AIBU to think people are being childish and foolish to think smelling produce is gross?

[UrslaB]

Okay, this has really caught me off guard. In another thread the act of sniffing produce (tomatoes) to check for freshness and quality was mentioned, and some people then responded that this was in some way weird. Puking emojis and hysterical exclamations that people should keep their noses away from food in the supermarket and that this is why they buy pre-packed produce soon followed.

Are people sniffing/smelling in some strange manner that makes it weird that I am unfamiliar with? A good sniff isn't sneezing on it and you should be washing your fruit and veg when you get it home anyway considering it is naive to think someone sniffing it (or squeezing it) is the worst thing to happen to the produce before you get it home. (Pickers/suppliers/packers, shop staff and a half dozen other hands handling it before you potentially, less than spotless machinery harvesting or transporting, being dropped, potential pests in Distribution and storage centers, pesticides, fertilizers, etc etc.)

To me this seems like hyperbolic hysteria. How else do you discover if fruit is good quality if you don't examine it visually, handle it and with some things like tomatoes and melons, give it a good sniff! Otherwise, you could be buying subpar food.

Always sniff tomatoes, peaches, pineapples, melons etc by the stem looking for a sweetish scent to know it is going to taste good. No scent, no taste. Also, giving veg and bread a squeeze, and meat a poke I thought was standard procedure. At least that is what I was taught growing up.

Is it a lost skill? Snobbery? What is causing such a reaction to something I consider good practice?

AIBU to think it is childish and foolish to react so negatively to the idea of someone sniffing their produce?

I am all for sniffing things we wash or cook before use, like fruit and veg, but the thing I find unforgivable is people handling, sniffing and squeezing things like bread that we eat as it is. That is just unhygienic and the reason I never buy bread or baked goods from open counters

I don’t bend down and breathe all over the fruit and veg either

I hold my breath upon entering a supermarket, it's disgusting to not do that!

Sniffer here - strawberries and tomatoes especially. I love the smell of em. Peaches and plums too. They are usually in packets with holes in them so I can inhale without touching.
How else do you know if they’re going to taste right?
I grew up with parents and grandparents who grew their own fruit and veg, so have very fond memories of the smell of tomatoes and strawberries.

Same. It's just... what you do? If it doesn't smell of anything it won't taste of anything.

Exactly!
Tbh this is why i love places like asian/international supermarkets. No one looks at you weirdly for smelling fruit or slapping 15 watermelons before you find sound you like.

Yes, I think this might be it. I’ve just come back from a holiday in Italy and was pondering why the food quality is so much higher even when you compare things that we grow domestically. I think people just aren’t aware of what good quality stuff should be like and/or don’t care as much (care about supermarket manners more? ) so there isn’t as much pressure on supermarkets to deliver quality.

Having lived in a country where we got lots of forced tomatoes imported some have literally no smell and no taste. I always sniff tomatoes and strawberries and raspberries for the same reason.

Of course you have to sniff it. I’m not a gourmet chef, I definitely need the best tasting ingredients available! I can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t. Why buy tasteless fruit?

Handling a tomato will tell you about its ripeness, if it is too soft, or if it has been bruised etc. But a tomato that feels good can still be quite bland in taste. If you smell where the stem would be (or is) you can usually get a pretty solid idea of whether a tomato is ripe and if it has a good flavour. Flavourful tomatoes have a stronger smell at the stem and it is really obvious when you compare a couple. Ones taht will taste good have a stronger earthy scent, a little sweet. Really bland ones can look good but have no scent at the stem. I encourage you to test it out, it is a really obvious difference and a test taht can be used with pretty much any fruit.

To the other poster. I poke meat to check firmness. Red meat that is too bright in colour is too fresh and likely to be tougher. If you poke it then how it rebounds tells you if it will be tough, if it feels dense or look stringy when pushed on then avoid. Chicken gets a poke to see if it has been excessively water treated. If it oozes of feels spongey then it's to be avoided. If bones have give/bend then the chicken was too young when slaughtered.

@UrslaB you might have convinced me to start poking meat in the supermarket . I am still not going to around sniffing tomatoes though sorry!

You just buy the first thing you pick up or handle then? What if it feels squishy or you turn it and see a bruise or it has started to rot? Do you have money to burn that you just buy lots of stuff hoping some of it is good quality?

This...this sounds so weird to me. Bad manners to check for quality? It sounds wasteful to not check. Heck, people move fruit and veg to get at ones they prefer the look of, so of course people are touching produce they aren't buying. To think otherwise seems unrealistic.

I am not a gourmet chef but I do like cooking homemade food. My parents were raised on farms where they grew their own food and passed on how to pick good produce to me and my siblings. My partner is a chef, so maybe I do take more time investigating produce...even if it is in Tesco. I think I would end up sleeping on the couch if I brought home the first produce I lifted rather than examining it.

Squeezing the bread is so irritating (I work in a supermarket) the squished loaves are always left on the shelves and often binned

I sniff pineapples and melons to see if they are ripe, and tomatoes to see if they have any flavour of whether they will be reddish balls of wetness. You don't eat the skins of pineapples and melons, and supermarket tomatoes are nearly always wrapped anyway. I sniff the ones that have holes in the plastic wrapping and I don't buy ones that I can't sniff. All very normal. They will all have been walked over and weed on by various creatures, and handled by many people before me. Just wash the tomatoes when you get home - no need to wash the melon or pineapple.

Grim

This has got to be the most pathetic use of this word I've ever seen. 'Grim' to sniff fresh produce honestly some of you need to get a life.

I sniff things like strawberries that come wrapped up, and other soft fruit and veg as if I want to eat something that day I want it fresh and ripe. And maybe this is why I can't relate to those "is it just me or do strawbs taste of nothing?" threads because I buy only those that smell good?

No I'm not a gourmet chef, but I do like to spend my hard-earned money on the best ingredients I can afford, and if that requires me putting something near my face and sniffing then that's what I'll do.

Yes! Love going to the Asian supermarket or this lovely greek fruit and veg stall when I in the city. Everyone is sniffing and feeling up the produce. I had a lovely asian lady teach me how to knock melons and listen for a good hollow sound when I was in university. She stood and went through like 10 melons with me til I got it. Then she explained how to look for melons with one side that has a worn patch that indicates it stayed on the ground in one position and has fully ripened in good sun.

No one looks at you strange at a market or foreign supermarkets if you sniff or handle produce.

A great rule of thumb. If it smells of nuthin' then it tastes of nuthin'.

I've learnt so much from this thread.

If it smells of nuthin' then it tastes of nuthin'.

Amen

And little leaf examining on some veg like kohlrabi is fun too.
I once watched a woman picking corn in husk. I have no idea what her method was really, what was it she was feeling for, but I took the second best she diced to leave and it was lovely😂

Oh and garlic. People, smell your garlic!
Garlic is my pet peeve so much so i grew my own because the shop one rarely impressed me here.

With pineapples it's better to pull out one if the green bits to see how easily it comes out!

I honestly didn’t know that sniffing tomatoes was a thing until I read this thread! I’ve never done it or seen anyone else do it either.

I said it on that thread, and I'll say it again here... They're just worried that someone will inhale away all the flavour, leaving none for them...

On a more serious note, that thread drove me mad, not so much about the debate over smelling produce, but the rest of it. So much judgement, small-mindedness, and lack of intellect. It's inspired me to use Mumsnet a bit less for the time being though... after today of course... 😉

Where is the other thread?

Yes, people seem to have forgotten how to use their senses. Its a shame

In fact they have quite literally lost their senses.

See what I did there

Never heard of having to sniff your food before you buy it and never seen anyone smelling produce in the supermarket either.

Your eyes are sufficient to tell you whether food is bruised or not the right colour.

Very odd behaviour.

Sniffing dairy/meat will make no difference if you're trying to decide if it's off as "you aren't a slave to dates." Food poisoning bacteria has no taste/smell/appearance to the eye so you'd never know until you've eaten it. Use by dates on meat is there for a reason.