Food going off really quickly

[Crocsandshocks]

Am I being unreasonable or has the shelf life of food deteriorated recently?

There seem to be really short shelf life on food, with a day or two before the bb date expires. But even food that is well in date tastes like it is already going off.

Is this a brexit thing? Have food regs changed? Ironically the freshest food seems to be canned or frozen now or exotic fruit like pineapple shipped half way across the world.

I will admit I lost some sense of taste with covid a while back, so it could be distorted but I don't think so.

Is it just me, or has the quality of food changed for the worse? At the same time prices have increased!

I have also noticed this-things used to last far beyond their bbe date and now seem to go off before.

I completely agree OP. I went shopping only yesterday and kept walking off empty handed as I refuse to pay full price for damaged, going off berries and couldn’t fill my fridge on meals that all expire within the next 2 days (our freezer is very small and no room for better). I don’t usually like frozen or tinned food but that’s now what I turn to.

It's been really hot; have you turned the fridge thermostat down (or is that 'up'? - to make it colder). I can't say I've noticed any difference in food life lately.

I have also noticed this-things used to last far beyond their bbe date and now seem to go off before.

I wonder whats happening? Less use of carbon dioxide to preserve fresh food? Problems with the supply chain. Something very odd is happening.

Soft fruit and salad in July is never going to last weeks though is it? When I buy fruit and veg in the market, it’s top quality and cheaper, ultimately it comes from the same places as the supermarket gets it, they just buy and sell less at a time so it doesn’t suffer in storage or get moved around the country as much.

no change since Brexit.

Brexit Dividend

We've noticed the same - mainly with milk.

Yes we have noticed fruit,salad,veg going off really quickly,if we put the bananas in the fridge they go black within a day!

@Eatthecake80 that's probably because you should never store bananas in a fridge. They are an ambient food product

I’ve noticed the same, especially with milk, yoghurt and fruit and veg.

Not strictly true.

One your bananas are at the level of ripeness that you like, you can absolutely store them in the fridge, and they will stay at that level of ripeness longer than they would at room temperature.

What you should never do is store them in the fridge before they get to the ripeness that you'd like, because it stops the ripen in ng process.

However, their skins will turn black in the fridge quite quickly, but they should still be fine to eat @Eatthecake80

perhaps there has been a delay in delivery to the shops.

Is your fridge on the blink? We were ready to complain about the milk until we realised our fridge wasn't getting cold enough!

It depends where I shop, I find fresh produce from Lidl does not last very long especially fruit and veg.

I haven't noticed a change.

our bread has gone mouldy but i blame it on there only being two of us and too much bread.
soft fruit cannot be expected to last very long

The only time this happened to me was a year ago, it turned out to be the thermostat. I have a yoghurt in the fridge rhat's been open for weeks, it's prob still good.

Well it’s been really hot lately.
I know supermarkets have strict time limits for the length of time keeping the food on a cage outside the fridge, but from my experience fresh food can be left in cages outside of the fridges for ages.

Fresh food doesn’t last though.
We grow lots ourselves, so as fresh as possible. I wouldn’t expect the berries I picked this morning to last more than a few days.
We either eat straight within those few days, give to neighbours, or I if a large glut process them to last ie dehydrate for granola in autumn, or freeze

I haven't noticed a change either. Our last bottle of milk was 2 days out of date last week when we finished it and it hadn't gone off.

DP had some bread yesterday that was 3 days out of date and it was a bit stale but not mouldy and fine for toast.

We tend to ignore dates and just decide for ourselves whether something is safe to eat. We've not had anything off before the date and generally most things are fine at least a day after, some products like yogurt and cheese, much longer.

I've noticed this with carrots, broccoli & cucumber in particular - flipping Brexit...

Yes, so have l. I went to make a cup of tea and poured out lumpy milk!

You're right, OP. The absolute worst thing is apples that already have decayed bits; or are totally gone off. I'm really fed up of rotten apples. I've been noticing a serious apple problem for well over a year.

cucumber in particular

Yes. Now I give any prospective new cucumber purchase an inspection!

Fruit and veg is pretty rubbish in most of the supermarkets I find. Mushy or sour or just complete lack of choice and empty shelves.