Fed up of unripe fruit

[Deleted User]

[rant]The title says it, I'm fed up of supermarkets pushing unripe fruit with the "Ripen at home" excuse. I know I can buy a stockpile and wait for it to ripen, but the bigger the stockpile the bigger the risk of having to throw it away uneaten if it ripens faster than I bargained for. It was a choice of pears as crunchy as raw carrots or sour kiwi this evening. I generally keep buying the same old apples, oranges and pineapple, because they're about the only ones that are ready to eat off the shelf.[/rant]

jenniewb

Try street markets, not only is the fruit far riper- and even fully ripe in many cases, when you purchase it, it also tends to be cheaper too.

VoucherMan

Unfortunatley the alternative is to have them sell ripened fruit which would be little use to those who do a weekly shop a it would be over-ripe / off before it was wanted.

Not to mention all the additional food the supermarkets would throw out as unsellable. Despite choosing the freshest looking oranges I can see I often end up throwing one that has gone mouldy. Even bananas which I pick the greenest ones I can find will often start to go brown before I eat them.

geordie_joe

VoucherMan wrote: »

Unfortunatley the alternative is to have them sell ripened fruit which would be little use to those who do a weekly shop a it would be over-ripe / off before it was wanted.

But it would be very useful for those who buy fruit because they want to eat it that day.

VoucherMan wrote: »

Not to mention all the additional food the supermarkets would throw out as unsellable. Despite choosing the freshest looking oranges I can see I often end up throwing one that has gone mouldy. Even bananas which I pick the greenest ones I can find will often start to go brown before I eat them.

I used to buy "rippen at home" fruit, but gave up because it often went rotten in the middle while still looking very fresh on the outside.

A colleague also gave up for the same reason and was convinced it was because they store the fruit in a gas that stops the bacteria growing. But because the gas doesn't "soak into the centre" of the fruit it goes rotten there first.

DPJames

Have you tried shopping in Lidl? Their fruit is so ripe it's growing roots and leaves!

BearNy

geordie_joe wrote: »

But it would be very useful for those who buy fruit because they want to eat it that day..

Most supermarkets sell ripe fruit in the same sort of section to accomodate for this.

Alternatively.. you could buy a pear tree :rotfl:

geordie_joe

BearNy wrote: »

Most supermarkets sell ripe fruit in the same sort of section to accomodate for this.

Mine doesn't, well it does but only apples and oranges and fruit grown in this country.

BearNy wrote: »

Alternatively.. you could buy a pear tree :rotfl:

I will when I find one that produces peaches, bananas, kiwi fruit etc.

Blackbird101

My local Asda does 3 sections for most of its fruit - Ripe, Nearly There and Ripen At Home.

Although I'm more of an avocado person to be honest!

You could try a local green grocers? They generally have fresh fruit available over the counter at fair prices?

[Deleted User]

VoucherMan wrote: »

Not to mention all the additional food the supermarkets would throw out as unsellable. Despite choosing the freshest looking oranges I can see I often end up throwing one that has gone mouldy. Even bananas which I pick the greenest ones I can find will often start to go brown before I eat them.

But that's my point, all they've done is move the risk of waste from the shop to the consumer. If you've got a weeks supply waiting to ripen and the weeks supply that's already ripe, then if it ripens quicker than expected you risk having to gobble a fortnights worth of fruit before it goes off and gets thrown away.

A yellow banana will last 5-6 days before it goes brown, but it ages since Tesco switched to selling them green instead of yellow. Oranges (and apples) are fine, they're ready to eat off the shelf and they last for ages, but it's a bit monotonous eating them all the time.

suki1964

When I started work in the supermarkets in the late 70's, fruit came into store ripe and ready to eat. We had fresh produce deliveries on Tuesdays to Fridays. Saturdays, if there was none left in stock, tough we had sold out and weren't getting fresh till the following Tuesday .

Strawberries, pears,peaches, full of juice and flavour because they were ripe when picked and in store and sold within days

The fruits not ready we're things like melons and pineapples which were obviously imported and therefore picked and packed long before they were ripe

And here lies the crux. Back then fruit and veg were seasonal. We sold what was grown in the country. Very little exotics were stocked. Bananas, melons and pineapples were as good as it got

When new fruits or vegetable came on the market we had little leaflets to give out for them to explain how they were served, or cooked

Nowadays with out ever increasing multi national society, we demand a huge range of fruit and veg, and most of it is now imported

It's weeks old before it's even on the supermarket shelves.

Stick to what's in season and buy from a green grocer or stall.

VfM4meplse

jenniewb wrote: »

Try street markets, not only is the fruit far riper- and even fully ripe in many cases, when you purchase it, it also tends to be cheaper too.

Came to this conclusion many years ago, after a particularly horrible experience with sour supermarket plums that refused to ripen. The only fruit I get from supermarkets now are bananas (which I rarely eat) and grapes, very occasionally.