Declining Food Quality in Grocery Stores

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I've lived on my own for about 7-ish years and I've bought A LOT of groceries over those 7 years. A LOT!

Over the last three years, I have noticed a SHARP decline in the quality of food that I buy at many different stores. I never used to have to return food, when I first lived on my own, but the problem seems to be quite commonplace now. There are some stores I absolutely CANNOT buy my food from because it is literally inedible.

My sensory issues are bad with food enough as it is, I don't need a quality drop in the food supply to make it worse. As a result in this decline, my grocery shopping has become much more complicated. Grocery shopping used to be a one shop stop experience, but I've have to go to different places for different things, because quality at different places is so inconsistent.

A few months ago, I found a lovely halal meat butcher in a beautiful mediterranean grocery store. For the longest time, the meat there was excellent. But now, it's garbage. I discovered the place while I was looking for garlic that wasn't stale, and I found this place, Adonis, which had beautiful cloves of garlic among other things.

Now their meat is inedible, and I am once again forced to find a new supplier. I have one, but it's really expensive, and really far, and honestly, they're still not as good as what Adonis used to be.

I hate it when great businesses go south. It's getting really hard and really expensive to find actual food that doesn't suck. That isn't spoilt or rancid, or 'just-not-right'.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Fortunately, the meat where I shop is real good, but the produce up here is not so hot. This is all right in the summer when it's possible to grow things, but the winter is pretty tough. And, of course, I am very much more into produce than into meat. My only other shopping options are 60 miles away or more and I don't like to go down into the cities.

I think the quality of certain fruits and vegetables has dropped. For example, it's not easy to find fresh, firm apples. The same with mandarin oranges (dry and no acid), peaches (yukky old texture), watermelon (stale and soft), bananas (bitter crunchy core) (I hate bananas any way), parsley (often half rotten) etc. I mostly buy those things at Woolworth. I think they store their fruits and veggies somewhere for a while for some reason and then by the time they sell them they are no longer fresh.

I don't know where you all live, but it's possible the drought in California is affecting this. The drought would affect the supply, which could mean that produce that was previously discarded as not being "good enough" now must be shipped out. My point is that it might not be the store that is declining in quality - it could be the supply itself

Here, where I am, there are farmers' markets in the summer. There, one can expect to find high-quality (though expensive) produce and meat grown nearby. (However, I'm not sure these small-time farmers would be able to be certified for certain meat preparation laws.)

Another option in my area is community-supported agriculture where people can buy "shares" in the farm. I think these are great, and may possibly join one in the future. They provide a high-quality variety produce (and possibly eggs/meat, depending on the farm). The only downside is that one is taking a risk along with the grower that the season will be a good one (weather- and pest-wise.)

A few observations about mass market groceries over the last fifteen years or so:

Processed foods, including packaged and fast / pre-prepared foods have changed their ingredient lists, slowly swapping out an ingredient at a time to keep percent profit rising because gross sales haven't met overly optimistic projections. My rule of thumb is this: Anything in a packaged food that you wouldn't have used is there to increase profit, either by replacing an expensive "real" ingredient or by making it last longer on the shelf. Your health is not part of that equation.

Produce is now bred and grown to be highly transportable and highly profitable. I find it interesting that fruit sold by weight has been bred to gargantuan sizes. That way if you want say, three servings of rock hard, bland peach (ie three peaches) you end up paying more than years ago even after inflation has been taken into account.

Most meat sold today is pretty disgusting, but didn't used to be that way. Chickens are now sold with up to 25% water added. Beef is so laden with antibiotics and growth hormones and fed such a bizarre diet that the flavor and texture are all wrong. Try some super-expensive grass fed, free range beef to compare and it'll prompt you to go mostly vegetarian.

So our family now eats far less meat but better quality. We go to to farmer's markets & eat whatever produce is in season; it's actually nicer to be connected to the seasons that way. And we try to avoid processed and packaged foods because there just isn't much food in them anymore. Also, we've noticed that many preservatives, sweeteners and flavorings don't sit well and often labels aren't always to be trusted (see: aspartame, msg and Neotame),

I've had a very limited amount of experience (within the last couple years is really when I've focused on buying non-processed food) with buying fresh and such.. But yeah, there is certainly a decline going on in the quality. Especially Spinach, I know this plant can be quite... sensitive... but seriously.. Nearly every bag of "fresh" spinach has a clump of just beginning to rot leaves on the bottom. Not my ideal meal.

Bell peppers.. green, red, yellow orange, etc.. They've not only gone up in price.. but they also have gone down in quality. The red, orange, and yellows are at least double the price of a green.. and are often half the size. I like bell peppers, a lot.

I wish quality could exist again, but I guess I could grow what I can.. which I'm going to try come next year.. I'm already making a list of varieties to look for to plant. I'm eager to get this going. Sick of spending money on products I could grow/make instead..

Meats.. I eat fish and chicken for the most part. I'm very fond of local chicken producers, and fish is almost always wild caught/fresh where I am.. I do know that the chicken I buy is antibiotic-free and fed a "vegetarian" diet which likely means quite a bit of grain.. and the water percentage is often listed between 1 to 5%.. And I'm comfortable with that. I just make sure I know what I'm buying. I don't spend very much extra money getting that specific than I do not being specific.

Other than that, I do eat game. I have a couple quail I'm processing soon, and I do buy deer when it is in season.. Not much though. I still rather have fish over any other option to be quite honest.