Why does commercially grown fruit and vegetables become so tasteless once in general production.?

Question

In the past I had the chance to sample new varieties of fruit and vegetables. Some of the varieties were excellent, tasty, yet a few years later after going into commercial production, they taste very little like the original.

What's the difference? Is it the soil, area, climate, feeding?

Answer 1

Dr Dirt is mostly correct.  Fruits and vegetables are picked green and ripen while being shipped.  This allows a larger percentage of fruits and vegetables to reach the stores in a sell-able condition.  Unfortunately, when produce is force ripened, they do not have the same flavor that plant ripened produce has.  However, the recommended agent used to force ripen fruits and vegetables is ethylene gas, NOT formaldehyde (which is poisonous to humans).

Try this experiment.  Take two identical pieces of green fruit (peaches, melons, strawberries, etc.).  Place one in a bowl on the counter top and one in a paper bag with a ripe banana and close the top of the bag.  Leave both on the counter top for 24 hours then compare the two pieces of green fruit.  The one in the bag should be riper than the one in the bowl.  Bananas give off ethylene gas as they ripen.   The paper bag helps concentrate the gas, speeding the ripening of the green fruit.  Unfortunately neither will taste as good as the one that ripens on the plant.

Answer 2

Generally, produce we purchase in the grocery store has been picked weeks ahead of when the produce is ripe. This happens because the commercial producers must ship the produce cross country. If they picked the produce when it is ripe, by the time produce arrives at the grocery story, it has spoiled. That is one reason why purching produce that is both organic and local is the best tasting. Also, frozen foods are picked when ripe and then flash frozen.

Answer 3

it all depends i guess but what they do is they will pick the friuts and vegetables when they are not fully ripe so the spray them with a chemical (not harmful to you or your family) and it makes them color not riprn faster so you have a perfectly red tomato but it's tasteless because they just made it color to look like it was ripe

Answer 4

HEY RACE IS  RIGHT--I KNEW A FELLA THAT HAULED TOMATOS FROM CALIFORNIA---HE WOULD CALL  HIS BROKER --WHEN HE GOT TO TEXAS--AND ASK ---HOW RIPE DO YOU WANT THE TOMATOS--THEN HE WOULD INJECT INTO THE TRAILER   THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF FORMALDEHYDE'S TO RIPEN THE TOMATOS--THEY WERE PICKED GREEN --BUT TIME THEY GOT TO MISSISSIPPI THEY WERE RIPE----BUT THE BEST TASTING VEGETABLE IS  DIRECT FROM THE VINE---ALSO  FORMALDEHYDE   --IS WHAT IS USED TO EMBOMB PEOPLE  AFTER THEY DIE   --SO THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU EAT---  IF IT S NOT GROWN LOCAL THERE S NO TELLING WHAT S IN IT

Answer 5

All three of the previous replies are correct.  To withstand handling and shipping across long distances, varieties selected must be able to handle the abuse.  Often times a variety that ships well doesn't have the best flavor and great tasting varieties don't ship well.  As also mentioned, produce usually has to be picked while still immature to be firm enough to handle shipping.  For example, a fully ripe peach or tomato is soft and juicy and can be bruised almost by just looking at it.  Something like that wouldn't even make it in from the field without being damaged.

In addition, attractive, high yielding varieties don't always look pretty.  Take red roses, when was the last time you found a cut rose that was beautiful and smelled great?  Very seldom because the visual appeal is more valuable than the odor.

And yes, the soil and climate or even day to day weather fluctuations affects the flavor and is something the producer has little control over.  For example, grapes grown on dry, infertile, clay hillsides are much smaller and yield much less than do ones grown on fertile riverbottoms.  However, the puny little hillside grapes are more flavorful than the same variety grown in a riverbottom a short distance away.

Answer 6

You don't say whether you are in the Uk or not, but back along it was decided by the EU that Britain could no longer grow all the different vaieties of fruit and vegetables that we had cultivated for hundreds of years.They said it was because the EU wanted more uniform and good looking fruits and veg that were to be commercially grown. I believe in truth it was because of the French believing that our fruits were much tastier than ours. I remember this all came about when there was a HooHa about French Golden Delicious.

Since that time there have been less and less tasty fruits in the shops because our old varieties have disappeared because of the EU dictates. I do think that you are right however that the amount, and type of feed, and the forced conditions in which they are grown has a lot to do with the tastlessness that some fruits and veg have.

Last year our family grew quite a lot of our own fruit and veg, it was so much more tasty than that which you can buy in the shops.  We also had the added benefit of knowing that no pesticides were on them either.

Answer 7

most such produce has been genetically selected for productivity, shipping quality, and shelf life. note that taste is not among the requirements of the grower.

Answer 8

One other thing that may be of note here is that as we age all our senses deteriorate , so what may have tasted great years ago , does not ant more . Its one reason why we have a saying that nobody cooked as well as my mum .......... they do its just our perception that is going down hill ......... now where did I leave that bus pass ???

Answer 9

Because most of them are raised because of the quantity not quality.

Answer 10

The reason for the this is that once a farm goes commercial, the product has to be shipped, sometimes great distances to reach its destination. In order to keep the fruits and vegetable fresh they have to be sprayed with insecticides and stored in a way that they wont be able to rot. By doing this the produce last longer but loses its taste and other satisfying qualities.

Answer 11

The problem is the growers want a big / uniform product so they are not interested in taste.

Answer 12

If they were the same varieties then the difference had to be they were fresh picked and ripened when you tried them first. The commercially grown ones that you are now finding tasteless were picked green and shipped to ripen later.

Answer 13

its kinda everything, may be they've fed the fruit with chemicals making them grow quicker, or have tried to fit more into one area

Answer 14

A large component of our taste is sweetness, and sweetness will be at its best in field ripened foods.

But we and our friends in the retail trade do not want to plan to move all of a shipment of any crop in the day after it was picked fully ripe... heck within that first day it will barely be out of the cooling sheds and onto the truck.

No matter where a plant ripens, it will have less sugar if it was not ripened on a plant in the sun.

Perhaps we should be growing our own so we can decide when to harvest them and stop ragging on the people who are getting you something you can at least eat.

You will not find a lot of fresh produce grown outside in the sun in February around here, so if you insist on fresh grown, local means growing in a hot house with all the energy that does not save you.

Answer 15

Varieties are selected that ship well, and not for taste. They are harvested early to ship hard and ripen en route. They are frequently stored for incredibly long periods in controlled conditions, but those longer periods cause food value to be used up and leave a bland "mummy" that is depleted of taste and nutrition. Some has to do with the actual practices employed, organic being better than conventional, but most is the above reasons and even organic products can not stand the test of time, distance and poor crop choice. Just 1 day for some crops in storage will deplete half the natural sugars!

Answer 16

Most commercially grown products are picked and shipped before they are truly ripe or mature. Consequently, they won't develop the full flavor or texture of a home grown item.

Answer 17

Its the pesticides and all the c**p they spray on them that makes them taste tasteless.

Answer 18

It is the soil and climate in which fruit is grown makes difference. Suitable soil, added humus and organic fertilizers too have great influence on the texture and taste of the fruit. These things add to the flavor too.

Unfortunately, commercially grown fruit trees or bushes are chemically treated from fertilizers to hormones to pesticides etc. These things make fruits test-less.

Growers want more production, uniform production. They try to grow fruits and vegetables out of its natural environment. To over come climatic conditions growers use lot of artificial things like green house. Trees grow all right; but produce fruits without taste.