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've noticed the same thing... and don't get me started on fruit, most of the time it's moldy / almost moldy whilst it's still in the shop!

I do online groceries but seem to get an awful lot of short dates on items. I imagine that because of supply chains there's stuff sitting on the shelves a bit longer. When I do go in store I notice that there are no longer dates hiding at the back like you used to be able to find. Supermarkets trying to reduce waste maybe? Make the most of your freezer if you have one.

i read there was an issue with cucumbers

where is the food coming from?
there is a world problem with food due to the war in ukraine.

and the fridge has to work extra hard in this weather and you may have overloaded it.

I've noticed cucumbers going really squishy very quickly when they would last for ages before.

I’ve noticed this and it isn’t because of the warm weather as some people have mentioned as it has driven me mad for months that whenever we do a click and collect and many of the items used by or best before is either the same day or day after!

I’m sure things just have a shorter date now than previous. It’s really frustrating as it’s just me and my partner at home so struggle to get through a lot of the stuff before it has to be binned and I feel like so much has gone to waste ! This is definitely a problem occurring in the last year or so and not so much before from what I have noticed.

I've noticed this too, but I depend on supermarket deliveries so had assumed it was a picker issue. Every week most of my fresh food hits the best before date within two or three days of delivery, and this is consistent across 3 major supermarkets.

Even food from good quality supermarkets is getting worse. Tomatoes starting to go off before you get them home. Best quality potatoes full of brown bits.

Agree about cucumbers!

Yesterday I went to two big supermarkets and there wasn’t a banana in either of them that wasn’t black or green.

It's very hit and miss. I think watermelon was the biggest disappointment this year. My tesco veg is doing ok. Asda is wobbly. Sometimes good, sometimes not.
I don't even shop in our aldi because that times I tried veg went off in couple of days.

Agree with pp about fridge check. I regularly check temp. Makes massive difference if it's wirking properly. Our old fridge curled milk in 4 days. This one? Over a week and it's fine!

We noticed this and thought it was our fridge so bought a new one.
It was not the fridge.

Everything used to last beyond the sell-by date. I think the supermarkets are simply putting the sell-by date a bit longer, so nearer to the real going-off date.

I think it's supply chain. It takes too long to get here? Or too long to be harvested and processed? It started with covid. Then it got better and now it went back to an issue.

Is that a joke? Bananas always go black if they get cold

try and buy briitish, save on air miles

I'm just about to go to the supermarket. I'm stocking up on canned stuff!

Easy to say and tbf do with some fresh stuff. Certainly not eith bananas, pineapples or daikon. Just as few examples.

@Crocsandshocks I gave up on fresh pineapple in 2021... Canned it is here. Frozen berries in a freezer, bunch of canned fruits in a cupboard.

Sadly, i got fresh flat peaches over the weekend and... Could murder someone. 5 out of 20 were not edible within 24 hours

Fancied some raspberries the other day but struggled to find a punnet with fresh raspberries in them. So many were going over , despite the use by date which was a couple of days later and a good number had furry ones.

Bread doesn't last as long and I've had to cut away more potato bruising than before .

We recently went to a 'farm shop' expecting locally grown fresh produce (maybe with actual dirt on) but zilch...nada..nothing. Oranges, bananas with a few apples/pears (hardly fresh as they're not in season yet) Very disappointing. What was on sale was also priced at the top end. Won't be going there again!

We've noticed it with a few things. Thought it was because of a dodgy old fridge finally giving up a few weeks ago - bought a new one and although it's better there are still a few odd things just not lasting properly.

Parsnips for example: delivered on Thursday just gone and literally slimy by yesterday when we wanted to use them. Parsnips have always lasted us ages and ages, like carrots. I never even look at dates on root veg, it's always got longevity. But nope.

Berries etc definitely worse than before also. I don't expect weeks and weeks from strawberries and raspberries, but I do expect 'taste the difference' UK strawberries to not be going off 3 days after I've bought them tbh.

I've found the same thing happening, especially with fruit and vegetables. My local Sainsbury's has better produce than our Aldi and Tesco (only other one in the area is Waitrose and I can't afford that), but in the past year or so, there's been food that's already growing mould and getting soft in the shop itself. I try to buy loose produce so there is no waste and I have exactly what I need, but I'm still having to bin loads because things like carrots, onions, and broccoli barely last half a week. As I am 6 months pregnant and have a 2-year-old, it's getting difficult to go to the shop frequently, but I'll be damned if I get a delivery with all of my fresh food (easily 85% of my weekly shop) going off within a day. It especially pisses me off that there have been ridiculous price hikes, so I'm paying substantially more for a half-rotten potato than I would have a fresh one last year.

It's not my fridge. It's not the weather. It may have something to do with the war in Ukraine. But it's been happening for a year and I blame the massive cock-up that is Brexit.

strawberrys never last for 3 days
i think you are expecting too much tbh

Nothing I bought today has a bb date of more than 3 days away 😬. Luckily I bought loads of tinned and frozen stuff as well. Feels like I'm back in the 70s buying tinned peaches and tinned salmon.

Omg yes, especially at Aldi or Lidl

We never normally store fruit in the fridge,I only started to try and make it last longer,we still ate the bananas.

Practical 😁 quick into salads. I am big fan of tinned fish for some weird reason. I just recently discovered the salmon! Not bad at all.

If you go to some shops with foreign foods look into tin section. Lychee are actually also nice from tin