Supermarkets in England (mostly) package their standard size tomatoes rather than have them loose

On a trip to England, over Christmas and New Year, I visited numerous supermarkets. I found the layout of English supermarkets different to New Zealand. The fruit and vegetables were not the first thing you come to when you enter the store. They were somewhere in the middle.

I have not been back to England for several years (pre covid), my memory does not recall if you could bag your own loose tomatoes in the supermarkets, because if that is your preference you will be disappointed.  I did see standard loose tomatoes at smaller shops from street vendors that you could purchase.

The tomatoes that were available individually were a beefsteak/specialty type. You could still purchase capsicums individually but again these were mostly packaged.

As it was Winter, lots of the tomatoes were from Morocco, however, there was a lot from the Netherlands and even local production still available. The local produce and the product from the Netherlands I presume was from lite crops – it was noticeably better quality!

You may also be interested in the pricing – it certainly surprised me how reasonably priced the produce was considering it was the beginning of Winter. Note – how the supermarkets featured price match against their competitors.

Images:

Cover – Only a specialty beefsteak was sold as loose.  Standard toms were sold in plastic bags.  Vine ripened (left of image) packed on plastic trays wrapped in plastic.

Capsicums were sold as loose or wrapped in plastic.

Clearer image showing standard truss harvest in plastic trays wrapped in plastic.

Above and below: Cherry and baby plum tomatoes are also packed in different ways; these images show plastic trays with the sealed plastic cover lid rather than the plastic punnets we are familiar with in New Zealand.

These organic standard truss tomatoes were packaged in a recyclable cardboard tray wrapped in plastic.  They were of the highest quality supplied by Wight Salads.  At equivalent, NZ $ 10 per kg, they were reasonably priced for the time of the year (December) in England.

Above standard loose in plastic bags from Morocco and standard truss tomatoes from the Netherlands in cardboard trays wrapped in plastic wrapping.

Above cherry truss tomatoes packaged in cardboard with plastic wrapping.

Above – Moroccan cherries loose in plastic bags.

Article compiled by Stefan Vogrincic.

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