Is it just me, or is supermarket fruit & veg really crap now?

[downcasteyes]

I don't have a regular supermarket I shop at - I go to Aldi, Lidl, Tesco, Sainos or Waitrose depending on where I'm working. (I live in a city where all of these are in easy reach). I am posh and pretentious and therefore sometimes bought the organic or 'taste the difference' type stuff that is more expensive, but I also dip into the wonky veg boxes. So a good mix across price brackets, at different stores.

However, I recently started noticing that everything seemed to be getting smaller, weedier and less tasty - even () in Waitrose. Also, after watching David Attenborough I got concerned about plastic packing. So I started to shop at a good local greengrocer instead - the type of place that does food in paper bags still. (Before someone tells me about the relative energy of paper and plastic: I know, I take my own reusable ones ).

But, coming to the point, I swear to God, the food seems so much better! The fruit and veg actually taste of something. Things like mushrooms are not full of water. Veg seems to have more colour. When I boil some broccoli, the water is actually purple or green, not still clear. Carrots taste carroty, in a way I realise I had virtually forgotten. Grapefruits, oranges, grapes etc are literally twice the size and way more tasty. I actually enjoy getting my 5-a-day now.

I am a bit amazed at the difference. Is it just me? If not, when did supermarket fruit and veg really go down the pan? And -serious question - is this about currency converstions? Are they trying to keep food prices down by purchasing smaller, less good fruit and veg? (The greengrocer is undoubtedly more expensive by about £10-15 a week).

Supermarket fruit and veg has always looked good but tasted poor

We haven't got a greengrocer anywhere nearby

I have supermarket fruit and veg to have really deteriorated recently. Carrots and potatoes are awful at the moment - going off as you buy them. And fruit goes bad within a day or two.

I'm old (well early 50s) and I haven't tasted decent fruit or veg for years unless it was homegrown. I think it all started going downhill when you could buy all varieties of everything throughout the year. Seasonality is important, but you just can't guarantee it in supermarkets.

See, I'm sure I remember, as a kid, greengrocers selling really crappy food (really wizened cox apples being a particular bete noir) and supermarkets being better. Maybe this is just me!

I agree.
When I buy fruit or veg from the little grocer we have around the corner it is bursting with flavour. I was only remarking to my mother yesterday how quickly supermarket fruit and veg goes off and that so much of it is watery and tasteless.

"supermarket fruit and veg to have really deteriorated recently~"

This is what I think too - it's probably been a bit crappy for a while without my noticing, but in the last 3? 4? years it seems to have sunk to new lows to the point that I have actually consciously noticed (and I'm not especially observant in these matters, as you can probably tell).

Sometimes i think the taste difference is due to supermarkets chilling a lot of stuff in storage which i dont think green grocers do.

I agree. Tesco in particular is awful - everything goes bad within about 48 hours, I've completely given up on them and the other standard supermarkets now. Lidl fruit and veg can be fab or awful, no inbetween weirdly. Must be to do with certain suppliers.

M&S are reasonable, their apples and blueberries are always really nice but even their bananas can be a bit dodgy sometimes.

I'm lucky in that we have a local grocer who is very good and a farmers market monthly for potatoes etc.

I assumed some of it last year was due to the really hot, dry summer. I suppose that could still be affecting some of hte root vegetables. But surely that would have affected the produce available in greengrocers too?

I have bought about 3 lots of the sainsburys easy peel tangerines or clementines... Can't remember which, and they have been terrible... Taste off or watery. Not long ago every packet of grapes tesco had on its shelf was mouldy!
Iceland has actually been pretty good for fruit recently.

But do greengrocers fly their fruit and veg in from India/Brazil/other exotic locations? Supermarket fruit and veg probably tastes great at the start of the journey, where it's grown, but not by the time it gets here...

I’m lucky I live in an area where we have Booths supermarkets - lovely local fruit and veg
I also use markets

"But do greengrocers fly their fruit and veg in from India/Brazil/other exotic locations? "

I suspect they probably differ a bit! Mine is a real hippy, organic place which is actually a co-op - they even sell jossticks - and I think they refuse to air freight anything. But I imagine that's their business ethos and others might work differently?

Maybe we need an 'I am a greengrocer AMA' thread!!

Not only is so much chilled but a lot of it has been carried for miles to get to the U.K. Then put in plastic, delivered to shop and waits for a buyer. There is a market around here towards end of week so buy from there when it looks okay. Can’t say there is a lot of difference. If possible grow a few veg. Runner beans are pretty easy and really taste good when picked and you know there are no pesticides.

I just thought when I was shopppi g that onions lol different recently. They look scrappy and battered, with lots of skin flaking off. They used to look plump and silky.

I am a bit amazed at the difference. Is it just me? If not, when did supermarket fruit and veg really go down the pan? And -serious question - is this about currency converstions? Are they trying to keep food prices down by purchasing smaller, less good fruit and veg? (The greengrocer is undoubtedly more expensive by about £10-15 a week).

it's because its all genetically modified and artificially grown out of season, plus then frozen and transported, which is why the fruit is always unripe when you buy it but gone off the next day.

I try to buy all my fruit and veg at the farm shops now, and I'm lucky there are a lot near us.

I thought the opposite, actually- my own branch of Tesco has improved in the last year or two. I live ten miles from the nearest store, so I only shop once every eight or nine days, buying all my veg and fruit there fresh, not frozen.
Everything lasts the full nine days. Bilberries and brambles often manage two weeks in the fridge.
I buy bananas green and ripen them in the fruit bowl. The Kos lettuce will last up to a month, and is full of flavour. The British asparagus is much tastier than the Peruvian stuff.
A few years ago, the fruit was like concrete and never ripened, just going mouldy, and the spring greens were coarse and tasteless. But now it all seems pretty good.
I think it must vary around the country - my Tesco sells a lot of local Scottish stuff, including some gorgeous strawberries.

All grocers from Tesco down to the tiny Asian supermarket around the corner get their fruit and veg from the same huge wholesalers. The big players pay for first pick and get the stuff that’s prettiest and/or will last the longest in their supply chain- they aren’t picking for flavour- and then the rest of the smaller sellers down the line and even resellers who supply lower-end market stalls. Some of the stuff at the smaller markets and greengrocers will have been chosen by knowledgeable people who know how to pick for flavour. They’ll also buy in smaller amounts and sell within a few days instead of the (sometimes) weeks that the larger players will be dealing with in their supply chain. As someone mentioned earlier, less refrigeration is also a reason why supermarket veg is awful. Too much cold makes potatoes go weirdly sweet and tomatoes inedible.

Sorry, too much refrigeration is bad for veg, not less.

Wow, that's so interesting @Snuffalo. I had no idea it was all from the same place!

One thing I've noticed which really supports what you are saying is that the varieties seem to be different in a lot of cases. I've never heard of some of the apples in the greengrocers, where as all of the ones in the supermarket are the same old, same old. Other veg is definitely different too - I had some grapes at the weekend (seedless) that were huge, almost the size of plums!

I notice a big difference between supermarket veg and farm shop veg. You're not imagining it. I stayed on a cottage on a farm for my holiday last year and bought food from the farm shop to eat every day. The vegetables tasted so nice I was completely taken aback! Otherwise you have to give them flavour with lots of extra stuff. My nearest farm shop to where I live is nearly an hour away so I'll go slightly out of my way to buy things there if I'm anywhere nearby.

I sell veg boxes from my croft and people often comment on the taste difference, main thing we're doing is sticking to seasonality and obviously local grown, stuff tastes bland when the soil is poor from over growing, likewise varieties grown for crop yield over taste, grown out of season and obviously the main one for supermarkets is a lot of it is flown in as people want strawberries and tomatoes etc in winter, which is insane when we live in the UK, but that's what people want

I sell veg boxes from my croft and people often comment on the taste difference, main thing we're doing is sticking to seasonality and obviously local grown, stuff tastes bland when the soil is poor from over growing, likewise some varieties grown for crop yield over taste, grown out of season and obviously the main one for supermarkets is a lot of it is flown in as people want strawberries and tomatoes etc in winter, which is insane when we live in the UK, but that's what people want

Some of it depends on the time of year. If you buy out of season it does naturally taste crap. Other times it’s just crap stock.

Aldi’s never lasts very long, I like Morrisons best. Agreed that fruit/veg markets are best though, a lot less waste too.

I visited my mum abroad over summer and the fruit and veg were so much nicer. Out of season stuff is still rubbish though.

Yup agreed. Luckily we have a farm shop a short drive away, and they don't use as much plastic so we justify the drive for the taste and waste.