Some Foods Don’t Look Normal anymore

Went grocery shopping and something really stood out to me.

Ham doesn’t look like ham anymore. I don’t care for ham one way or other but I know what it “normally” looks like.
Now it looks super pale and fake.

Eggs are terrible, they are watery and don’t have the same binding power they used to.

Ground beef is off. The smell and flavor seems to be the same but the texture of the beef seems slightly off to me. When I cook it, it feels different.

Regular beef seems fine.

When you have been cooking for a long long time, you just notice these things. I am also not talking about just a bad weekly batch. These are things I’ve noticed lately.
My guess is that feed that was once given to pork and chickens have drastically changed in the last year. It could be because of the Ukraine conflict, it could be just higher cost all around, but something, for sure has changed. My guess is that the nutritional quality of these items have gone down too.

I’ve noticed scent and viscosity changes in a few cleaning products. Guess companies are trying to scrimp in every way possible….

I've noticed this a lot as well. A lot of food items seem different, and that's not including the fact that everything is getting smaller in portions.
One weird one is milk. The milk I've been buying the last year or so is expiring way before the expiration date. I've wondered if anyone else was noticing it or not.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Do you shop at a mega walmart or Target ? We shop at Kroger and Sprouts and everything looks normal there. It's just twice the price.

Organic nonGMO Black Forest Ham sliced from a brand like True Story is now like $10 a pack. Insane. We still buy it though since it's obviously not fake and tastes great. Normal, strong texture and smell, look.

What kind of ground beef do you buy? Do any of your supermarkets stock local ranches?

About scrimping though , THATS another story!

Definitely smaller baked loafs of bread, smaller baked rolls, more air in bags of things like chips or cereal . etc

a reply to: AOx6179

Depends on the milk. We generally get the mid grade stuff. I guess its this brand 'Maple Hill'
It seems to last a long time but tastes natural, not mass produced.

But if you get the too-fancy stuff, like this Amish brand we got a few times, it goes sour within like 4 days .

originally posted by: AOx6179
One weird one is milk. The milk I've been buying the last year or so is expiring way before the expiration date. I've wondered if anyone else was noticing it or not.

I shop for groceries at the beginning of the month, for the whole month, when I also pay all my monthly bills. I combine the trips to do it all at once to save money. I've also noticed that, two years ago, when I bought milk for the month, the expiration date would be a month or so into the future at least. Now when I buy milk, I'm lucky to find any milk with an expiration date past three days from when I'm shopping. I can longer buy my milk for the whole month and have to keep going back for milk every week. Which means more trips, which costs more money.

a reply to: chris_stibrany

Do you shop at a mega walmart or Target ? We shop at Kroger and Sprouts and everything looks normal there. It's just twice the price.

No, except for a Kroger very occasionally.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I get frozen chicken breast and hamburger patties from Costco for years. This last time the chicken breasts had less flavor and we usually bake them up and shred them and the meat just doesn't pull apart like it used to.

The hamburger patties you cook them up and the fat doesn't congeal when it's cooled it stays liquified. taste on both is off too

We were talking about this very thing a few days ago after I’d made American Chop Suey.
The hamburger felt almost gritty in an odd way, almost like tiny lumps of gristle.
The fat in it had an odd texture as well.
It’s hard to explain but my mouth felt greasy, like it was coated with an odd oil or grease that did not want to dissolve.
We have been noticing other things as well.
It’s hard to put my finger on though.
As far as where we buy and what, we don’t cheap when it comes to groceries.

So much weird and odd these days, in almost every direction I look.
Our has been getting worse for decades.
But lately, IDk.
Good catch Jag!!!




a reply to: JAGStorm

originally posted by: putnam6
a reply to: JAGStorm

I get frozen chicken breast and hamburger patties from Costco for years. This last time the chicken breasts had less flavor and we usually bake them up and shred them and the meat just doesn't pull apart like it used to.

You the hamburger patties you cook them up and the fat doesn't congeal when it's cooled it stays liquified taste is off too

Yes Costco is one of the places I shop!

a reply to: JAGStorm

Are you in a very urban area? Maybe there are not good accessible farms close by. Just spit balling.

The decay in every arena is remarkable. Services. Products. Socio-Political Humanity.

Specific to this thread: The quality & safety of food stuffs disturbs me more than the outrageous prices I'm paying for them. The recalls are coming in waves too.

a reply to: JAGStorm

JAG, I think you need to change stores or talk to management.

The market I shop at down the road from my house is exactly the same as it was 10 years ago when I bought the house. Prices are different, but I can't complain about any quality issues. I'm in a half million people area.

Jag and I are on near opposite sides of the country yet we are noticing the same weird things in food?
If changing stores works for now, I doubt it will last.
I don’t like the things my gut has been telling me since the Kenyan got in the White House. Talk about fast change!
Reality today will likely not be reality tomorrow.
Buckle up, tsunami incoming.


So, where do “they” shop for food?

Now that might be a real question….



a reply to: Mahogany




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Noticed it beginning in 2021- had a long hiatus from grocery shopping due to pregnancy complication/bed rest/ NICU baby and then newborn. By the time I was ready to jump back into domestic duties, I noticed the changes immediately. I was initially blaming it on the lag time between getting it off those stuck cargo ships into the store- but now that seems to no longer be an issue.

My friends have called me the food empath. I can literally feel when something is off, and all of it is off.

Even my family that raises chickens and shares eggs with us, we’ve always used fresh eggs as mjch as possible for over a decade- used to even have chickens ourselves before we moved to a HOA that doesn’t allow them.

Something ain’t right. Both my aunt and my MIL send eggs. All grainy , many clearly bad when cracked, odd taste, I actually prefer the store bought eggs from aldi over their fresh, but like you, I noticed the watery. Aldi has always had excellent eggs too. Bright yellow yolks, now it’s comparable to what I would buy In a pinch at the dollar general.

All items are spoiling quicker- and I don’t drink milk but my husband has for sure noticed the milk expiring way before the date.

So what gives?

I notice a difference in the quality of produce in lower end grocery stores that serve a poorer area (which is where I go to for aldi stuff near me) versus the same store in a more well off area, (aldi but in a different hood) the quality of food is just better in the nicer more expensive to live areas. It’s like they divvy out the best stuff to the richest places and leave what’s left for the poor.

Maybe this has always happened but my observation skills in the grocery store have changed. I notice things now and wonder if I’m noticing bc it’s new, or bc my awareness and perception has changed.

Here’s another thought. Covid ruined our taste, smell, maybe it’s not ALL the food, maybe it’s our sensory intake of it has changed. 😊

a reply to: SouthernGift

All items are spoiling quicker- and I don’t drink milk but my husband has for sure noticed the milk expiring way before the date.

Yes I’ve noticed this with all dairy!

a reply to: JAGStorm

I went to a local grocer on Sunday. They had whole tenderloin advertised at a really good price. I don't usually spring for such luxuries but this was a really good price so I thought I would check it out. It would be a nice treat for my wife, its her favorite cut of beef.

The tenderloins were vacuum packed. That usually removes most of the air and makes the package seem a little firmer than it would be otherwise. This felt wrong from the moment I touched it. The thickest part of this tenderloin was around 2.5 inches in diameter. I pinched it between my thumb and forefinger. The tips of my thumb and finger came within a 16th of an inch of each other. The meat was so squishy it felt like a bag of applesauce. Seriously, I have eaten Jello that had more texture than this meat. Every one I examined was exactly the same. It was sickening.

I have no idea what that was or why. I know some retailers inject meat with water to jack up the weight. If that is what happened here, it was more water than it was beef. I don't care what kind of meat you say it is. I am not paying for water by the pound.

a reply to: TrulyColorBlind

For us the expiry date seems to be about a week into the future. Which fits luckily since we shop weekly.

a reply to: Vroomfondel

I know exactly what you are talking about! Don’t buy chicken from Costco.

I’m so glad I’m not going crazy because much of what is being mentioned is EXACTLY what I’m talking about.

I wouldn’t doubt for a second that meats are being beefed up with “solution”, same with chicken.
My husband and I can’t even stomach rotisserie chicken anymore. It is just plain gross. The meat is gooey!

I think people don’t know what real chicken texture is. Chickens should be SMALL. Chicken breasts shouldn’t be the size of mine! 😳

We go to a variety of grocery stores. For meats we usually stick to Costco. I know how to butcher pretty well so we can buy big pieces and I can butcher down almost anything. I noticed that even at Costco the sizes have shrunk down considerably!

a reply to: PiratesCut

'They' 'live'

They don't eat human food.

Just bugs and other weird Martian #e

originally posted by: chris_stibrany
a reply to: TrulyColorBlind

For us the expiry date seems to be about a week into the future. Which fits luckily since we shop weekly.

We are not big milk drinkers in my family (which is a sin living in the Dairy state)
We would always buy organic milk and I swear that milk would last easy a month an a half.

Not anymore! What changed!