To ask if you buy fruit/veg on display outside shop on busy road?

[10FingersOnTheFender]

I have never been tempted to buy fruit/veg on display outside a shop on a road with high levels of traffic.. I can't put my finger on exactly why. And I certainly wouldn't have any science to back up my position.

I'm curious to know if anyone else feels the same way?

Never have and never will.

Yeah there was a fantastic row of local shops in my last neighbourhood. It didn't grow there.

I have, it's fine. It won't have been there very long.

I feel the same as you, though it's illogical.

I do buy from a market stall which faces away from the traffic and is well-covered. But I feel squicky buying from one on a busy crossroads, facing the traffic.

Yes.

Any crops picked by hand are likely to have human excrement, pee and worse on them.

You're right, there would be no science to back you up. What does this tell you?

When I first moved to London after living overseas I felt the same. It just looked and felt dirty!

Now I do buy it when it is convenient (we get used to stuff I suppose and lower our standards!) but wash it thoroughly.

I do but then I wash all my fruit and veg thoroughly.

I don’t and wouldn’t.
I don’t want to eat food that’s been exposed to traffic fumes, flies and people coughing, sneezing and touching it.
I suppose you could argue that any veg that is boiled would probably be ok, but fruit definitely not, a rinse under the tap is not going to do much to get rid of germs.
Plus, it hasn’t been refrigerated so probably won’t last as long.

Can I ask anyone who buys from the front of a fruit shop (or inside as they bring it in eventually) to wash fruit. Working in one, I once saw a teenager walk past and do that spit through the teeth thing onto the fruit

Yep, always wash it anyway so makes no difference.

Yes my local corner shop has a fantastic selection of low priced high quality produce. I can get a big bag of chillies for around 70p.

Our butcher has a small selection of veg, so carrots, parsnips, spuds, cauliflower and sweede usually. It's cheap (all the above came to less than £3 in total last week). It's not a dual carriageway by anymeans but a normal town high street. I buy from him as a) it's cheap b) his cauliflowers are huge and only 60p and c) it feels right when I'm getting my sausages from him.
It's all stuff I wash/peel anyway.

No.

Good question.

I'd be as concerned about where they're grown - eg out of season tomatoes from southern Spain where they've used so much water to grow them they now have sea water seeping into the ground water. And use pesticides as they do in this country - hence the warnings to always wash what you buy.

And the sad thing is that imported salads get washed by imported labour by major companies and the detritus has allegedly killed fish spawn etc in UK rivers.

I'd just buy stuff I could peel or wash. I may be mad, but it's just potatoes, carrots, onions, turnips, cabbage and beets for me until the natural season for other veg. But I may be fooling myself. You don't know how things have been brought up unless you grow them yourself and even then ...

Yes

They have been picked by whoever, transported often from abroad, then handled again

I wash them as I do all fruit and veg before eating or cooking

I am hoping that with us using less packaging old style greengrocer shops will become popular again

I have though my work seen how such items are handled though the distribution of the the supermarkets. Items spilt on dirty floors and casually picked up and put back in containers. Sometimes organic and non organic mixed and no one cares. Veg travels in lorries which are simply curtain sided and open to the air. They travel 100`s of miles on motorways in all the fumes! They are picked behind tractors spilling diesel fumes. And some on here Will not buy from.local shops where the produce has typically travelled much less and has been well cared for by family farms and businesses. Supermarkets know how to display but the route to the shelf Is much worse than roadside shops ans stalls. Something wrong with you I am afraid! Buy local, avoid the supermarkets and keep foidmiles low. I buy from the producers locally and quality is great!

Is it a hangover from when petrol was leaded? My mum wont grow veg in a front garden for this reason.