Where To Buy Out Of Season Fruit

You might think that by ordering a big salad or opting for a fruit cup instead of cereal at breakfast you're making a very healthy choice, but depending on where and when you get your produce, you could be seriously mistaken. Business Insider reports that you may be losing some of the advantages and nutritional value from your fruits and vegetables when you buy them out-of-season. Consuming produce that was grown out-of-season and picked under-ripe removes a lot of the health benefits you expect to gain when you eat them. This is because many foods, like tomatoes, berries, and pineapple, do not develop all of their nutritional benefits until the last stages of ripening (via Shape).

Vox spoke to a number of farmers, chefs, and specialty markets about the cons of buying out-of-season produce and how to tell which fruits and vegetables were recently picked. In The Dorito Effect, author Mark Schatzker explains that out-of-season foods are generally less flavorful and nutritious than their in-season counterparts not only because they are picked under ripe, but also because many companies farming and shipping products to supermarkets year-round prioritize uniformity and durability over flavor, while foods produced on a smaller scale tend to be more focused on quality.

Download File

On top of the nutritional and flavor benefits you experience when eating seasonally, it is also an incredibly important way to support your local economy. According to Seasonal Food Guide, since produce that is in-season is generally picked ripe, it cannot travel without spoiling as far as out-of-season produce is able to. This means most in-season produce found in stores and restaurants is sourced from farms near the area in which you live. Buying from small, local farms helps bolster the economy, as it creates jobs and tax revenue, and allows workers to reinvest in the community they are also a part of.

Let's be real: Just like the test kitchen has to cook out of season, sometimes we home cooks choose to cook with produce that isn't seasonal. How can we find what we need? The way the food system is in America, or most other first-world countries is that we store things in warehouses, and they are shipped all over, or flown. You can get peaches anytime because if it's winter here, it's summer there. I mean, it's the opposite of buying local. It's not my favorite thing, but it is what it is.

Is there ever an instance when buying out of season is "worth it"?

It comes down to how much money you want to spend. I can get hand-picked goji berries from the Himalayan mountains by a sherpa, but it'll cost me more. Do I want to pay that? I might. It depends.

In summer months, fruit lovers have their pick of the litter--everything is so fresh and delicious, you don't have to think twice at the grocery store when filling up your cart. But winter is another story. It's a dicy time for us fruit people--do we buy strawberries because the grocery store has them in stock, or are their some hidden risks associated with buying fiood that's not even remotely in season? You definitely know that it's come a long distance--but what does that mean for your health?

Food experts say that out-of-season fruits and veggies have traveled an average of 1,300 miles to get to your local produce aisle. What does that mean for you? It means that the food is low on taste and even lower on nutrients. Things like tomatoes, peaches, berries, oranges, cherries and vegetables like mushrooms and peas should never be eaten out of season for this reason.

Eating out-of-season fruit is also terrible for the environment (if you care about that sort of thing). Out of season fruit has either been imported from another country or grown in heated greenhouses. Either way, excess carbon emissions are created. You don't have to be an environmental scientist to know that's a bad thing.

It's true: You can buy most fruits and vegetables year-round. Even though the produce is fresher and more flavorful when it's in season, we still have the option to buy out-of-season produce. However, buying your produce during the off-season has a major environmental and social impact.

When you buy out-of-season produce, you're buying produce that has been shipped a long distance to get to you. Those winter strawberries may look delicious, but they've come a long way. Many fruits and vegetables are climate-sensitive, so they have to be grown and harvested under ideal conditions. And if colder weather isn't ideal, that produce is harvested elsewhere and shipped to grocery stores.

Buying local produce means you're supporting local farmers. And it means your fruits and veggies haven't had to travel far to get to you. This decreases shipping emissions and the use of harsh chemicals, and it supports local businesses. Plus, your produce is fresher!

The globalisation and mass distribution of fruit and vegetables worldwide allows us to enjoy a large variety of produce at any time of the year. Eating more seasonal fruit and vegetables has become an increasingly popular message to improve the sustainability of our diets. Yet, seasonal is hard to define and we need to explore it further, as well as the environmental impact of our fruit and vegetables.

Each type of fruit and vegetable has its own set of specific conditions for ideal growth and quality. For this reason, fruit and vegetables are grown and harvested in different locations and in different seasons throughout the year. For example, oranges are climate-sensitive plants and grow better in places with hot dry summers such as Spain, Italy, and Greece.2,3

What about seasonal fruit and vegetables? The environmental benefits of seasonal fruit and vegetables are often attributed to the shorter distances they travel. While the type of transportation might be significant for some fruit and vegetables, such as with air-freighted produce (e.g. berries, tropical fruit and green beans), the contribution of transportation to the carbon footprint is usually lower than the emissions coming from the methods of production.1 While climate-controlled greenhouses can mean less land used, less food wasted, lower pesticides and high yields, the energy needed to heat these buildings is significant. So much so, that global seasonality can be an environmentally-friendly choice as well. Let us look at some examples:

When tomatoes are grown locally but outside of their season in heated greenhouses, they have higher carbon footprints compared to those grown in season outside in Spain and then transported to, for example, the UK. The carbon footprint of tomatoes in season in Spain is lower because greenhouses require a lot of energy and by doing so, they emit GHG emissions. These emissions tend to be higher than those emitted by transportation from Spain to the UK.6

Local apples that are harvested in October in Europe but stored until August the following year and then consumed locally would have a higher carbon footprint than if the apples were locally and seasonally harvested in New Zealand, shipped and eaten in Europe outside of the European apple season. This is because as the storage time in refrigerators increases, the amount of energy needed increases as well, thereby emitting more GHG emissions.6

The overall picture that emerges from research, is that the fruit and vegetables with the lowest GHG emissions are those that are grown outside during their natural season without much use of additional energy and consumed in the same country or region. These have environmental benefits because they use less energy for artificial heating or lighting, for refrigeration and storage and avoid losses during storage, which generally helps to produce less GHG emissions, compared to fruit and vegetables that are grown under protection, are imported or stored.4,5

Well, the evidence suggests that the nutritional value of fruit and vegetables are highest immediately after harvesting and decline over time. Once fruit and vegetables are harvested, they are transported and placed in storage to reduce spoilage and to maintain their nutritional quality. While storage and transportation have been linked to decreases in some micronutrient levels, the losses are still minimal in terms of the overall health benefits when you compare them to not eating fruit and vegetables at all.4

In short, yes! Buying local and seasonal fruit and vegetables may mean you get a larger variety of produce to choose from and in some situations, locally produced seasonal foods may be the best environmental option. However, choosing locally produced and in season fruit and vegetables is just one aspect of eating more sustainably. Increasing plant-based foods such as fruit and vegetables in the diet, reducing animal-based foods such as beef and dairy and minimising food waste are equally as important.

While local and seasonal produce may have lower environmental impacts, global seasonality has helped not only expand global food markets but perhaps more importantly helped to provide a more varied and consistent supply of fruit and vegetables all year round, helping to increase the diversity of your diet and making sure you get a good balance of micronutrients throughout the year, especially for if you live in a country that has limited production seasons.4

It is not always clear where the fruit or vegetable you pick up in the market comes from. You might see a sign of the country where it was grown but whether it was grown in a greenhouse or transported by truck or train is almost impossible to tell. Here are some helpful tips on how you can choose less GHG intensive fruit and vegetables (figure 3)7:

Fruits and vegetables that are grown outside during their natural season and consumed in the same country generally have the lowest GHGs and are considered more environmentally friendly. While eating more seasonal and local fruit and vegetables will lead to some environmental benefits, it is just one part of a sustainable diet. Other strategies such as reducing consumption of animal-based products and reducing food waste are also essential parts of a healthy, sustainable diet.

38c6e68cf9