…are all the veg always rotten? Sometimes even by the time you’ve got home.

Recent casualties:

Asparagus – 2 or so days, totally mushy, digested by bacteria etc.
Tomatoes – usually some in a bag are knackered no matter how you check.
Broccoli – had mushy bit and yellow bits all over, this was the best one in the box.

Oranges – WTAF??! 2 In a bag rotten and mushy in a couple of days.

Seriously, the list goes on, it’s just not economical at this rate. Is it just Bradford Lidl, or are they all like this?

And I checked, our fridge is at the right temperature.

Could be poor stock rotation in the shop, normally the crates/boxes of loose stuff should have a sticker on the side with a use by date.

We had the same problem, stopped buying it, false economy. Tasteless and on the turn. Take them back for a refund.

Every lidl helps…

I don’t like most stuff in there. It’s cheap for a reason I think.

Asparagus .
Tomatoes
Broccoli

you should try and keep the toms separate from the green stuff. Toms are ethylene producers which cause other stuff to ripen or rot quicker, so keep them or any fruit away from green veg

At this time of year stuff’s going to get hot in your car too so any spoiling is going to be accelerated before you get it to your fridge at home.

Put the asparagus in a glass of water, like you would cut flowers, to keep it fresh.

Brocolli is notorious for going off in a single day in warm weather, take the brocolli out of the plastic it’s sold in. 95% of the fuit and veg from lidl has no pesticides/chemicals ect on them so tomatoes may not last as long as the packaged unripe ones you get elsewear. That said it may just be a bad individual store, try a different one.

No problems with our lidl. Peppers, in particular, in there are the best of all the supermarkets. Complete convert to lidl since they built one in our town last year

Aldi and lidl veg both taste less like the tasteless crap from tescos and asda….and closer to the home grown stuff from my grandparents garden…..

If it going off quicker is the price to pay for a good tasting food then ill take it.

Yo – cheers for replies.

Lidle just won best veg retailer in The Netherlands, so I am a bit confused!

Many good tips here, thanks. We are careful with the veg, and the store is <5 mins away by car, so it’s not the transport time. I will look in to the other issues.

I have a suspicion that it’s this store handling the goods roughly, we’ll give it another go, perhaps some feedback if it persists.

Oh, and the market in town for some veg is probably a good idea too 🙂

Like all chain stores, they vary from shop to shop, though I personally believe Lidl tends to be less like that than Aldi, which has great stores and really really poor ones. If anything my experience is the opposite of yours, I find Aldi/Lidl veg lasts longer and is a good if not better than the bigger superstores stores.

You could write/email/phone someone at Lidl higher up as I know for a fact they take stock rotation & internal audits of food quality very highly.

My guess is your local store has a few slapdash staff, so first port of call is to talk to the store manager & voice your dissatisfaction, I know its not a typical British trait but you might be surprised how they react.

I’m probably a supermarket store managers nightmare as having worked in the food manufacturing sector for over 30 years have endured many AIB, EFSIS & BRC audits so know the rules.

It’ll be down to rate of sale. If the locals don’t eat much fruit and veg, it’ll take a while to sell through a box of 24 lettuces or whatever. The veg from the Lidl local to us is fine, and about half the price of JS.

I know of a Tesco that’s worked around this problem by having a fruit and veg section about a quarter of the size of what you’d expect…

95% of the fuit and veg from lidl has no pesticides/chemicals ect on them

I think that’s true of all supermarket nowadays. Fwiw our local Lidl is awful for produce, so we don’t shop there.

Tron it won’t be down to the rate of sale, lidl order for 1 day sales figure + 20% so by close that means only enough stock should be carried over to last till 10am next morning. Lidl are massively strict on f&v quality. They have constant freshness audits and international audits. 3 soft tomatoes on display or even 4 bad cherries and the store fails the whole audit. It doesn’t surprise me that a few people have bad experiences but on the whole the produce and meat and poultry is one of the areas most praised. Next time take a picture and email it to customer services, it won’t go unnoticed.

FWIW,have always found Aldi fruit/veg brilliant. 😯