Does anybody else find tesco's fruit and vegtable produce poor?

shetitasatic

I hate Tesco's carrots - they are always 'wet' even if the bag in store has just been opened. The carrots in our local greengrocer are dry - what happens to the Tesco ones? They start to rot after a day or two!!

moggins

shetitasatic wrote:

I hate Tesco's carrots - they are always 'wet' even if the bag in store has just been opened. The carrots in our local greengrocer are dry - what happens to the Tesco ones? They start to rot after a day or two!!

They spray them with water to make them look glossy and appealing, it'sa psychological thing!

tootles_2

I have been banging on about this very thing for years, Tesco's fruit and veg are very poor quality but until recently shopping on the market was not an option, now we have free bus fares for pensioners I go in once a fortnight and buy all my fruit on the market. We have a smallholder who comes to the local market she sells spuds veg etc which is brilliant, have never had anything bad from her and we know its fresh.

I hope you took it all back and complained..............

calleyw

As has already been said f & V can be up two week old in supermarkets by the time it has been off to be packed and then shipped to the shops via some long route.

If you can get to a green grocers the fruit and veg will be fresher and you might even been lucky to some locally produced items as well.

Whol carrots are often washed and then shipped out in big crates. Even my local greengrocers seem to get they shipped in that way. Problem is once it has been washed it goes off quicker.

I do my best to buy from local greengrocers when I can. I mean you can things like strawberries really cheap. Cheaper than the supermarkets.


Yours


Calley

Loadsabob

JennyW wrote:

Not sure about anyone else, but do you find greengrocers far and few between now? There certainly isn't one in my town or the town where I work

I use Stokes, a chain fruit and veg shop, but there's not nice little green grocer in our town anymore Stokes have a few local things, but lots from far afield too, and nothing organic (they say there's no demand, according to a friend who wrote to them about it!).

I have found Tesco very poor for F&V in the past. My organic box veg lasts AGES, all of it! Carrots can be going weeks and weeks later, when Tescos ones in the past would have turned to mush - it's all the water they use! And so the arguments for fungicides are?...

Horasio

Ah greengrocers.... I used to work in one and learnt so much about good and bad veggies. We sold quality ones and the place smelt lovely.

A very healthy and happy place to work:)

zappomatic

It also seems to vary not only between supermarket chains, but areas and even individual stores. I suppose the way the distribution centre and the shop itself stores and handels veg has a bit effect. One Tesco always had really manky, bruised looking loose mushrooms. I found out why one day when I saw an assistant tipping mushrooms from one crate into another!

The veg in our local Lidl always seems quite good and fresh if you go fairly early in the day (later on there's not much left).

And I do find, that like another poster here, Tesco bananas are often green on the outside yet over-ripe and sometimes black inside - have they been refrigerated at some point? I try to buy the Windward Isles bananas that Waitrose sell. These are from a growers co-operative set up just for Waitrose, and are smaller and more flavoursome than Central/South American bananas. They only cost a few pence more.

spender

I only buy small quantities from Tesco's and need to use it immediately. Their soft fruit goes off incredibly quickly and since it is not cheap it is a shame. I do notice that British Strawberries in season are the best, however if you have cravings any strawberry will do. I try and buy seasonal now but I do not feel that Tesco provides seasonal veg it seems to buy abroad for everything.

We are lucky that we have an excellent greengrocers in our very small town. Suffice to say there are always queues on Saturdays and if you don't get their early they are sold out. Their quality is excellent and the prices half of the supermarkets. The new potatos are coming through now and they are delicious, sold loose at about 20p per pound (Jerseys £1 a lb), you can taste the newness!

LizD_2

We have a Stokes in Christchurch, it's very cheap. I got a week's supply of veg for my Guinea Pigs for about 50p! Admittedly they only get 1 carrot and a few broccoli florets a day, but it was still cheaper and much better quality than the supermarkets!

rjrog77

I have shopped in Tesco a couple of times recently (I usually shop at ASDA or, when I have the money, at the farmers' market at Borough Market) and I have noticed that not only does most of their fruit and veg look thoroughly manky on the shelves, but most if not all of their own-brand stuff is really expensive.

The "Tesco Value" brand stuff is a decent price (and from what I remember most of it is decent enough in quality) but it seems to me that they have just upped the price of everything else -- I'm not exactly poor and have noticed this so how on earth do people on e.g. fixed incomes manage?

I know the oil price is shockingly high at the minute but surely it won't have had that much of an effect yet?