What to Eat - Fruits and Vegetables: The Price of Fresh by Marion Nestle

     So many choices: conventional, organic, local, name brand, store brand.  The real question remains: are the differences in freshness, taste, nutritional quality or production methods worth the differences in prices?
Fresh, but how fresh?
     In the old days markets carried local, seasonal produce.  The spoilage problem limited the variety of available fruits and vegetables to those that were picked today and were able to make it to the market in a very short time.  Refrigeration changed everything.  It meant that markets were no longer constrained by growing location or season.  Just about everything gets trucked from the grower to the retailer.  All of this can take a week to 10 days.  This is not anyone's idea of fresh.  Even fresh produce has been picked too early, chilled, warmed, treated with gasses to ripen.  In supermarket terms, "fresh" means food that spoils faster than others. Unless you grow your own food or buy from a local stand, you have no idea what fresh really tastes like.
     In other countries produce has to be labeled as to its origin.  This is not true in the United States.  You are guessing blind as to where your produce is coming from and how fresh it really is.  A few supermarkets have been labeling location of origin for quite some time - Whole Foods is one of those retailers.
    On the note of taste, the smaller more intensely flavored vegetables and fruit don't travel so well. Growers look for their produce to be bigger, shaped correctly, to be firm, have a nice color and resistance to pests.  Flavor is one very small factor in the equation.
     Mark up on produce is high based on the special handling and maintenance that goes into keeping that produce section looking good.  If all you care about is price then your decision is relatively easy.  You may factor in convenience.  Bagged salad costs 4x more than a head of romaine.  It is easy and many of us will choose that over the cheaper lettuce.
     You need to decide what is important to you.  If you want good looking, low price produce that may be rather old and diminished in nutritional value then that is easy to find.  Locally grown produce is more nutrient packed and tastes better.
     Next week's subject is that of the extremely controversial organic vs conventional.
     Hope your enjoying the results of Marion's supermarket research.
     Have a great weekend, and go out and shop at your local farmer's market.

 EAT WELL, LOSE WEIGHT, BE HEALTHY