Do you eat baby carrots, salad mix or fruit salad purchased from the store? Fresh-cut produce has become a staple for most of us. Just the other day, I wanted to buy a head of lettuce to shred for tacos and my husband asked me why I did not just buy the bag of already shredded lettuce. This is the perfect point as to why fresh-cut produce is popular in many households: because it is easier and more convenient. This has also become a genius move by the produce industry to get more produce into the average household, while wasting less.
What is Fresh-Cut Produce?
Fresh-cut produce is defined as raw produce that has been cut, washed, and packaged. This produce is considered processed, as it has been altered from its original form. Examples include baby carrots, cut mushrooms, fruit salad, salad mix, vegetable trays, etc. When you go into the produce section at your local grocery store, you will see all of the fresh-cut produce items stored in the coldest region of the produce department, as they are the most temperature sensitive and have the shortest shelf-life.
Value-Added Produce
Fresh-cut produce makes up the majority of a larger category, termed ‘value-added’. This is where fresh fruits and vegetables are altered to add a greater value to the end user. For example, the three categories for value-added fruit are: fresh-cut fruit (fresh fruit cut into bite sized pieces), overwrap (fresh fruit cut into large slices on a tray and wrapped with a plastic overlay), and jars and cups (fresh fruit sliced and placed into containers with juice and/or preservatives). Out of these three categories, fresh-cut fruit dominates the value-added market, with a total of 85% of the market in 2015. On the other hand, value-added vegetables fall into the following four categories: side dish (cleaned and cut vegetables ready for eating or cooking), trays (larger packs of fresh-cut vegetables with or without dip), snacking (the smaller version of a tray) and meal prep (freshly prepared vegetables ready to add to a meal).
Pros to Eating Fresh-Cut Produce
- Easy
- Convenient
- Saves time
Cons to Eating Fresh-Cut Produce
- More expensive
- Produce does not last as long
- Produce turns brown quicker
Fresh-Cut Produce Sales
In 2015, value-added fruit was ranked #6 on the list of the most fruit purchased for the year. Meanwhile, bagged salads ranked #1 on the list of the most vegetables purchased for the year, with value-added vegetables coming in at #5.
Fresh-cut produce sales for 2015 were categorized into the following segments:
- 49% Bagged Salads
- 29% Value-added Fruit
- 22% Value-added Vegetables (everything besides bagged salads)
How Is Fresh-Cut Changing the Produce Industry?
Fresh-cut products provide a quick and easy approach to healthy eating. You have everything from pre-made fruit salads to celery sticks ready for your kids to dip in peanut butter, without you having to do any work besides buy the product. It removes the time excuse and helps you provide fresher foods that are better for you and for your family. This is changing the way people purchase and consume fresh produce.
The Big Question: Which One Should You Be Buying?
In my opinion, you should buy whatever product you are going to eat. At the end of the day, it really only matters that you are consuming fresh produce.
I ask myself the same thing all the time when buying food! The big debates I have with myself are quantity versus cost. Just to give you a few examples that I encounter often.
- Head lettuce vs. bagged salads – I eat a lot of lettuce in burritos I make from home. I can either buy a head of lettuce for around $1-$1.50 (depending on the market) and wash the lettuce at home as I go. In this case, I spend more time washing, drying and cutting the product. However, if I were to buy bagged salad, it would cost between $4-$5 for a bag that would come with less lettuce than the amount in a head of lettuce and that has all already been cut and washed, so it only has a few days left of shelf-life by the time you buy it. It is true that this is a more time efficient method, but it is not always practical if you are only feeding a few people and need the lettuce to last longer than a few days.
- Fresh-cut fruit vs. whole fruit – You can either buy fresh fruit and bring it home and cut up your own fresh-cut fruit or fruit salad or you can buy fresh-cut fruit directly from the store. For me, I like to go to Costco to buy bulk produce because they have a lot of great deals. One of them is a large pineapple for $2.99. At this price, I can cut up a pineapple and have a Tupperware full of pineapple. Or, I could go to the grocery store and buy a container of fresh-cut pineapple that equates to approximately 25% of a large pineapple for around $5. This brings us to the same conclusion as the prior example, time vs. money, as well as the shelf-life consideration. Although I always make my own fresh-cut fruit when I am at home, I really do appreciate the fresh-cut pineapple and other fruit when I am traveling for work and want to continue eating healthy options.
I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below!
If you enjoyed this post, you might also like:
- Which is Better: Fresh or Frozen Produce?
- How Fruit & Vegetables Become Infected with Diseases
- Enjoying New Flavors: The Five Tastes, Texture & Aroma
Resource:
Cook, R. “Fresh-cut/Value-added Produce Marketing Trends.” UC Davis Fresh-Cut Products Workshop: Maintaining Quality and Safety. 15 Sept 2016. Lecture.
If I’m putting something together for a large gathering, I would consider the packaged produce. If I’m preparing something for the immediate family I will go for the raw, unprocessed produce. To me salad from a bag tastes a little stale.
If all I need is one celery stalk for a mirepoix, I’ll buy the precut sticks. Otherwise, I enjoy prepping produce, so it’s not a chore for me. I only do the precut celery because I don’t want to end up throwing away 9/10’s of a bunch of celery.