POLL Has the quality of Oranges got worse over last 20 years ?

Question

Serious question

When I was young in the 1970s you used to be able to buy very large , fantastic quality juicy oranges that has lovely soft peel and no pips . Since the1980s I have not seen these oranges for sale . Does anyone know why ?

All you seem to be able to buy now are oranges of half the size that are almost impossible to peel , have tons of pips and taste bitter and horrible. Do we have an orange conspiracy on our hands or am I looking through rose ( or orange ) tinted glasses .?

When I briefly worked in a hotel a chef told me that these type of oranges are now all get "cherry" picked at the markets for the upper class restaurants and eateries in London and alike but I find this hard to believe

Do anyone agree with me that Oranges have got a lot worse and if anyone could tell me why I would be interested .

Answer 1

The nicest orange I ever tasted was picked of a tree by a guy in Cyprus and handed to me.  Gosh it was so juicey and tasty. I agree with you oranges in the uk are rubbish.

Answer 2

I feel not only oranges but also tomatoes.

Its very sad to me also.

Everything seems getting worse.

May be holy God get angly our attitudes to nature.

Answer 3

i agree mate , when i was a kid oranges were 17cm across,    do u remember  blood oranges the ones with red flesh so sweet and juicy

Answer 4

I think we used to eat all fruit and vegetables 'in season' from the best available at any one time. Now mush of the fruit and veg we eat is grown under glass and not in season at all.

Answer 5

I haven't bought oranges for years for that reason, it's the same with the satsuma type oranges as well, they are getting harder to peel and the pith is very tough.

I really feel it's time we went back to 'seasons' for fruit and veg, there is far too much forced produce on the market

Answer 6

I agree.  The good oranges are cherry picked and there are not as many rejects at the orchard or distributor.  It is the WalMart theory that says "If that is all that is available to you, you will buy it."

Answer 7

Oranges, and most produce, have been modified for size and shelf life at the cost of flavor.

Answer 8

I like Ortanique Oranges. They're full of juice.

Answer 9

I lived in California for 30+ years and recently moved to Texas .....so I can get wonderful oranges at Farmers' markets.   It must depend where you live:)

Answer 10

thats what i was thinking! i have been buying oranges at our work cafe,to be healthy,but they are dry inside,not sweet or juicy.im going to stop buying them,they may be healthy but they taste worn-out and miserable.dont kno y? thisis happening in the u.s as well,so over here,cant be that high class restaurants in london have got them!i think they may be picked while only semi-ripened,then artificially ripened with certain gasses/chemicals,as happens with non-organic tom8o's.the result is the same-dry and tasteless! ps-u might try switching to mandarin oranges,here,they are still very juicy and delicious.perhaps they are less in demand and so,less tampered with by "frankenfarmers."

Answer 11

I'm really not sure whether they were better or not.  I must admit, I seem to recall that they were much tastier but then everything seemed better then didn't it.  So I think we're all agreed (Stevie A you're excused on this one!), oranges were definitely better in the past.  I also agree that it might be because of things only being available in season which, of course, doesn't apply anymore.

Bit of a 'Yes' man really aren't I.

Answer 12

No, they taste just a delicious and are just as juicy now as 20 years ago. There is more choice now too.

It also depends on whether the orange is in season at the time. When a fruit isn't in season it isn't as tasty. Other things affect fruit. For example, in some years the hervest is abundant and high quality and in some it's not. The condition of the soil and health of the tree/bush in the particular season is another factor. I grow strawberries, red currents, plumbs and gooseberries and in some years they are really tasty, sweet and juicy. In others they're not as good. Last year we had so much rain where I live that the strawberries began to rot and went mushy and the ones that didn't were unpleasant to taste. This year has produced a very tasty and abundant crop. Fruit and veg have good years and bad. Sometimes, they have many bad or good years in a row. I think you may have a case of rose-tinted spectacles lol or the orange harvest of late hasn't been very successful.

If a fruit is healthy and free from rot, disease and pestilence it is used. No fruit is absolutely perfect so you can't really cherry pick.

Answer 13

Yes and so has the quality of many other kinds of produce.  Many fruits and vegetables are picked before they're ripe so they'll travel better and then are treated with ethylene gas to prematurely ripen them very quickly.  This rapid ripening doesn't allow the flavor to develop. This is why it's so hard to find a tomato that actually tastes like a tomato.

Also, botanists have bred the flavor out of many fruits and vegetables in order to create produce with a longer shelf life.

What the chef told you could be true as well.  The best of the best of the crop usually is singled out to be sold for much higher prices and oftentimes restaurants and hotels have first pick of these better items.

Answer 14

ooo definitely. orange juice not from concentrate is starting to become more an more like the concentrated stuff. terrible.

Answer 15

Jaffas - no pips.

Bigger oranges are usually not so juicy as smaller ones. I can't agree restaurants commandeer the best oranges leaving us the poorer quality ones - they would have to get through a h**l of a lot of oranges. More likely supermarkets source a farm's entire crop, and you aren't shopping at the one which source the best ones. You may get better quality on a market stall, which may sell fruit from various sources on a daily basis.