Pre prepared fruit - and veg too (!) - convenience at a price?
Posted on 4th September 2024 at 07:31
It often amazes us how quickly a new product or, just as often, a repackaged one becomes a stable of people’s lives. Often without them realising it. It’s suddenly there on the shelves – and everyone else seems to be buying it – so they do too, without stopping to think whether it’s a good choice. Or, at least, a good choice for them (!). And this applies not only to their weekly food shop, but what they pick up on the go, perhaps from the local convenience store or petrol station at lunchtime or on their way home.
It’s one of these modern conveniences we’d like to talk about today. Pre prepared fruit. And, while we’re focussing on fruit, the same comments apply to pre prepared veg and salad too.
Look in the “Fruit and Veg” section of any supermarket and you’ll quickly notice just how much shelf space is taken up by pre prepared products, how their traditional unprepared counterparts are slowly being elbowed out. While we’d like to think it’s driven by the health aspects of encouraging people to eat more healthily (!), sadly, this isn’t quite the case.
For the consumer, it’s all about convenience. Not only in avoiding potentially messy preparation time (!) but also saving space for people with small kitchens. However, this really isn’t the main driving force. Rather it’s about turnover and profit for the stores, with less wastage and more profits from the same shelf space. Once again, it all comes down to money…
So, is there a much higher cost for this convenience than we realised? Sadly, yes.
It’s often not appreciated that, as soon as any plant material is cut, it starts to deteoriate and lose its nutrients. This is particularly the case for water soluble Vitamins, with Vitamin C being the best known example. If you’ve wondered why this is, it’s because cutting them exposes the flesh to light and oxygen, as well as to any heat involved in the process.
As an aside, it’s the reason why fruit such as apples, pears and bananas quickly go brown once they’re cut making them unappetising to look at and eat. This is due to polyphenols in the flesh converting to melanin which gives it a brown colour. It’s also why any prepared, but uncooked, fruit, veg and salad at home doesn’t last well, even when kept in the fridge.
This begs the question of what else may be happening during processing to help give food the desired shelf life??? At the very least, this will involve some sort of cleaning of the food before processing begins…
And there’s something you may not have thought of. With the high water content of fruit and its cut surface, it’s easy for it to come into direct contact with whatever container it comes in. With this tending to be plastic, the chemicals contained within the plastic, such as Bisphenol, can then leach into the food. There have been growing concerns about this in recent years – and particularly over Bisphenol – which has been found to have endocrine – hormone – disrupting effects.
At the same time, as with any kitchen, the end product depends on the raw material used and the cleanliness of the kitchen. With fruit being high in sugars, they’re a great food source so far as any bacteria are concerned. This is the reason why Salmonella and E Coli outbreaks have been linked to pre prepared fruit – salad and veg too.
With all of the extra work – so far as the Producer is concerned – it’s not surprising that pre prepared products are much more expensive that buying the whole product and preparing it for yourself at home. The same amount of the whole product could be bought for a fraction of the cost of the prepared version…
So, there are no prizes for guessing where we’re going with this (!).
Fresh, unprepared fruit, veg and salad win hands down on every front. Cost. Nutrition. Health benefits. If you can go organic, at least for the Dirty Dozen, even better. The 2024 list of the worst – and best – can be found here. It’s also why shopping seasonally and locally is the best option, giving you whatever is at its best in your area at any time of year. And, with a little thinking ahead, it’s easy to freeze any excess so ensuring you have a good supply of lovely fruit and veggies at other times of year.
As always, the choice is yours.
Picture by unknown author
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