It is important to know how to select the right type of produce. I see a lot of articles about how to select ripe fruit (I have a whole guide on this that you can check out here!). However, there is not much regarding how to actually inspect produce or how to check for quality. As someone who loves to go to the grocery store just to spend time in the produce department, I wanted to share some of the things that I pay attention to and look for when I buy my produce.
Table of Contents
Avocados
I commonly see recommendations suggesting that people check the ripeness of an avocado by popping the stem off. There are a few things that come into mind when I hear that:
- It is not necessary. You can tell if an avocado is ripe or on its way to getting ripe by checking the firmness of the avocado with your hand (color is not an indicator as it differs between cultivars).
- By taking the stem off (or trying to), you are increasing the risk of pathogen growth. For all commodities, wherever there is an opening in the fruit or vegetable, that is the first place for pathogen growth to occur. (You can read more on that HERE.) So by removing the stem end, you are creating an opening in that avocado and that is the first place where pathogen growth will occur.
Now that you know that, you can make sure and check the stem end on the avocados that you select at the grocery store. It is a lot easier to check this when buying individual avocados versus in bulk, but taking the extra time to do so will be worth it.
Cherries
The bad part about cherries is that they can split easily, especially under bad environmental conditions. As consumers, we are so excited to go and buy cherries once the season arrives because it comes and goes so quickly, that we might forget to do a quality check before and/or after purchasing the cherries.
They are sold in bags at the grocery store and you can either do an inspection to check for quality before purchasing them, or do it when you get home. The truth is that it is not very likely that you will find a bag with 100% perfect cherries, which is totally fine, but you want to try and find the bags with the least issues or remove the infected cherries as soon as possible once you get home. Another option you have is that you can get your own produce bag (or reusable produce bag) and fill it up with the amount of cherries you want (you do not need to buy the whole bag), since cherries are sold by the pound.
When inspecting the cherries, you need to look for the splits down the middle, any rings near the stem, any soft spots, bird pecks, and if the stem is not attached, check the stem end to make sure there is no pathogen growth there. (I have included some examples below.) I have mentioned this issue before, and that is because I think it is valuable. We, as consumers, spend a lot of money to enjoy cherries and it is important that we fully enjoy them and do not miss out on half of the bag because the cherries went bad or the pathogen spread.
Asparagus
Asparagus is packed and shipped with the ferns standing up in the packaging in the boxes. Below is an example from the end product of my asparagus packinghouse visit.
There is a purpose for doing this. The ferns need to be kept upright because that is how they grow and the cut ends need to be kept moist to prevent them from drying out. This is something you should be checking for when you are looking to buy asparagus at the grocery store. The packs of asparagus should be standing up right. If not, and you look closely, you will be able to see very easily that the asparagus ferns have suffered as a result. In the example below, you can see asparagus bunches being stored horizontally (which happens more often than you would think) and how dry the ends are. These are not a quality product that you would want to purchase because they will go bad a lot quicker once you bring them home.
Cut Produce
Whenever you buy any form of cut produce, whether it is Ready-to-Eat (RTE) or still needs to be cooked, it needs to be stored in the refrigerated section of the produce department. If it isn’t, do not buy it!
I recently went to a small, local grocery chain near me for the first time and found some cut melons out on the melon display. Someone on Instagram had suggested that they were cut and on display to show consumers what the melons looked like on the inside, but when there are different types of sliced sectionals of watermelons and cantaloupes, it seems a little iffy! So, if you ever see that, do not buy them and if you are ever unsure about the condition of cut fruit or vegetables, do not buy them! Go buy the whole version and do the extra work if need be. It is better that than getting sick from eating improperly stored produce.
Buying in Bulk
Buying in bulk is great for multiple reasons, with the two most obvious being to save money and to limit the amount of trips to the grocery store.
When buying fruit individually, you should inspect each piece of fruit or vegetable to make sure there are no issues. However, when you buy in bulk, it makes it a little harder to do that. When I think of the difficulty to do that, I think of big bags of potatoes or bulk bags of apples that are sold. However, even if you cannot be as critical for bulk items, there are still certain things you should inspect before deciding on which product you are going to purchase.
The main thing you want to look for is to make sure there is no pathogen growth and that there are no openings (e.g., fingernail marks) or bruising. The concept of “ugly” produce does not apply here because it does not matter the shape of the produce item, but pathogen growth or expedited opportunity for pathogen growth is what you need to be focused on.
As you can see in the examples below, just a quick glance at the bulk products will indicate issues. For the apricots (on the left), if you open the container, you can see the pathogen growth immediately. (Another indicator is if you find issues with other containers in the box, it is likely those issues will have spread between containers.) Also, sometimes you need to turn a few over to just do a quick check. For the strawberries (on the right), you can just take a quick glance around the container (turn it upside down and look at it all around in a 360-view) to see if there are any obvious issues (such as you can clearly see here), including any “breathing spots,” which indicate that there may be some sort of pathogen growth inside the container.
This is a topic of discussion for the sole purpose of helping you select better quality fruits and vegetables at the store, so that they can last longer once you take them home and be fully enjoyed. In no way should this discourage you from buying any of the produce mentioned above. If anything, it should encourage you since you now have some tips to help you better pick out your produce during your next outing!
Are there any quality issues that you look for that I did not include here? If so, please leave them below in the comments section!
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Very helpful! Thank you
That is so great to hear, thank you!