Anyone noticing that tomatoes etc are going mouldy early.

No it’s not just you everyone I know complains about fruit and vegetables they have bought from various places. I grow a fair bit of veg myself and it usually lasts quite well. I think the stuff in shops is waiting too long in warehouses for transport and distribution.
I have been to shops and complained about use by and sell by dates well out of date on perishable cheeses meats etc. The poor excuse given to me was lack of staff. So the lack of staff gives shops the excuse to sell unfit food to its customers its not good enough.

No, it’s not just you. We eat a lot of tomatoes, I keep some out and put the rest in the fridge and replace the ones we eat at room temperature with the ones from the fridge. Recently I have noticed that the tomatoes are going soft and squishy within a few days and they don’t taste very nice. I usually then freeze them. But it means we don’t have fresh tomatoes until I go shopping again.
I have noticed that the vegetable section in our local supermarket is a lot colder than it used to be and wondered if that was the cause?

No, it's not just you, I bought a casserole pack from Sainsbury's, and it was delivered on Friday. When I got it out on Sunday carrots, turnips and parsnips were covered in furry mould and the onions were sprouting and had blue mould.
Tomatoes from either M&S or Sainsburys go soft very quickly. Lots of veg now states "No use by date to save food waste". Who is going to eat mould? We could start penicillin production.

Tomatoes should never be refrigerated.
Just pop them in a bowl in a cool dry place, they last longer and retain flavour.

no it in't just you!

I've not had any problem but certainly never put them in the fridge. I find they become tasteless when chilled.

Bananas from Tesco’s are terrible, buy them quite green within a very few days they’re brown… And I do like an under ripe banana..

I notice this with most fruit and veg. Strawberries in summer were a good example.

I've also noticed that goods for sale in shops are much closer to their 'sell by' date than they used to be, that the selection is less and poorer and that there are always shortages of at lease several items on my list (No Scotch eggs or pork pies in Morrisons this week - supply chain issues according to staff). There seem to be less staff in supermarkets and often it looks like managers are mucking in with shelf stacking. Prices of course have all gone up.

Is it because farmers and everyone throughout the food chain are finding it harder to get staff post Brexit/due to covid?

Oh dear, one of my 'luxury' food purchasers each week is cherry toms on the vine. Problem is that as soon as I see these I tend to eat them like sweets. So, I do store in the veg drawer of the 'fridge where they last a good 7-10 days. (I have a fridge that boasts that it is has a special lighting system (Harvest Fresh), which keeps veg and salad stuff for longer -and (do not understand the science), bu it seems to work for me.

If I kept a bowl of these toms, where I could see them each time I went into the kitchen (out of the fridge drawer), there is no way they would last the week.

Cannot say I have any more problems with keeping these items less time now than in the past. I do a supermarket shop once a week, eat salad as my main meal most days - everything lasts easily for that seven days, plus. Do store these items carefully, plastic packaging taken off as soon I receive them, use paper towels to line clip and lock boxes for lettuce leaves and spinach - then boxes in veg drawer in that fridge, cucumber wrapped in piece of kitchen towel. Bananas are kept well away from all other fruit.

Yes I'm stopping buying tomatoes for that very reason. They go off very quickly now, and I notice more and more there are no sell by dates on them

I do not put tomatoes in the fridge, but they still go mouldy.

The other thing that annoys me about fruit (especially) in supermarkets, is that things like peaches, nectarines, plums are so unripe when picked they shrivel and rot before they ripen. I had to throw a carton of 4 nectarines away last week. I had had them a week, they were still as hard as when I bought them, but the skin and the layer just below it was shrivelling up and going rotten.

Thank you all for replying. It seems it is a general problem which is worrying. Sainsburys emailed the other day to give me an opportunity to book Christmas shopping. I usually get it earlier rather than at last minute but this has made me rethink. I put kitchen paper over the top of veg drawers but will use more to cover things individually. If the same thing happens in M&S then things are bad. Hate the thought of crowded buses before Christmas if I try to buy from the market.

M0nica

I do not put tomatoes in the fridge, but they still go mouldy.

The other thing that annoys me about fruit (especially) in supermarkets, is that things like peaches, nectarines, plums are so unripe when picked they shrivel and rot before they ripen. I had to throw a carton of 4 nectarines away last week. I had had them a week, they were still as hard as when I bought them, but the skin and the layer just below it was shrivelling up and going rotten.

Put a ripening banana in with them, it speeds up the process of ripening. On the reverse side, don't keep your banana's with ripened fruit.

Sorry if I'm teaching my grandmother to such eggs!

Some of the big stores have removed "use by" dates and so the fruit and veg is not as good for keeping as it used to be. Some of the reduced stuff isn't fit for purpose either so is such a waste of food at a time when we're all finding things so expensive. We shop for fruit and veg every 3 days to try to avoid problems but it doesn't always work.

Something like 40% of veg and slightly less for fruit come from Europe, I believe.

It is taking longer to reach the supermarkets - for obvious reasons.

And it probably starts the decaying process whilst it's still in transit.

It's simply one of the disadvantages of Brexit. Of course, there was also an ongoing problem in the supply chain prior to Brexit, but it hasn't helped matters.

We've "taken back control" - and handed it over to the markets!

Shinamae

Bananas from Tesco’s are terrible, buy them quite green within a very few days they’re brown… And I do like an under ripe banana..

We bought bananas from Tesco last week. They always seem to have blemishes on the skins which doesn't bother me as the fruit inside has always been ok...............until last week! Horror of horrors; when I peeled the banana I found a live critter wriggling inside it directly underneath where there was a blemish on the skin!

I vaguely remember back in the 50s that my grandmother (with whom I lived) only bought tomatoes - or indeed any salad foodstuff - on the day she intended us to eat it!

If I remember rightly, salad was not something that all families ate every day. Our salads consisted solely of the obligatory celery (cut and stuck in a mug on the table), a few lettuce leaves and tomatoes and occasionally cucumber, sliced and soaked in vinegar. This was usually accompanied by a tin of "luxury" ham and bread and butter. Always eaten on a Saturday or Sunday for 'tea'.

Grandmother went shopping every day for that day's meals (or sent me) and leftovers were kept in the cold pantry. Those were the days when a woman could often afford to stay at home whilst the man went out to work.

Grandfather tried to grow tomatoes in the small back yard, failed, and grew dahlias instead.

Oh, and leftover tomatoes from Saturday 'tea' were fried on Sunday morning with eggs and bacon.

It was a different world. But again, if I remember rightly, tomatoes really tasted delicious - we had those that were 'ribbed', no idea where they came from or what they were called.

I can’t say I’ve noticed. Where do you buy your tomatoes? Ours mostly come from Asda - lately all U.K. grown but I suppose that will have to change soon. Tomatoes are supposed to be better kept out of the fridge, and ours do seem to last well.

Monica, I don’t buy peaches etc. often, but when I do it’ll usually be from M&S - their ‘perfectly ripe’ fruit is nearly always exactly that. Obviously more pricey though.

icanhandthemback The problem with the nectarines, and some other fruit, is that it is so unripe when picked that it is incapable of ripening, no matter how many bananas you place round them, and the nectarines were in a fruit bowl with bananas around them.

M0nica

icanhandthemback The problem with the nectarines, and some other fruit, is that it is so unripe when picked that it is incapable of ripening, no matter how many bananas you place round them, and the nectarines were in a fruit bowl with bananas around them.

... same with avocados, I have found.

I noticed my Asda mushrooms had no date on the packet this week and they have started to flop after two days
No I don’t think any of the fruit and veg seems to last now

Dickens so have I

I got fed up with inedible supposedly 'ready to eat" pears, which weren't ripe enough three days after purchase.
I took them back for a refund.
Anything not up to scratch is bring returned - going ripe too quickly or not quick enough.
I think we all need to do that.

They were from M&S. Bags of satsumas didn't last either.
We have no dates on produce now, so the only thing to do is return stuff.