3 tips for buying produce

Be sure your produce is the freshest it can be with these easy supermarket guidelines.

Unless the produce you're buying in your supermarket was locally grown, it has probably spent at least a week and possibly as much as 10 days being picked, trucked, packed, hauled, transferred, unpacked, displayed, arranged, misted and rearranged. Furthermore, some fruits and vegetables are picked before they are really ripe so they won't spoil during the time lag.

Some produce has been treated with gases, washed, cut and bagged. Even then, it may sit in your refrigerator for a day or more before you use it. All the while, the produce is losing taste and nutritional value, which are affected by light, heat and oxygen. If produce was labelled with its country of origin, that would offer a clue as to how long the produce had been on the road.

But the food industry has resisted any such requirement for years. Some stores voluntarily say where their produce comes from so customers can draw their own conclusions about just how fresh it might be. Otherwise, you're on your own.

If you live in northern Manitoba and your supermarket has strawberries in February, you can be pretty sure they've come a long way. Also, go by looks. If the lettuce is limp, it's been around too long. But paradoxically, fruits and veggies that are too shiny and waxy also may be stale. The spit and polish may be cloaking flaccid cukes or peppers, for instance.

Stores do often label produce as "local," when they have it, because for many customers something locally raised is a real treat. Early in the season the locally grown may be a little more expensive, but as the season goes on, it gets cheaper.

If you have any doubts about the freshness of the produce in your supermarket, here's an insider tip: sometimes the frozen fruits and vegetables are fresher than what you'll find in the "fresh" produce section. How could that be? Frozen fruits and vegetables are picked when they're fully ripe, and they're frozen on the same day.

Freezing does change the texture somewhat, but very little nutritional value is lost in the processing. The vitamin content may be somewhat reduced, but the protein, fat, minerals, fibre and calories are the same. However, that only goes for the single-item packages of fruit and vegetables, which don't take up most of the real estate in the frozen-food aisles of your supermarket. Most of the space is given over to highly processed, prepared dishes or meals, which are more profitable for the food companies.