Dried up pithy oranges

[WendyS]

Why is it so difficult to buy really fresh juicy oranges these days?. I've just consumed yet another orange from a supermarket which was dried up and pithy inside, and absolutely tasteless. If I took a sharp knife with me when shopping and cut open a sample fruit in a supermarket to test it for quality, (like they do on good market stalls), do you think the supermarket would take action against me? I begrudge wasting money on inferior products. After all, chefs buying fruit and vegs for their restaurants adopt this practice.

[Donquixote]

You are perfectly within your rights to test the quality of the goods you're buying before purchase, so long as you inform someone before you do so, and pay for the goods you've tested if they're deemed to be of sufficient quality. On the other hand, you can also return the goods (with a receipt) if you're unhappy with them...but then again, who wants the hassle of going all the way back to the supermarket? You wouldn't buy a car without a test drive, and you wouldn't buy a jumper without trying it on first, so why should you take the supermarket's word for the quality of the goods?

[nickmo]

Sums up the practices of the supermarkets - not so super after all. Take the offending items back for a refund.

Most citrus fruit we buy in the UK is harvested while still unripe to allow for ripening off the tree in controlled conditions, so whatever we get from the s/market - that they buy for looks not flavour and largely based on cheap price anyway - will never be fresh or nice to eat. Stone fruit never ripens off the tree anyway, so peaches, plums etc are a waste of time buying until the UK season comes round for them.

Try your local greengrocers, farm shops and the like as they have a vested interest in your custom and will generally be able to source better goods from their wholesalers for fruit out of season, than the s/markets ever will.

[smudge]

I'm addicted to oranges, satsumas, tangerines, etc., if ever I find any dried up ones in a pack, I always take them back for a replacement of refund!

Mmm - I might just start sampling them in the shop instead - Sainsbury's here I come!