I swear it feels like any produce I buy goes bad within a couple of days of purchasing. However, I know that these onions, for example, have been grown, picked and harvested weeks ago.
In: Biology
1. Delivery is often not that long as most people would think, many markets get a delivery EVERY morning for fresh goods
2. For things like fruits, delivery time is calculated in the time of harvest, farmers sometimes harvest underripe so the fruit ripens while traveling and is close as possible to perfect on arrival
3. Storing conditions, while different for every product these have a massive impact on shelf life. Most non refrigerated products like cold, dry, dark storing places. There are many tricks to keep stuff longer fresh like not storing apples near other fruit.
It could be the conditions you are storing them in. Even items like onions that don’t need *refrigeration* are usually kept in reasonably cool and dry conditions on store shelves, so if your kitchen is relatively hot or humid that is not ideal.
You could also try buying from a different store. If your store does not transport or sell items quickly, they could all be on the verge of spoiling when you buy them. The store will probably throw out the items that *actually* rot so it might not be visible that their whole inventory is already near the end of its shelf life. Physical bruising will also cause a lot of produce to begin rotting. So the onions might have been pretty fresh but if they are stacked up too high or the person putting them on the shelf is rough during the process they could trigger them to spoil soon after you buy them. A different store could fix both those problems.
You know for a fact the onions are picked weeks ago and not 1-2 days ago?
Produce can be stored in very specific ways to maximize freshness from harvest to store… factors like temperature, humidity levels, air mixture can all affect ripening and longevity. You don’t have the ability to do that at home.
I work in this industry.
The reasons for this are many, interacting and dynamic. For any given product the reason may change. However, the following are the main reasons:
Time from farm to market to retailer to shelf… each leg of the chain is controlled by different groups with differing agendas. What takes 48 hours one trip might take 96 the next
Condition from farm to market to retailer to shelf… As above but now think temperature and humidity
Original harvest quality… different regions even different fields within a farm have different onditions, which change the way product degrades.
In theory this can all be managed very tightly and consistently, but in reality the complexity of our food supply chains makes it very difficult.
Make your fridge colder. It’s probably 39-40f. Make it 37F it improved longevity of many things in the fridge for me.
The process of getting them into stores is actually very quick. For example strawberries that arrived in New York were still in a field 3-4 days before that
Latest Answers