The other bugbear is the time it takes for stuff to ripen. If you have to keep stuff a week to ten days before you can eat it, that just increases the risk of ending up with stuff you can't use in time if it ripens faster than you'd bargained for. Apples are convenient, because they're always edible straight off the shelf, and keep for ages. Pears & kiwis are a PITA.
"packaging only being used when it serves a clear purpose. This is usually done to prolong the life of the produce as well as offer some protection for the produce itself"
Lemons, oranges, kiwi fruit and garlic are sold in net bags, they're not doing anything to protect or preserve anything. Apples are in poly bags, but they have just about the longest shelf life of all, so they don't really need preserving.
it isn't only Tescos that does it
No, I can see Sainburys moving in the same direction.
Do you have a local greengrocer near you - ?
No, there's a market which is right outside the front door of Tesco, but that's less than weekly now. There's a new Asian food shop just opened which has quite a large fruit & veg stall, and quite alot of unusual stuff I don't recognise too, I might give them a try. Branches differ, too, the Tesco on the east side of town has more loose stuff than the one in the one in the market place.
I fail to understand why Sainsbury's sell packaged bananas at a lower price than loose bananas!
It reduces waste by stopping people from rejecting the ugly or over ripe stuff. Or transfers the waste to the consumer.
And on a point of information, my reading of Tim Spector's recommendation is that it is 30 different varieties of plant-based food. I'm currently trying this out and when I add in nuts, seeds, pulses, beans, herbs, spices, tea and coffee etc I can get to 30 with not many more types of fruit and veg.
My whole diet easily makes 30 varieties, but I don't get all 30 in one week. They're not evenly distributed either, apples, tomatoes, carrots, bananas & peas account for just over half of all my fruit & veg consumption.
when fruit and veg are sold singly, they are now sold at price per item prices and not by weight
I tried asking them on Twitter how they decide which are per item and which weight, but they didn't reply.
* I once froze a lettuce, what was defrosted did not look good!
My freezing mistake was aubergine, by the time it was defrosted it was almost liquid.
we often have a voucher to use
Tesco stopped sending me vouchers when they noticed I was buying smaller quantities and maker more shopping trips. I developed tennis elbow, and can't carry the bags more than half full any more.
