these days.

Each to their own tastebuds....

Turnips used to be much bigger and have a stronger taste: I am relieved this is no longer the case.

It all tastes weaker and of nothingness these days.

Cucmbers these days dont actually have a taste. They used to taste of something when I was a kid.

What is sad is that so much of what could be home grown is not. Its grown aborad and transported in and is days old/picked before it has ripened properly etc. Everything is so stupidly mass produced and forced it does not have the chance to grow and develop as it did in the "good ole days".

Grapes used to have nasty bitter pips that really put you off them. They're much nicer seedless. And I'm sure oranges had much more white pith on as well.

Raw carrots used to be really lovely then one day in the early eighties they started tasting of soap.

I wasn't being smug about not limiting fruit but limiting refined sugar.

Had an interesting chat with a cafe owner who said that to get the same nutrients in fruit these days you'd have to eat three compared with one 50 years ago. Looking into the nutrient levels in food over time. It does seem worrying.

I remember peaches, melon, pears and nectarines being really juicy and sweet. Now most of them are wooly.

I agree about year round strawberries, they maybe red but taste mainly of water.

I just had an amazing mango from lidl, was ripe, virtually no stone but did feel a bit wrong. I don't think they should have a stone so tiny and thin. Was like eating sweets

It's all worth it to have seedless grapes.

most of what we get in supermarkets is bred for appearance and so is utterly tasteless. Apparently we want this. I don't recall being asked.

out of season stuff has come halfway round the planet by air. Think hard.

i agree. they have changed and not necessarily for the better. we don't need more sugar, we need more nutrients.

It probably has changed. For one thing, there's much more variety. I can't remember even having broccoli or mangos decades ago.
I can remember one change. Apples changed in the 70's. From nice English apples to shitty tasteless french golden delicious. Nowadays it seems to be gala apples, which aren't as bad.
As for fruit and vegetables not being as tasty, isn't that to do with it being sold out of season nowadays?

You are obsessed by diet/food/chopped tomatoes in tins and post lots of threads complaining.

Give over.

sPJPPp having read a couple of your posts I think the real problem is that you are eating fruit out of season. If you are in the UK & eating strawberries this time of year then you deserve them to taste of nothing!

Try eating seasonally and locally. Given that fruit bothers you so much are you able to grow some of your own? Grow your own soft fruit and understand the seasons better.

Your own individual taste changes over time, as does how you have something cooked and the temperature you eat it, all of which impacts the taste.

Bitterness of broccoli for example is something that changes hugely between young children (more adverse to bitterness) and bitterness is also not as detected the hotter the food (which is why people prefer hot coffee...) So you don't remember.

As others have said the range of varieties available also make a difference, and certainly there was a large range of apples available.

Things like Mangoes rely on long distance cold transportation that just wasn't as economic and as reliable longer ago so varieties were chosen for export here that stood up to the transport. Not the tastiest.

The fruit and veg haven't changed much, which particularly ones you're buying may have, although even that there is typically more choice rather than less, of course if you don't know the seasons now and are buying out of season long distance fruit it won't be as nice as the local as even though the transport is better, it's still not perfect and compromises are made.

I can honestly say I have never worried about fruit and veg.

You are quite obsessed with fruit, aren't you?

The change comes from breeding for varieties that can be picked green to ripen over two weeks in a climate controlled shipping container. Uniformity and pest resistance are also desirable qualities. Flavour is less of a concern.

Fruit and veg taste just like they did in the old days if you grow them yourself.

This is reminding me of Miranda's fruit friends.