Food Quality

Has anyone else noticed food quality has gone downhill big time recently?

It could just be bad crops this year, but i've noticed that:

peaches, nectarines, plums have been abysmal quality this year with the fruit looking fine on the outside but rotting from the inside out. I've shopped at several different grocery stores of different brands, but all the same. After about two or three days of letting them ripen up, they start getting mushy and sure enough the interior around the pit is all rotten and gross.

Cherries were hit and miss, with the last of the crop from the washington state tasting very chemically.

Carrots seem to all be floppy and don't taste right anymore. Potatoes are also not tasting right recently.

And I need not mention the phenomena of never ripening fruit (plums and kiwis are the worst culprits)

Again this is a sample from several different supermarkets, i got fed up with the stuff at my normal store so Id thought i look around and see. It was the same everywhere i went. Have yet to try the stuff from the farmers markets. FYI im in western canada.

It's funny you mention this, I recently had to look up proper ways to freeze fruits. I bought cantalopes from a local farmer, and they rippened too fast. We barely ate the first one before it went bad. I also got five peaches that day and they all were rotten in a day, like you said, from the inside out. The watermelon I got the same day is fine, but it did strike me as odd how fast the other things were rotten.
Were I am the weather has been VERY hot, even my own garden didn't thrive like it normaly does. Maybe it is the weather. Such a waste of money though when it's all rotten before you can eat it.

Replying from Colorado.

Yes! I have noticed. We are a big fruit and veggie family. I can't believe how much fruit I've thrown out because the INSIDE is rotten! What is that? I've noticed it mostly with apples. Oranges have been really dry on the inside while appearing normal on the outside.
And carrots! Oh my goodness. You bite into them and they taste like chemicals. The organic ones I've been buying are very thin and small. But that's better than the chemical taste.
Lettuce is a joke.
I've resorted to buying canned vegetables. And applesauce, mandarin oranges, etc.

Originally posted by DSO
....
peaches, nectarines, plums have been abysmal quality this year with the fruit looking fine on the outside but rotting from the inside out.
... and sure enough the interior around the pit is all rotten and gross.

....

fine outside and rotten on the inside is a sure sign that the food has been irradiated. (but not though out).
They irradiate the food to destroy the bacteria that will cause it to go off.

then it's off into cold storage.

The fruit you have, has possibly been in cold-store for 12-18 months,
and because the irradiating process didn't get right through to the center,
you get the center rotting, while the outside looks fresh, inviting, and worth the price you paid.

normal fruit usually rots from the outside in (excluding burrowing bugs).

Go to an organic grocery.

tomatoes and lettuce are really strange where I live. they both get nice and ripe looking with a real deep color. yet they are tough, tasteless, and seem to NOT rot at all. I forgot about the lousy romaine I left in the fridge for a couple months, and when I went to throw it out, it still looked like I just bought it. oranges look nice outside, but when cut, are discolored and soggy.

aside from that, no produce I can find has any smell to it, zero, none. it's pretty strange when cilantro is odorless.

Ive definitely noticed the fresh food not lasting as long, its good for a day or two, then its done. My family laughs when I buy canned food. But seriously, sometimes its almost better.

Thats not right.. I dont know whats wrong, but something is....

reply to post by CitizenNum287119327


That's horrifying. I never knew that. Ugh. Makes sense though.

reply to post by CitizenNum287119327


Interesting, i didn't think food irradiation was that widespread yet I thought it was still "experimental. I'll have to do more research on this. This didn't even occur to me that this is being done, but i guess it makes sense. This point im definitly thinking organic (or even home growen if my situation allows) is the best course to follow now.

To everyone else, thanks for the replys. Good (bad?) to know this is not just an isolated few grocers.

For awhile one of the local chain groceries was posting notices to let consumers know some of its produce has been irradiated. I don't recall seeing them recently. They've since moved on to emphasize their organic house branded produce. The newer grocery that opened here recently started off with ordinary offerings and quickly moved to emphasize organic produce and dairy, and humanely raised and slaughtered meats. I think it can depend on where you live. I live in what is known as the metro DC area that includes areas of Maryland, DC and Virginia that are full of government employees and federal contractors and good paying tech jobs. The average education levels are high and people are generally pretty savvy about animal welfare and environmental causes. So organic produce and hormone free, antibiotic free meats are in impressive demand and supply here. There are even many specialty shops that stock organic pet foods. Those of us who are not affluent still benefit from a really good selection of meats and produce we can afford if we are careful with our budgets. I only rarely buy non organic produce so I have not seen the problem of poor quality with internal rot in my own purchases but have noted this year a lot of the organic fruits did not look great externally. So I think harsh weather wreaked some havoc there even on organics.

I got lucky finding organic onions of good quality but noticed ordinary onions on display were largely rotted all summer long.

I know it can be terribly expensive but I hope that those of us who can manage it will ask for and purchase organic products whenever possible. I hope we can send a collective message that we prefer these healthier alternatives when we can get them and that our support will mean organics can be put in reach of more people. We have enough people where I live buying organic now that I've seen prices for organic products drop substantially as the farmers get more support.