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

tessasmum

Another one here who finds T's fruit and veg to be not worth buying. Other choices where we live are local markets, Co-op, Sainsbury or Lidl. I am never in town on the right day for the market, so I tend to get the f & v from Lidl, and I am pleased to say that it lasts for a good few days, and is in good condition when I want to use it. Not having the opportunity to shop daily is a drawback to living out in the sticks, but we do grow our own in the summer.

[Deleted User]

I recently decided that istead of putting up with substandard food I would buy less of it but pay a bit more I bought some lovely maris piper spuds in M&S for 2.20 and on opening the bag found that almost half could be used for Jacket spuds .there cauli's aren't that much dearer that the MrT ones but far better quality.Often if I manage to get there around 10.30 in the morning a lot are reduced from the day before a couple of weeks ago I got two huge red peppers and a yellow on reduced to a pound and they were gorgeous in fact I still have the yellow one in the fridge.And if you see their red grapes on special offer buy some and see the differance I have bought quite a bit of M&S fruit and veg recently and found it to be far superior to the big supermarkets.

thriftwizard

I hardly ever buy F&V from Mr T; about 80% of mine comes from the local market, which on one day out of the three per week it's open includes a Farmer's Market with very fresh, very local produce on offer at decent prices. But I find that even stuff from the normal greengrocery stalls outlasts supermarket produce, and it's cheaper too. I also use our local greengrocer's shop and the Farm Shop I get my hay, straw & poultry feed from. I'm not above picking up the odd yellow sticker though, if it's stuff like mangos or avocados which often haven't ripened up properly before they go out of date!

We only have a small garden but we do grow a lot of fruit; we have 4 apple trees (the best ones keep until about March, though they're only good for cooking by then) two quinces, a fig tree, a kiwi, red currants, blackcurrants, gooseberries, blackberries, raspberries & even Japanese Wineberries. They're not confined to a "patch" with a cage (haven't got room for that!) but dotted around the garden, with the bushes placed under the trees, which are kept fairly well pruned to allow sunlight through and make it easy to harvest the fruit. And I'm gradually learning all sorts of ways of keeping & preserving the fruit & veg, which can also be applied to the bargains I find elsewhere, but sadly I'm coming to the conclusion that most supermarket produce really isn't worth bothering with, possibly because of the plastic they wrap them in, or the ethylene they use to ripen them up swiftly. I can keep market carrots for a month in the bottom of the fridge, or my own apples in the trays in the cool part of the garage for 5 months, but supermarket stuff? Once they've been wrapped in plastic they rot in days.

snookey

The fruit in Tesco is rubbish. I like Asda for fruit as its cheaper and better quality.

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

Yup that's why I changed to Riverford and Waitrose.
Riverford has it's veg still dirty from earth which means they keep longer.
I no longer trust Mr T with fruit and veg.

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fruit-Veg-Savers-3-Discs/dp/B002SQPW3Y

Use these and take out of 'sweat bags' Tesco deliberately pack 'em to encourage sweating.

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

At least Riverford is 1) local 2) organic 3) freakin' tasty!! 4) competively priced!!

Smoosh

Mine actually tend to keep ok. I always make sure to take all fruit and vegetables out of the plastic, and all vegetables get kept in the fridge. My potatoes can last for about 2 weeks.

I actually made a trip to Aldi recently just to pick up some fruit and vegetables, their produce is really great! It's so much cheaper than big supermarkets but seems better quality

building_with_lego

Wow, where did this 6 year old thread come from?!

I generally find supermarket produce inferior to the greengrocer's, although pricewise my co-op is cheaper than the grocer. I happen to know that supermarkets store the produce either in a chilled room or in a fridge, depending on what the item is. Sometimes things like tomatoes get fridged, when they shouldn't be, and sometimes things which should be in the fridge end up in the chilled room. That, coupled with the long dates on items and the distance they travel, means that once you actually get the veg they only have a short life left. My grocer's does seem to have fresher stock *and a quicker turnaround* even though their prices are comparable to the co-op.

I use the green stay fresh bags from Lakeland and that helps keep things fresher for a bit longer- I've had tomatoes last for a fortnight or more in those.

ash28

I stopped using Tesco and Asda for fruit and veg a number of years ago - the quality in the stores where we lived was terrible.

I used Waitrose, Sainsburys or the local market (when I could get to it) instead.

We moved recently and are now in a rural area - fortunately we have a couple of farm shops near us - the sort that are attached to farms not garden centres and can buy in season veg cheaply.

Cauliflowers are 2 for 80p, cabbage of any variety 2 for 70p, 5kg onions 99p, potatoes are really cheap as are carrots, swede and leeks - in fact anything they grow is cheap and really fresh - stored correctly they can last several weeks - unlike Tesco and Asda where I had bin stuff on a regular basis because it was rotting after a few days.

Our local Lidl is good too - broccoli stored in the fridge will keep a good couple of weeks, as will cabbage, carrots and cauliflower. Any of the more exotic stuff I get from Lidl now - including all of our fruit - because it lasts and is cheaper than the big 3.