Pre-Packed Fruit & Veg

[presta]

I've found that with Asda oil too, very frustrating.

Im still of the mind, supermarkets are kings at spin, say the right thing, do the opposite on occasions.
The only driver for them is THEIR cost and how to reduce, balancing with their desire for advertising and the visuals of the pack.
'Pillow' packs for citrus, plastic packaging with a net 'window' are an abomination. Un recyclable, lots of material, high energy required to produce, high energy required to actually form a pack, lots of waste at the packhouse when conducting changeovers, most of the film being trucked across from Spain, most of the supermarkets do them now in a desperate desire to provide something new, or following a trend. Compared to materials used 20 years ago, 'we've' taken 10 steps back...while they still profess how they're doing what they can for the environment


Interesting. As we switched from PET materials to RPET (Recycled PET) you realise every action has a reaction. As the articles suggests, to recycle PET there are no doubt an extra cocktail of chemicals used to achieve the process of recycling. You'd like to think the developers of that process did their due diligence and assessed the impact of those changes...I dont know if yay or nay but surely some assessment of the impacts must have been done ?
And then you ask yourself, OK, so now there are more noxious agents in the recycled material....but how much more detrimental is it ? 5% more dangerous, 1%, 50 % ? What effect does it have in actuality ? Is it slight, major, somewhere in the middle,would the average human being even be effected in a tangible way ?
What are the alternatives ?
No packaging ? Unlikely considering the publics acceptance of it and the supermarkets love of it (despite their protestations IMHO)
Cardboard ? We've done some experimental work with cardboard punnets. The negatives to this are huge.
Higher transport costs because a card punnet is thicker,so fewer punnets in a case, the cost has to go somewhere.
Higher production costs to seal them, more pressure, longer sealing time, more temperature, special film, lower production speeds. Someone has to bear that cost.
Cardboard is actually harder to recycle than plastic (I was told at the time of those trials, I assume that's true but accept it may not be)
I've seen paper bags tried, I assume because the orders didn't continue it was deemed faIlure sales wise.
Cardboard boxes such as you see clementines sold in at Xmas, they're no doubt environmentally better but require more labour to unpack, form the box, fill and close ...again a cost that has to be borne somewhere.

No easy answers....

It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that alternatives will be more expensive, because everything in use at present has been chosen to cut cost, but the issue is how much value we place on the environment, and the difference between internal and external costs.

 

[mjr]

It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that alternatives will be more expensive, because everything in use at present has been chosen to cut cost, but the issue is how much value we place on the environment, and the difference between internal and external costs.

Is it currently “none at all”? We don't even have glass bottle return incentives, so they get smashed on the roads.

 

[simongt]

During an Aldi shop yesterday, wanted some soft fruit for immediate consumption. All I could get was grapes; the plums, nectarines, peaches etc. were like hand grenades.

 

[vickster]

During an Aldi shop yesterday, wanted some soft fruit for immediate consumption. All I could get was grapes; the plums, nectarines, peaches etc. were like hand grenades.

Those are stone fruit, bit early for them too probably
No strawberries, raspberries?
Try Waitrose or M&S next time for ripe fruit?

 

[Reynard]

During an Aldi shop yesterday, wanted some soft fruit for immediate consumption. All I could get was grapes; the plums, nectarines, peaches etc. were like hand grenades.

I bought some plums a month ago on yellow sticker.

As of today, I could still sell them to the Ukrainian military.

 

[vickster]

I bought some plums a month ago on yellow sticker.

As of today, I could still sell them to the Ukrainian military.

Those red plums never ripen! My mum stews them, yummy with custard

 

[Reynard]

Those red plums never ripen! My mum stews them, yummy with custard

They're destined for a crumble. Only I need to finish my avalanche of YS strawberries first LOL

 

[presta]

Yes, but that is Olive Oil. We use that, but don't think of it as "cooking oil" (more often used as part of a dressing in our house, though we do also use it to baste things like potato wedges, or the kebabs we had tonight).

That is also a rather sturdier bottle than the sunflower oil or generic "vegetable oil"

I switched to olive oil a few years ago on the strength of this:

'Prof Grootveld generally recommends olive oil for frying or cooking. "Firstly because lower levels of these toxic compounds are generated, and secondly the compounds that are formed are actually less threatening to the human body."....He thinks the ideal "compromise" oil for cooking purposes is olive oil'

 

[gbb]

I have a 1 litre bottle of Olive Oil, had it for ages. A smidgeon fin a frying pan for most fry up stuff, even roast potatoes some out really well with it, a small amount in the tray, roll the potatoes in it, cook. You really don't need much...and as above, I think its generally accepted its much better than the vegetable alternatives.

 

[dicko]

We buy packed fruit and veg the first thing we do when we get it home is to get it out of that plastic packaging and into a bowl of water. These warm days some of the packed fruit and veg is ‘sweating’ by the time it’s home.