IGA is not small in the supply business. They have mostly small shops but buy supply like the other big three. They handle in smaller lots and on average spend more time on the shelves.
Many local fruiterers strip their displays overnight and stack in cool rooms. How to destroy bananas, pines, avocados, tomatoes mangoes etc. Hot, cold, hot, …c… They should be relatively static temperature in storage and display.
Shops have not had Gross Lisse for many years. they mostly carry the latest special breeds to withstand travel/handling time and bruising. Tasteless.
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Apples are the main culprit as far as I’m concerned. So often I’m disappointed in what looks nice but may as well be an artificial wooden apple once you take your first bite. In fact the bad experiences have turned me off buying them.
The problem is that most people don’t know when fruit is in season so it’s a lucky dip.
Maybe the shop should be compelled to let the consumer know if the fruit has been in cold storage.
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@zackarii, I agree with you completely about the Sweetcorn! One of my greatest disappointments has been Sweetcorn with one side of the husk removed. Rightly or wrongly I microwave my cobs but with the husk removed the corn dries out on that side. Also I really hate when I find out that the tops and stalk at the bottom have been removed and the cobs are displayed on a foam tray (which isn’t recyclable). Cobs aging, moulds etc only occurs at the top end, so why cut off the handle at the other.
Like you, my parents almost supply the region with home-grown fruit and veggies like Valencia Oranges, Lemons, Silverbeet, Swiss Chard, Broccoli, Lettuces, Cauliflowers, Cucumbers and soon, Tomatoes. They taste so much better than anything we can buy in shops. We have a real Farmer’s Market in Rutherglen VIC and have access to divine Cherries from Hotson’s, Tomatoes from Calico Town and fresh breads from Valentine’s and Milawa Bakeries plus many others.
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@FarmerRaq, Hi, I agree mostly with what you’ve said. A lot of money can be saved by buying only what’s in season - no matter where it’s bought, although Farmer’s markets can be a little more expensive at times. However your interpretation about Farmer’s Markets may not necessarily be so everywhere. Perhaps it is the case around big cities and suburbs, however in rural and regional Australia, Farmer’s Markets are defined as “grown by” or “produced by” local growers. Many are keen organic growers. Our biggest pest in the Wangaratta, Rutherglen/Corowa regions is the fruit fly and most people up here know that netting and fruit fly baits work better than spraying.
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@rclemons, an article on fruit and veggies’ freshness is a great “hot potato” for you! Please note that where I live in Rutherglen VIC we have no green grocers - only supermarkets, Farmer’s Markets, road-side stalls and our backyards.
Q 1. Fruit/Veg from major supermarket chains work hard to be seen to be as fresh as the small grocers and grower’s markets, and in many areas it works well. But failures do occur in the supermarket:
- fruit that becomes over-ripened within hours or days of purchase (Coles sometimes), such as stone fruits, strawberries, pears
- buying fruit and vegetables out of season
- supermarkets purchasing massive quantities and holding in cold-storage, then releasing onto the market as “fresh” - not!
Q 2. Hardest to judge quality/ripeness/freshness
For me
- oranges and celery - I can judge freshness/ripeness but not whether it might be dry inside (am I buying out of season?);
- ripe pineapple halves - often moved to the clearance table before they are ripe!
- avocadoes - easy to distinguish between rock hard and soft, but not easy to determine how ripe;
- potatoes - sold in coloured bags which mask freshness as well as bumps and cuts, quite often several in the bag have been affected to the point where I’ve cut most of the potato off!
Why is so hard to buy loose fruit or veggies lately? Aldi have come on board recently with pre-packaged fruits and vegetables at the expense of buying loose product at the reduced prices. My local Safeway (in a nearby town) has pre-packaging down to an art-form and as a result I won’t buy grapes from there - who are they to assume that I want a kilo of grapes? You have to buy the pack size as is or leave without them as there’s a sticker over the ziplock preventing opening. In many supermarkets, pre-packaging “for freshness” has gone mad. This includes a range of lettuces, spring onions, sweetcorn, herbs, sweet potato, apples, peaches, nectarines, cherries and more.
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A problem I see quite often is that lesser-known fruit and vegetables logically don’t sell as quickly and accordingly are “less fresh”. This in turn means that they look unattractive and this becomes a self perpetuating cycle.
Living in Asia, I developed a liking for Dragon Fruit (Pitaya) which look fabulous when they are fresh, but in Australian supermarkets they usually look awful!
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We do most of our green grocery shopping at a local independent [?] grocer. We shy away from “specials” and produce displayed outside the shop because we believe that this tends to be of lower quality. It costs more but it tends to keep longer and taste better.
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The fruit for supermarkets is picked before its ripe so the quality is usually not as good and not as palatable as the fruit I buy from the local markets. But even the local markets sell fruit and vegies that are either “seconds” masquerading as “organic” or over-ripe.
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I support Fred’s suggestion of having Picked On date labelling for fruit and vegetables.
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Hey @kathryng76. Fair point - I am indeed in a metropolitan area. I was not disparaging the practice of farmer’s markets attended by small growers (I’d certainly advocate buying from a local grower rather than a supermarket!). I was more making the point that “local” doesn’t necessarily mean "organic, and that buyers should check first if that’s important to them. I, too, battle the dreaded fruit fly and have resigned myself to losing a proportion of citrus, and having to net tomatoes. Grasshoppers get fed to the chooks (and there’s an afternoon’s entertainment in itself…), as do caterpillars. I share my pawpaws with the fruit bats (which means if they are quicker than I am, they win). It sometimes feels like a losing battle, but it feels worth it 
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Fruit and Veg from the big 2 are a major disappointment for me…
I am sick and tired of potatoes, for instance, lasting about 2 days in my pantry.
Firstly they are treated roughly by the shelf stackers and end up bruised, even the loose ones. This leads to the rot spreading etc etc. You should see the blank looks I get when I complain. Then there is the age of the stuff. Simply smells end of life.
My theory is that the store manager deliberately pays less (internally that is) for perishable stock near end of life in order to improve his bottom line.
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Yes I do expect the fruit and veg to be fresh from ALL places I buy from though I am continually disappointed in the two major supermarkets produce which has ‘enabled’ me to find other outlets providing more variety even if some of it is less than fresh.
I find apples, celery, broccoli, sno peas, sometimes carrots and onions to be less than fresh at different times of the year. And I do expect my veges and fruit to be super fresh during their growing season and have been disappointed with what I have brought home in the ensuing days post purchase. Of course this then means I dont buy produce from the store for a few weeks (probably a good thing as the smaller fruit and vege sellers get my money, if I can be bothered travelling longer distances to make the purchases).
I do understand that veges and fruit will not be “just right” during the off growing season that they will be stored leading to deterioration of ‘freshness’, I get that and I expect that. I dont get nor expect to get second rate produce during its season that is sold at premium prices with no acknowledgement that it has been in cool/cold storage for X amount of time. Surely as consumers and customers we are entitled to this knowledge to enable us to be savvy shoppers and not be just pick and pack shoppers accepting whatever the Supermarkets provide?
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My biggest bug bear is Strawberries. Seems no matter how closely you look at the pack you will generally find mouldy ones smack bang in the middle of the punnet. We try to buy ours direct from the strawberry farms. Some of the bigger “independent” grocers are just as bad as the big supermarkets for poor quality and old produce. When we have time to travel to our small not so local fruit & veg shop you can tell the difference in the freshness by the length of time it lasts in your fridge before it starts to wilt.
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for convenience we usually shop for fruit and veg at supermarkets. Coles have improved a lot - but I generally shop at one of the biggest malls in the southern hemisphere (Macquarie Centre) so maybe it’s also about turnover. When I can I will shop at Harris Farm who have much fresher produce. I never expect out of season apples to be any good - no matter where you buy them they are going to be pretty average.
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I live in Altona Meadows near the Central Shopping Centre . The fruit shop there is excellent . People come from miles around to shop there . There is also a Coles New World at the Central . Their produce does not come near the freshness of the green grocers shop . Also the green grocer is generally cheaper than Coles . Goes to show , good produce , good price and throw in a pinch of consumer loyalty and you can match it with the big boys . Unfortunately when Coles opened in Altona the three fruit shops that existed beforehand all closed . What a shame . I had parrot avaries when I first lived in Altona , pre Coles opening New World , I would go down to one of the fruit shops to get the day before’s bunches of silver beet . They would often give it to me for free . You know what …it was fresher than the crap we buy as fresh now . What a pity .
Will the good times ever come back or am I just looking for a consumer Utopia that no longer exists ???
I found most tree fruits are very hard to eat and do not last very long they have a dried out taste
Grapes seem very dry too and I have picked grapes fresh big difference in taste
Vegies carrots get dark spoting
Lettuce full brown rust colour
other types leaves like rubber plants
David m
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Potatoes sometimes don’t seem to last the week without going off.
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@vyen Try putting them in the fridge keep for along time. Only downside I’m told it increases sugar content in them . What sugar not sure . Too early to Google , still half asleep .
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I think that the supermarkets are the ones to blame in the first place for using cold stores to have fruits and vegies available all year round. We become accustomed to this and then have the expectation of being able to purchase what we want whenever. We NEED to be re-educated to use farmers markets and only purchase seasonally available fruit and vegies.
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@tandgc to put it another way, we’re to blame by expecting to purchase our favourite fruit and veg all year round. Now that the pick, store, sell cycle is quite sophisticated to meet this demand. I don’t think the supermarkets will go back to purchasing fresh items with a limited shelf life. It will cost them too much in spoiled produce This could change if we paid more to offset these losses but I don’t think the majority of consumers would buy into that. We created the demand and the supermarkets reacted by ensuring they filled it. Interesting question on how to change this mindset now.
