I saw a documentary a while ago about "food deserts" in the US. Parts of cities with no grocery store at all (but cheap fast food is abundant), I was horrified.
Or there is the ever present dollar stores that have cheap and normally unhealthy food. And those types of stores are popping up in many rural areas as well.
Detroit, Michigan was or still is one of these cities that some parts have no grocery store within close area. I know there has been some revitalization recently so don't know if that is still accurate. I lived in a small town in Nevada for 30+ years. While there were 2 small (mom and pop) grocery stores in town, the variety was low and sometimes their prices were outrageous. You could travel 50 miles west or 70 miles east to larger towns. If you shopped smart, you could go out to lunch with what you would save and your gas. Sometimes milk was a dollar more a gallon.
Yes, and also the radius of a food desert should be whether a grocery store can be walked to, since a lot of poor people don't have cars, and of course there are a number of health reasons why some people are unable to drive.
I remember reading about obesity in the Pacific Islands, who are the most obese countries in the world. A lot of people put it down to genetic reasons, and cultural reasons that value fatness. But the article I read pointed out that obesity rates coincidentally started rising just after they signed a trade agreement with the USA, and they went from eating local produce and a fish-heavy diet to eating loads of imported, high-calorie processed food, because it was much cheaper.
Not just islands either, North Africa, parts of South America and the middle east saw similar increases in obesity rates as their markets opened up to (mostly American) international food corporations. Granted, culture no doubt plays a role as well, but the addictive nature with many of these products (quite literally designed to be addictive) and their relative cheapness along with standardisation further encourages it
Re: the comment about food spoiling on shelves and people not having access to produce, it would definitely be worth reading up on food deserts in the US. There are absolutely places where people don’t have easy access to groceries. I’m sure you didn’t mean it, but there’s a certain amount of privilege to say ‘that can’t be, take a video and there will be public outrage’ when there is regularly not public outrage or visibility on these communities.
This is so true. The rest of the world and it seems Evan has taken on the belief that the states are so privileged. Produce rotting on the shelf is a real thing in some areas of the USA. Just look at history... what about the water situation in Flint, Michigan. It's still a problem even with the public outcry. Don't buy into the myths. Don't be so narrow minded.
I worked in one of the best Walmarts in my area, in fact it's where they had people from other stores come to recive management training. I most commonly saw moldy strawberries, because I was the one picking out online grocery orders, but I deffintly saw my share of food that was going back or about to go bad. I have also helped up in the produce section a couple times, and the amount of food I saw that had to be taken out and the amount of food that was thrown away was astonishing.
And the lack of public transport infrastructure makes those people’s situations even worse. The one documentary I watched a woman had to get 3 buses to get to one supermarket and it would have been a 5 hour round trip- that is absolutely insane. I’m in the UK and we have TOO many supermarkets! Sometimes two of the same a 5 minute drive from each other.
Yeah 100%. There is a lot more of this that goes on in the US than the average person seems to realize. Even when it does get featured in the news (which it doesn't always) people just seem to forget about it without internalizing that it really is other people's everyday reality and not just a news story.
@@xLightningboltI actually lived in a food desert in the UK 1990s as a student as the 2 local supermarkets closed down. The corner shops were extremely expensive and if you didn't have access to a car then you needed to take 2/3 buses to the nearest supermarket. I relied on friends to drive me to a supermarket once a month or so. Anyway a supermarket opened up 5 years after I left.
I can vouch for the rotten produce one. I live in a small town in Washington State. Oftentimes there are tomatoes on the shelf that are molding at the tip where the stems were. And things like green potatoes get put in the markdown section even though you absolutely should not eat green potatoes. And I've bought cheese on clearance without thinking I had to check it only to get home to find out it was moldy. But because it was marked down it wasn't worth returning. And just recently I bought a whole chicken (full price even though there were others in the vicinity marked down presumably because they were nearing the sell by date) only to open it and be assaulted with rotten egg smell. I've never encountered chicken that smelled like rotten eggs. It was so disgusting it went straight in the outside trash. There is no reason for this especially when the chicken processing plant is literally on the edge of town. I've given up on local produce. Whenever I can, I will drive 45 minutes to the nearest big city to do grocery shopping. It's just not worth it locally.
I get your point. However, you can eat green potatoes. They should be peeled. Just cut off the mold on bricks of cheese. It is perfectly fine. After all, that is how great cheese is aged. Shredded cheese is another story. The whole chicken thing is gross. A lot of mom and poop stores don't train their employees to put new products in the back and products closer to their sell or use by date in front. It's not acceptable at all.
Not American but I saw a documentary on food deserts in the USA and they definitely showed shelves full of rotting produce so I’m pretty sure that’s a real thing.
It isn’t just people not buying produce it’s also produce spoiling before people can even buy it & stores in poor neighborhoods not removing the bad produce
@@grahamparks1645 No it's not , not removing it's expressly being shipped worse product because wealthy neighborhoods pay more for better produce. Basic profit driven decisions you send the shit to poor places because they pay less and send the good stuff to wealthy places who will pay a premium for non blemished food.
I was about to post here about food deserts. a lot of people do not have grocery store access and have to rely on gas stations and convenience stores which generally will not stock produce in the first place
When I lived in Detroit, almost all of the locally owned grocery stores (i.e. almost every grocery store) were selling meat they got from the chain grocery stores that was past its sell-by date. Produce was also often on the edge of spoiling. Food deserts are a real problem in the US, where the only available safe food to eat is prepackaged junk food. I absolutely believe that the same thing happens in rural areas.
Evan, food spoiling is real. I’m a flight attendant and depending on where I end up tells me how bad my diet is going to be each month. Food deserts and spoilage happens whenever I end up in smaller towns versus whole foods and healthy options when I am in other countries or bigger cities. Heck, I’m lactose intolerant in the US versus everywhere else. So in smaller places, the crews tend to bring homemade food when we can or order fast food.
I think you also have to look at history in Britain to understand things. In World War II food was severely rationed so the Government had to do studies into nutrition to ensure that the population received a good balanced diet to stay healthy. This care for the population continues till today even though some people kick back against the "nanny state" I believe it is a good thing. I much prefer a Government that cares enough to ban dangerous chemicals in our food.
Only I think it's a bit worrying (so I try not to think about it) that if they brought in a sort of food rationing again (to save the planet) I think it might be not like in WW2 but might be predicated toward less healthy options.
Also, one of the reasons I voted against Brexit was that most of the legislation to do with food production, farming practices, pesticide regulation etc seemed to me progressive, precautionary and, to me, sensible. I hate red tape too, but to fight agianst unrestrained capitalism, it seemed like the good fight to me.
The truth is that Britain is not very much healthier than America. I once found an obesity map for both Europe and the U. S. side by side, and the best states were comparable to Britain (most nations on the Continent were lower, some by quite a lot), and the worst of the worst surpassed Turkey. Turkey represented the average in most states. Did I mention that Britain was the second fattest nation on the European map?
@@ladymacbethofmtensk896 it's true, the UK is fast catching up the USA in terms of obesity levels. It's a combination of a lot of the same factors that cause it in the US, people on lower incomes eating a diet of overprocessed, nutritionally poor food, not being able to afford fresh food, fast food being increasingly readily available and cheap, and people working sedentary jobs and driving everywhere because of poor public transport. I hope these issues can be addressed better in the future.
Fun fact: artificial food colourings nearly killed me. In the UK, I was 4 when I received a bright blue birthday cake at nursery. It was delicious. That night I had an anaphylactic reaction and went to hospital, I've had to carry an epipen ever since. I have also had minor reactions to sweets with a range of artificial colours that were like Hives. Artificial food colourings can literally be lethal if you're allergic, it's not just an inconvenience. As an adult, it's no biggy to avoid artificial food dyes, although they are still in number of foods in the UK (sunset yellow in cough sweets, a popular Scottish drink, brilliant blue in a number of sweets etc). However, as a 90s kid, everywhere you looked, food was multicoloured and i literally couldn't have anything apart from chocolate. First World problems lol
That sounds like it sucked. First world problems or not, kids don't like feeling left out. ❤️ I'm glad you have more options now. I have so much empathy for your parents. I have kids and if they had allergies like that I'd be so worried all the time. I'm glad you made it 😂❤️❤️😂🤣
I had a very purple butter-iced birthday cake when I was 6 in the 90's and IDK if it was the icing or too much cake but I spent the whole night vomiting it up and have never been a fan of cake since.
@@KoriC4077 hahaha thank you, on a school trip once when everyone was having ice cream, all I could eat was fruit salad 😬. You're right, while it's not the end of the world, it does affect how you interact with your peers.
My friend also has this. It's mainly tango ice blasts (bright blue foods as you were saying)she has to avoids but I think it's brought on by her asthma
Regarding rotting food: I lived in Chicago, IL, USA for 7 years on the border of an expensive neighborhood and a low-income one. Two of the same types of grocery store were somewhat nearby; one served a much lower income community than the other. One store definitely had spoiling veggies, and the other didn't and even had a large selection of fresh-squeezed juices. It is pretty easy to guess which is which, and it really shouldn't be.
5:39 I live in a fairly large city in the US (in the top 40 by population), and yes, the fruits and vegetables really are spoiling on the shelves. We have to be very careful when getting produce to ensure that it isn't rotten, or worse, moldy. The bulk produce (2 lb bags of onions, apples, or oranges) are especially bad. This is also not limited to one store, or one chain of grocery stores. If I don't immediately rinse berries in vinegar when I get home, they wont last a day in the fridge. It seems like such a common thing across all the supermarkets that unless the produce had maggots or flies swarming it, it wouldn't even be worthy of a news blurb. Honestly, the most surprising thing I've noticed is that Walmart has consistently had fresher produce than Fry's , Safeway, or even Trader Joes though I still need to look over the produce carefully.
Is this Tucson? When I lived there i didn't usually have too many issues with the bagged produce, but any time my husband bought berries they had to be washed or eaten immediately. Sometimes even a vinegar/produce spray wash didn't save them and they went moldy in a couple days anyhow.
Why is that happening? Isn't the produce being bought fast enough? Are they stocking up too rarely? Because here, most vegetables can last at least a week in the fridge, yes they might get a little dry/flappy but perfectly fine for cooking.
@@sashkad9246 Maybe it's a feedback loop. People buy less produce because it lasts less long after purchase (or risks already being off) so the produce sits longer on the shelf, so it gets restocked less often, so people buy it even less
The food spoiling thing is real unfortunately. and food deserts are such a pain too. dollar stores are putting grocery stores out of business in small towns because they undercut the prices of the local mom and pop grocery store. and then the dollar store wont carry a bunch of good products because it's a dollar store.
Where I live in the US (NJ) fresh fruit/veg absolutely spoils extremely fast, and there is often wilted/rotten stuff on the shelves. If I want fresh stuff everyday, I go to the store every 2 days. It's really hard to keep fresh produce in the house. Edit: I also think nobody takes photos or does anything about it because it's just so normal to everyone where I live. I've never really considered that it was not normal? I was always told "It's fresh food, of course it's gonna go bad on the shelf if nobody buys it fast enough!"
Shopping every two days isn't hard.. At least not if you have gotten rid of stupid zoning laws, and groceries are only a few minutes walk away from anywhere.
I've lived in relatively okay areas with access to food in my adult life, and I can say even then that there have been instances of rotten fruit on store shelves. I stopped buying strawberries for a good while because of one too many instances of noticing that they were already molded after I put my food in the cart. I don't live in food deserts where this issue is magnetized, this is just unfortunately normal. that said, nothing will beat the time I bought a bag of peaches only to find a dead roach clinging to one.
To be fair, I'm German, and I've stopped buying fresh berries too because most times, at least one was moldy, and so I had to throw away the whole pack. I only buy frozen (but organic) berries now, and the only fresh ones I consume are from our garden.
@@jessali_ yeah beeries really turn bad fast. Worked for a while in a grocery store and you could throw out like half of the strawberries at the same day you got them. And the next day you could throw all of them out. They really don't last that long, because the beeries are washed before they're packaged.
@@leahegeloh8929 Ohh, so that's the reason! I always wondered why the berries from our garden last many days and then just turn soft instead of moldy. I didn't know they were already washed in the store!
I find blueberries are usually OK. Strawberries? Never. There is a 100% chance of finding mold on at least one berry, usually many. I will also never buy nectarines again. They look great on the outside and are rotting from the inside out. We have local peaches here, so I get those instead.
I thought I was allergic to gummies/jello/fruit juices for years, after having gone back to my home country (not USA, was there from kindergarten to fifth grade) I was given jello at a hospital and had no reaction (I was really out of it, I would have said something otherwise). I had assumed I'd grown out of it and was free to eat all the gummy snacks I wanted. Which I did. At 20 I went back to the US to work and saw those scooby doo gummies I'd always seen kids in elementary eating that I always wanted to try. I bought a box, the culture shock that I couldn't go to a family owned corner store and just buy a single baggie was weird. They were great... until about five minutes later when my mouth felt like it was burning and my lips looked like Fungus from monsters inc. I can only be glad that the swelling went down with an ice pack, because despite being paid 15$ an hour (which compared to the 11.50$ of the next highest paid person I knew, really was high) there would have been no way I would have been able to pay for meds, let alone any medical bill. I went back home 2 weeks later because the fear of possibly dying from anaphylactic shock and having to decide whether the bill would be worth it made me want to cry. Once home, I got allergy tests done (for free) and the preservative concoction used in the US, in many different things but for some reason a lot of fruit flavor stuff for kids, was what had set it off. Also got emergency pills and an oral safe allergy cream for free.
In rural, small town America the spoiled produce on shelves is definitely a thing. We have tried drawing attention to this issue, but as a town with a population of under 2,000 in a county with a population of under 30k, nobody cares. The same reason Flint, Michigan doesn’t/didn’t have clean drinking water.
I live in Ohio in the US and have moved from a larger town to a village. Food actually rotting on the shelves isn't uncommon in the poorer areas of the large town and during the off season in the village. Produce really can't be bought more than a day or two in advance because it's so close to molding or rotting, if it isn't already going bad on the shelves. Because of this frozen fruits and vegetables are much safer choices but also way more popular meaning they're often sold out... leaving canned fruits and veg which are normally heavily sugared or heavily salted respectively.
This might just be in larger cities and their suburbs, but I buy "No Salt Added" canned vegetables at my local grocery (store brand). It's scary to read the labels and actually see too much sodium in LOTS of the foods we eat!
@@bsteven885 the local stores don't have those options. I'm fortunate enough to be able to regularly drive to the next big town which does though. At least for some products
I also live in Ohio, but I live in a suburban area. Moldy and expired food isn't a huge issue in my area, but it still does happen pretty often. Just this past weekend I was looking at some yogurt cups and the first two I looked at were over 10 days past their expiration date. I've also come across so much moldy and/or rotting fruits over the years (mainly the strawberries, tomatoes, peaches, and plums). I've also seen moldy bread on the shelves before, but it's pretty rare compared to the rest. There's also been times where a good majority of the fresh chicken is starting to go bad.
My boys are both autistic and have a limited diet and my youngest briefly went through a phase of eating hotdogs 3 times a week. This coincided with weight gain, upset stomach, mood swings and a spotty rash after 3 weeks of this. All of these went or were much reduced when he stopped and he's never asked for them again. The thought that someone might live like this and think they have a chronic condition makes me shudder.
The spoiled produce can be a big issue by me. Cheaper stores like Walmart always have moldy fruit. Somewhere nicer like Trader Joe’s will have good quality produce, just at a higher price
I'm from Canada and i notice this as well. Our expensive high end store is pricy, but it lasts more than twice as long than when I buy the same produce from our budget No Frills Grocery store. So we buy our produce at Sobeys and occasionally fresh meat and everything else is bought at No Frills.
This, the local grocery is horrible for fresh food, we have to drive 45 minutes to the next nearest store to do any shopping, and it’s expensive. Reasonable prices are 2hrs away
How interesting. I've had the exact opposite experience. Walmart has been surprisingly better than Trader Joes in my area. I'm not sure if our Walmart restocks produce more regularly because it has more shoppers, or if we simply have a sub-par Trader Joes.
It's absolutely true. I'm in a small town and the wilted vegetables were often the only choice. And that was in the good old days. Our food store closed down. Now we can only get things at the convenience store. And we're in a town with a population of 5,000. Have to drive to a different town to buy food.
Seems like if someone in the area started a small hobby farm, or got into indoor hydroponics, they would serve a need and do very well. I love to garden, but I'm surrounded by farms, so no one will buy my stuff. Lol
Evan, as you can tell from your comments here, I think you have found a good topic for yourself for a future video or videos regarding food deserts and quality of food in parts of the U.S. I think starting from the place of disbelief you are at to a place of understanding (mean the multiple definitions of understanding here; bit of privilege there, mate, saying you just don't believe that is possible and therefore it must be untrue) would be a good journey to proceed on and we'd love to come with you.
Definitely true about the food spoiling the day after buying it. I live in the UK but visited home-- Missouri-- last summer. Not only was I blown away by the price difference in the rual areas (more expensive in rural MO than in Dallas, TX), but the fruit and veg were all on the verge of bad already.
I'll add my own testimonial about the food spoilage. I live in a small town and I only buy produce from the local grocery store if I intend to use that day or the day after. I usually go for flash frozen veggies or pick up produce from Walmart or other larger grocery store.
I’m in Canada and produce spoils on the shelves… if you point it out they will remove it, but it’s not at all uncommon to find spoiling food. Some stores even make special sections and offer reduced prices for near spoiling food
As you were saying, yeah paprika has an E-number, but I think the manufacturer will just write 'paprika extract' because there's nothing to be ashamed of in it, in fact it is good for you - full of caratenoids. They are only going to use the E-number when they'd rather you didn't know.
As someone with anaphylaxis to all things capsicum that rather alarms me. Scrutinising ingredients is hard enough without having to be alert for an e number too
I've definitely hear about the expired produce one. A friend was once telling me about how her hometown in rural Texas was like that - pretty much, you drive over an hour to a real grocery store, or take a risk with nearby convenience stores with produce that's sometimes outright expired. It's apparently not uncommon in a lot of parts of the States
Food spoiling on shelves is a real thing. In the small town my father lives in (Missouri), it's common to see fruits with mold on it when you're shopping. You really are in a mine field in the produce section!
I've always found it crazy when watching American tiktoks or yt content about food and diets, sensationalising the fact they had yoghurt for breakfast or rice and veg for dinner (as if that's super unusual) but after watching this I get that that's somehow not normal?! and that's why there's so much content just promoting baseline healthy meals, eyes opened jheez
We prioritize shelf stable food because it doesn't spoil. I love making fermented foods, I'll leave ketchup, hot sauce, and soy sauce on the counter. I had a roommate who threw out my food because it wasn't refrigerated because it's dangerous while drinking soda and wine everyday.
My boyfriend works for Walmart in the fresh department, they literally insist on leaving rotting food on the shelves because it makes it look like they have more. They also claim that people will buy it regardless so what does it matter if it’s bad or not. Taking pictures and sending it to the news actually isn’t a bad idea, except that we live in a town of about 7000 and the local news is a small paper and no one reads. But worth a shot none the less.
@@msmaria5039 corporate is the one’s telling them they have to do this sadly. It is “ Company policy to make sure the food is completely gone bad before it is removed from the shelves, so it has the greatest opportunity to be bought”
That comment about food prices is absolutely true. I lived in both Florida and the Midwest growing up and the quality of food was amazing. But due to being in poverty in both states, our access to healthy food was terrible. The unhealthy ones were the cheapest and still are, but thankfully my mom cooked until we were nearly adults so we had somewhat healthy meals at home.
5:58 It sounds like they're referencing Food Deserts, which are a serious problem across the USA. Even in NYC, where certain neighborhoods depend on bodegas. I think Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt touched on this topic
I just remembered in elementary school in the US, the dental hygienist would come into our classroom once per year and do a dental education lesson. She would give us a toothbrush and bubblegum flavored toothpaste! I also remember she would give out these red fluoride tablets and always said we needed to ask our parents before using them in case we were allergic to the red dye. Why would a school employee give us something we might be allergic to??
Anyone can be allergic to basically anything. "Why would they give us things we could be allergic to" you wouldn't have food, art supplies or soap at school if they tried to prevent every single possible allergy
I highly recommend getting a hydro garden and planting lettuce and spinach, that way you know it's fresh and clean. It takes maybe a month for the leaves to grow to a decent size. I love mine!
Especially lettuce and herbs. You can grow it in such small containers (with or without a hydro setup) that you don't really need any outdoor space if you have the windowsill to put a small container on.
I live in middle class surbubia here in US and I have definitely soon moldy/rotten produce on the shelves at places like Kroger and Walmart...so it's really not unbelievable.
In the U.S. we have a monopoly problem. Walmart moved into many of the small towns decimating family business that had been there for decades. Then, where those stores haven't made enough profit over 200 have closed, leaving nothing. In cities independent grocery stores have been bought up by a few big chains, and then in poorer neighborhoods, they are closed because they aren't profitable.
I swear moving to the states again terrifies me like I’m excited to go to college but the food terrifies me. Everytime I go back to the states to see family I feel like I gain like 15 pounds just being there and eating the horrid food there and that is probably one of my biggest fears of moving back.. the food. (And the guns..)
If you have access to a kitchen and you're not in a dirt poor small town in the middle of nowhere, you can get healthy food here. I eat healthier here than most of my friends in France and the UK do, and I do it on a tight budget. Only downside is you'll probably need to drive for a good grocery store.
I Grew up in Africa and summers we'd visit family in countryside who raised cattle and we'd have raw cow or goat milk and never had any issues. Moved to the USA in my teens and for the first time ever had allergies to MILK, the red meat made me get bad constipation, i thought i caught something. My friend who had lived here a while told me that everything here has additives. So I am now lactose intolerant to AMerican milk. NOTE: When i go back to Africa on vacations i am able to drink raw milk without getting the Indigestion and diarrhea.
@Evan 6:05 They have filmed it. They have don't documentaries about it. The average American does not care. "Those poor people should just move." "They should get better jobs." It really happening and people don't care. Government doesn't care. Those are poor, mostly brown, people. They don't give a crap. It's institutionalized racism and zoning laws. I have a degree in Sociology by the way. The first thing my professor said was, "Meritocracy is a lie." And that's true. 8:04 I'm allergic to pink dye. (red 40) found that out taking bubblegum flavored amoxicillin as a baby. We thought I was allergic to the med. Nope. just the dye.
RUclips recommendations actually doing their job today, and it's already a better daaaaay. Love the sweater! To chime in about the rural stores having rotting produce, I can actually confirm from our side on the west coast. Lived all over here, and many are rotting or have fruit flies endlessly buzzing about. You can find most berries improperly stores too so they are often mushy/molding by the next day when you buy them, even picking out the good few to eat. It's almost $12 for strawberries where I live, and $5.40 for an apple. Adding to thrle discission: It's difficult to eat healthy in the US. Honestly easier to just skip meals (eating one a day) when trying to eat a normal amount of calories to keep from blowing up in weight. The calories are allowed to be so wildly incorrect, it's hard to know how much is actually in the packages of food you buy. It's hard to know if you're eating enough or over eating daily.
Genuine question, if the berries go bad after one day, it makes sense that nobody would really buy them? So how/why does the store keep selling them? As presumably they’d just have to throw them out daily?
I live in northern europe, and food spoilage is VERY common, but only on imported fruit. Strawberries out of season, blueberries, grapes, melons, ginger, onions, peppers, apples, pears, oranges, mangoes, kiwis... There's always at least 1 moldy one in the crate/pack. You have to dump the berries out on the table and take out the moldy ones before putting the good ones in the fridge, or make sure not to pick a moldy bell pepper from the crate at the store. I thought it was like that everywhere. Like, they have to ship the fruit from other countries and the might have been picked weeks ago, even months ago for some fruit, so I assumed it was just a normal thing
You wouldn't have to live in Germany? I have only ever had that problem in Germany. With the exception of strawberries, but I would saw especially local strawberries do that everywhere, but real strawberries are a seasonal fruit with a lifespan of 8-12 hours after picking where they have to be consumed or they will rot, no other common fruit is like that, and imported mutant strawberries aren't either, they are much hardier and as a result smells and taste of nothing.
I live in northern europe (almost lapland north), and the problem here is imported fruit that hasn't been ripened. Then you have to leave the fruit for a few days before eating.
I think that's a big indicator of why so much produce spoils in the US. We grow most of our produce in a small section of the country, and it has to be trucked thousands of miles and sit in storage for god knows how long until it gets put on a shelf. Locally grown produce won't spoil as quickly. I've had cherry tomatoes that I harvest from my backyard that I was able to keep for a month without any spoilage whatsoever. We were eating fresh tomatoes in December from my last October harvest. If I buy cherry tomatoes at the store? They start shriveling in a week.
I can confirm the food spoilage issue. Even in NYC Metro, we can have issues with produce and meat spoiling on the shelves (which is why farmers markets and local butchers have become much more prominent in my area). But when I lived in rural New York, I would never buy produce or fresh meat as it would be spoiled before it even left the store. It was so normalized that no one ever gave it a second thought. I have a strong feeling with the heightened awareness of mast cell disorders (especially MCAS that is estimated that 18% of the US population has this condition to some severity) that the whole food additives issue, lack of supplement regulation, and ingredient labeling on everything is going to have to be readdressed by the FDA.
Mast cell is an immune disorder that causes your immune system to over react in the most simple terms. The mast cell which is an important part of your immune system and is found literally everywhere in your body freaks out and starts dumping histamine into your bloodstream in large amounts which triggers an allergic reaction that can be to absolutely anything even a change in air temperature. Not just a medication you’ve taken or something you’ve eaten or drank. It can be difficult to manage because of this. There’s more than one form of mast cell dysfunction so it’s important when it’s suspected to find an immunologist/allergist that’s familiar with it to figure out which type it is in order to find the right treatment plan to manage it.
@@kidanoroga Interesting! I will read up on this. An allergic reaction with no obvious cause. Most days, at some point during the day, I'll sneeze, and again and again, eight to ten times in a row. Then my nose is full of gunk so I blow my nose. A few minutes later, I'm back to normal. Winter and summer, afternoon, maybe evening. About changes in temperature - I often have a minor nosebleed, brief, resolves by itself pretty much, not daily but every few days. Always seems to be related to changes in weather, from warm to cold to warm, from dry cold to wet cold, any changes in temperature or humidity when it's been one way for several days then shifts to something else. Could just be me not having accurate data, seeing coincidences, since weather is always changing. I've always tried eating clean, making occasional exceptions, but now making an effort to be cleaner with fewer exceptions. No artificial anything any more!
I grew up in Nampa, Idaho(a medium sized town) and Walmart was where my family shopped. It was a regular occurrence to see rotten fruit and vegetables, so IF you had the money to buy fresh you had to be very discerning.
2:08 Except no other government pays more than the USA for healthcare. Not even just the people, the government, too. Because under US laws, emergency healthcare must be provided and the US government usually pays the bill. So if someone develops serious health complications that require emergency medicine, including emergency surgeries, the US government pays. It would be cheaper for the US government and people (in terms of taxes) in the long run to have a nationalised healthcare system that makes it cheap or free for people to go to a GP, for example, and get their issues checked out before it becomes serious.
Oh, you'd be surprised on the rotten produced thing. My mom got a bag of Cuties and not even a week later they looked like they had been sitting there for months, same thing happened with other food at different times. It's always super weird but sometimes produce looks fine on the outside but it's not on the inside. And this is from a nice town 2 hours from a big city.
Similar things happen where I live, which is 30 minutes away from a large city. Buying fresh produce sometimes results in finding some pretty nasty expired food (usually fruit).
I live in a Utah suburb, and I always check my oranges and other soft produce for mold, because that does happen. I imagine if a rural store is poorly managed and/or gets produce speed infrequently, it could go rotten on the shelves, and they don't throw it away because empty shelves look really bad to customers.
I live in one of the largest suburban areas in Virginia, surrounded by neighborhoods. Last week at the grocery store I generally shop in, I looked at the blueberries and gave up after three or four packages in a row had a couple moldy berries at the bottom. I always figured that's just one of the downsides to shopping for off-season fruit or something, but maybe not?
3:06 good news, full fat milk is actually healthier than skimmed or semi skimmed. The fat contains more fat soluable vitamins, which the skimmed varieties have less of.
The rotting food on shelves is 100% true. My local Walmart, it's generally advised to not buy produce from them because it's it's common place to find thick mold on the product. If there's no mold it'll rot in in 3 days time. I'm not even in a small town, I live in a city. The only exceptions I've seen is bananas, broccoli, carrots and sometimes apples, those are a hit or miss. Eta I have decided to not buy anything other than pet items from Walmart because the eggs I bought are rotten too. 🙃
I live in northern Quebec in Canada. I often see rotting food on the shelves since we live so remotely that the shipping takes a long time or the food gets stuck somewhere along the way.
for the spoiling food, apparently in some US stores they spray the produce with water to give it that freshly picked washed look. which naturally makes them rot even faster which must definetely make it worse. plus as someone from the UK, i will say that I have found produce going moldy in our stores, mostly the types of food that dont have a long shelf life to begin with. i always thought part of the problem is that chain stores tend to overstock, buy more than they know they can sell as if its the last one there people are less likely to buy it as they think theres something wrong with it to be left there. this means the food cant get sold as there isnt a big enough demand for it and it goes off
Can confirm the spraying thing, in many grocery stores in my area the fresh produce on the wall shelves gets misted for like ten or twenty seconds from time to time by an automatic system. I've seen it happen.
Vegetables with high water content like lettuce and celery really do need higher humidity to stay fresh, otherwise they wilt. If they're spraying things like potatoes, that's a problem.
Working a small town grocery store in the Midwest USA. The produce section was always disgusting. We had fly tape everywhere hidden to try to catch all the flies that weee literally eating all the rotten food. This was half because the produce was overstacked and never emptied and half because no one ever bought any to cycle out the food. It also rarely got emptied and cleaned as it would look gross to the shoppers, but if you looked close enough, you could definitely see the underlying rotted food. Place closed down as it couldnt compete with the super Walmart in town.
Food deserts are very definitely a thing in the US. It's very hard to even find a grocery store not owned by a huge corporation. If you do, those stores seem to get produce that's not quite as fresh as the others.
So i was talking to a guy from New York once and asked him what the biggest surprise about our area was, He said it was how long the milk lasted. Said in New York it often turned before the date whereas in our area it could last over a week past date. Lot of dairy in my area so that one comment really checks out to me. Depends on how difficult it is to ship.
It’s actually quite interesting. My local stop and shops and other grocery stores that aren’t considered “expensive health food stores” have produce that is absolutely terrifying. Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s in the next city over (a city with more wealthy population) is loaded with fruits and vegetables that look appetizing. These grocery stores are inaccessible to most people in my city. However, the stop and shop closest to me (the only full grocery store in my city) has produce of bruised apples, and squishy, wilting vegetables with barely anything in stock. Cheaper, more accessible produce like potatoes and onions are plentiful and in tact. But I can’t get a package of strawberries without half the package being squishy and beginning to mold. You would be surprised how common of an issue this is. And I am not from an area that was or ever considered to be a food desert. I live right outside of a fairly large city and it is still ridiculous the amount of low income areas and stores that do not get supplied with safe and fresh foods, even for large companies with reputations to upkeep like target and stop and shop. Please try not to doubt people detailing their real experiences. Thank you for such an informative and interesting video that touches on very important topics. I always love to hear what you have to say!
I remember some Americans being shocked that there is a maximum allowed temperature for the hot water supply in U.K. houses as they saw it as unnecessary government interference. What they forgot is that if hot water is so hot it scalds people, that costs the NHS a lot of money.
Oooh. I wish there was a top temp for water here since in my apartment I’ll randomly be burned when my neighbors decide to shower as well and I suddenly get all the hot water for a few seconds. I got a burn so bad I thought I’d have to go to the hospital once. I wouldn’t have had to pay anything so I’m still not sure why I didn’t just go.
I have the issue of the only stores having rotten produce. There are some fresh options but they are only at expensive places like Whole Foods. So my solution is only buying frozen fruits and veggies
I like the point about the problem of choice. Choice is a buzzword corporations use to justify things that harm consumers, knowing full well that it's not fully a choice: 95% of people will stick with the default option even when given a choice, and too much choice creates an economy where a consumer cannot possibly keep up with the torrent of research that is needed to know which products pose an unnecessary risk. It's like you have 5 choices of olive oil but two of them will secretly poison you, and you need to go research every ingredient to know which. And now expand that to apply to every product you buy.
OMG! Gut health! My US daughter did her undergrad and grad school in the UK and every time I visited, my gut was always SOOOO happy! I’m gluten and dairy intolerant, not only was I easily accommodated, but I didn’t get sick to my stomach ONCE in the 5 times I visited!!!! Here at home it’s a different story!
Rotten food on US grocery shelves is a real issue in rural, suburb and urban markets. The worst culprits are onions, potatoes, whole head lettuce (and some processed bag salad), and tomatoes. The onions and potatoes will have mold, the lettuce will turn slimy in less than a day or have layers of rotted leaves on the inside and the tomatoes will look picture perfect but are actually picked green and gassed to turn red but rot very quickly from the inside out. I too buy my produce either frozen or the day of use. US produce is more about looking good than being nutritional or edible.
I'm very much not in a food desert and we still have spoiled produce on the shelves where I am. They're better at clearing out some things, like cucumbers, but potatoes, tomatoes, and onions are a crapshoot. I didn't even know how different the quality could be for a long time. The one that hit home was when I picked up some oyster mushrooms near thanskgiving that were the freshest, most perfect mushrooms I'd ever seen. They cooked up like a dream. It really highlighted how not-fresh the produce is most of the time.
On the red dyes, back in the very early 80s I remember getting very violent headaches shortly after drinking red Kool-Aids. I had to be about 6 or 7 years old, and saw the connection between my headaches and the red Kool-Aids. I then made a conscious decision to stop drinking them and ask my parents to get something different. It wouldn’t be until I was in my early twenties, I read in a news article that many of the red food dyes back then were responsible for many bad reactions including cancer.
My store (in a small, non-farming town USA) doesn’t stock too many healthy options that are affordable. SAME as the one person who cannot purchase good quality produce, my stores stock crap produce that is sometimes spoiled on the shelf. I have a friend in prison and they talk about the lack of fresh produce and options and I was like… same bro. Same. 😅 to get fresh produce for a reasonable price I would have to go to a store almost 2 hours away.
I think the big difference between Europe and America over food is, it's not that our food is necessarily healthier - we still absolutely have the unhealthy decadent options. But it's a lot harder to get away with pretending that unhealthy food isn't unhealthy here. Still, we can be very imaginative with our unhealthy food. I think what's always struck me with American food is that it seems to just be the same 4-5 things that people enjoyed as kids, smooshed together in different combinations.
This comment needs to be higher. Generally speaking (not accounting for food deserts and individual economic situation), Americans have access to some pretty dang healthy foods. And Europeans have access to some total garbage foods too. But the difference is education and perception on which ones are healthy.
@@kathrynbryant5732 - I think *some* of it is down to education, but I think some of it is also down to us just accepting as a result of centuries of Catholicism that anything fun is either a crime, a sin, or in some way killing us. So we've learned to do those things when we can get away with it, rather than all the time.
I’m about to visit America for the first time this summer, and I can’t wait to see how much their grocery stores and diets differ to the ones we have in Denmark 🇩🇰
Regarding E-numbers (I'm Norwegian)... First only the names were used... and then people became too cautious of such... and so we switched to E-numbers...after a while people became skeptical of that too (like ¨'if there's more than three E numbers find something else' type skeptical)... and now we use a mix of the two. ... And I can't really see that changing anytime soon.
The biggest culture shock in USA for me was definately the big gulp. 12 years later I still can not wrap my head around it. Isn't it terribly impractical to carry around? Why spend money on it if you have endless refills? How can there be any fizz left in it by the end? How can a person drink that much soda on one go? So many questions.
The idea of "food deserts" United States is somewhat overblown and it's a much more complicated topic than most people realize. In most of the areas they legitimately do exist, they exist because no business really wants to get Indus only fresh produce in those areas, because most of the residents don't want to buy that product for the amount of money it will cost to ship into those areas and maintain stock, and because (and this is a big reason) there are so many cases of theft in those areas it will not be worth the money to bring a bunch of produce and sell it on the large-scale that companies like Wal-Mart used, because not only will very few people actually purchase it, but a lot more people will just steal it right off the tray. This is a major concern for most businesses.
I have a poor sense of smell and have to bring my sister when shopping for produce so she can sniff-test it in the store; otherwise, the items I bring home are visibly moldy/spoiled at home the next day. This is separate from when we search for fruits - you must look very carefully to avoid the visible mold hidden in the middle of, or under the label of, the plastic package of berries or clementines. You may find it hard to believe, but this is our weekly reality
Does your area get frozen produce shipped in? Even in an area with decent produce, the frozen berries taste so much freshener. I know not everything holds up to freezing, but for the products that do its wonderful.
Evan If your sarcasm game is so strong that Americans can no longer recognise it, It's time to give up that American citizenship, You are now truly British! 😆
@@RustyDust101 I was always under the impression that the Germans had a great sense of humour! It is my understanding that Germany was at one time the biggest importers of old British sitcoms such as "'Allo 'Allo", "Dad's Army", "Faulty Towers" etc.
Evidently you do not watch all of Evans video as he announced he took and passed his British Citizenship test and turned in his American passport to the US Government.
@@marydavis5234 And you clearly haven't been paying attention to what Evan has said in his videos because he has stated on a number of occasions that he has duel nationality as he has yet to renounce his American citizenship.
i seriously had never thought of that. the idea that other governments may have some sort of incentive to encourage the health of their citizens. its so strange that governments not giving a sh*t about their people is so normalized here.
My only experience of American food was in the disney bubble in Orlando. I found the idea that the veg portion of a meal was a side to be paid for separately strange
I think another often over-looked issue, is how many just don't know how to cook even basic meals. This leads many to just get food delivered or even when they are at the store they are buying pre-made sauces or instant meals that are incredibly unhealthy.
Yes to food spoiling on the shelves. We are in Puerto Rico. We were at the supermarket the other day, witnessed the employees trying to convince the supplier to stop stocking the shelves with the produce he was delivering since it was clearly rotting. Because of the Jones Act, all our stuff has to come from the US, even things that are grown closer like in South America.
I noticed, when I was on holiday in the US how salty all the fast food was. I was super stoked to go to in&out while in Cali expecting to be blown away and I just could not finish the double double. 😟
Sometimes too much freedom leads to the exact opposite of freedom. I used to reprimand my friends when they started smoking. And their answers were also "I am not addicted" or "Its my freedom". Sure.... until this very freedom becomes your chains....
I maintain a garden to supplement my food budget. people really need to stop relying on other people for their food. go to farms and buy in bulks. pool money to support a co-op. grow your own food. harvest fruits and nuts from your neighborhood trees.
Red velvet cake was once colored with beets, I think people thought "weird cooking a cake with beets" so they started doing red dye (mostly 40, there may be another one now). I've heard it uses up to 2 tablespoons of red dye. Crazy. I imagine some food-like substances have even more red dye.
It absolutely blows my mind that over processed convenience products are cheaper than veggies and store cupboard ingredients. When I started living on my own, I mostly bought potatoes, flour, pasta, oats, Veggies and fruits because it was so much cheaper than the fast food meals. It depends on what you're cooking but one fast food meal equals about 3 home cooked meals here in Austria. But I have to say, it is a whole lot cheaper to live as a vegetarian. Meat is fricking expensive
This is the biggest issue Evan, not trying to put him down just an opinion, has in regards on the recent content is that he's been out of the US long enough that what's normal now a days in to the US isn't as it use to be when he lived in the States. There is also a huge disregard for the fact that the US, being as large as it, is actually has regionally specific things like average income numbers, easy access to things, and local government bodies that will and has influenced people in specific areas of the US. Painting the broad strokes as he has been lately stating them as supreme fact is a bit disingenuous to those that don't live in the US regarding the weird regional things that come with living in such a big country.
It is always fun and entertaining to watch your videos. Interestingly enough, my wife and I are carnivore and don't eat anything pre-made or with ingredients. I do all of the cooking, my mother and grandfather were chefs, and I used to run restaurants. She still consumes spices but I only do salt. I dropped over 180 lbs and she dropped over 150. Eating real food reversed my pre-diabetes, fixed my BP and liver enzymes etc. I'm not claiming everyone should eliminate plants, but everyone would do better without the processed food and chemicals. After eliminating all of the chemicals and such, I even was able to stop my ADHD meds that I'd been on for around 20 years too.
Good to you but please next time you're talking about processed food mention the UPF(UltraProcessedFood) that bad for you and I,and usualy mean food wrapped in plastic with all the E-numbers Processed food it actually good(the meat you're eating most likely is a processed food,a food that go through a process).
It doesn't matter as long as you cook,season,etc is still a processed food(a food that goes through a process of cutting,boiling,etc)which by the way is healthy if you are not putting any weird substance's😢😊😊
@@alinbejinaru1755 Yeah, I get that I do cook and then salt it. I haven't used any spices myself for 3 years even but I cook the outside of the meat to kill any pathogens but leave it blue rare since I use whole cuts.
I used to work in pickup at Meijer (local grocery store, kinda like Walmart but more expensive). The amount of healthy food we would get straight off the truck that was molded was ridiculous. It would get put out on the shelves too, because that’s all there was. Every single day I had to pick through it to find strawberries without mold, grapes that weren’t borderline melting, melons that weren’t rotting, etc… It’s extremely common. Especially during the off seasons.
I wanted to clarify something - actually the American government does have an interest in the health of Americans - but in a negative way. Unhealthy people in America end up expending a lot of their resources on healthcare. If they have any sort of retirement funds it is very likely a lot of those funds will get syphoned off to pay for healthcare expenses not covered by Medicare as they age. The money being used to pay healthcare costs goes back into circulation in the economy. In addition, people dying earlier means they won't use up as much of the social security benefits and Medicare benefits that the government wants to call "entitlements". Death is also a profitable business, which adds to the GDP. Old people sitting at home aging aren't particularly beneficial to the economy. So, you could say that the broken nature of the U.S. healthcare system is a feature not a bug. Those in congress are rich enough of course to be able to purchase additional healthcare coverage so they don't really have to worry about the poor state of our healthcare system - they will always get the best care.
I think coloring should be banned globally. There's no reason to add color to things other than to make them "look appealing". If it tastes good and is healthy, no one cares what it looks like. I was raised "If it tastes good and doesn't kill you, don't ask questions, shut up and eat". They were talking more about questionable ingredients, but the principle is solid
Artificial colors are not inherently bad, yes some people have reaction to them but you're going to deal with allergies, regardless should we ban peanut butter bc a lot of people are allergic? Did you know that when you're least exposed to peanuts as child your more like to develop allergie to peanuts. Blue dye in food has been found help heal spinal injuries in rats. However don't understand why red 3 is still used.
Evan, I had almost the same type of experience with FD&C Red #40 -- though I was an adult. I drank a bottle of Sunny Delight Tropical Style "Juice Drink," then had what looked like a sunburn all over. The ONLY way my doctor figured it out was the fact that I was NOT allergic to Mountain Dew -- that soda had Yellow #5 AND #6, which also causes reactions.
Interesting comparison with Australia. We waste thousands of tons of fresh food every year if it doesn't look perfect. You can buy "Odd Bunch" food in one of the major supermarkets which isn't the perfect shape/size/colour. On the other hand, it is difficult to get fresh produce to very remote communities for example, in the desert. And that can be extremely expensive. The floods recently have had an impact on particular items, so lettuce got ridiculously expensive (KFC was using cabbage on burgers), and there is now a shortage of the right potatoes for fries, so there are limits on how big a serve of chips we can get.
6:00 ish, about food spoilage on the shelves....I live about halfway between two major New England cities, and the produce absolutely rots on the shelves. We don't even bother with berries
I work at Walmart and found bread that had a Best Before date of December 7th. I found this bread in mid April, with no mold, and when I opened it, the smell was completely normal.
I saw a documentary a while ago about "food deserts" in the US. Parts of cities with no grocery store at all (but cheap fast food is abundant), I was horrified.
Or there is the ever present dollar stores that have cheap and normally unhealthy food. And those types of stores are popping up in many rural areas as well.
I had this experience also
Detroit, Michigan was or still is one of these cities that some parts have no grocery store within close area. I know there has been some revitalization recently so don't know if that is still accurate. I lived in a small town in Nevada for 30+ years. While there were 2 small (mom and pop) grocery stores in town, the variety was low and sometimes their prices were outrageous. You could travel 50 miles west or 70 miles east to larger towns. If you shopped smart, you could go out to lunch with what you would save and your gas. Sometimes milk was a dollar more a gallon.
IIRC they are particularly prevalent in redlined (i.e. black) neighbourhoods where public transport is also sorely lacking.
Yes, and also the radius of a food desert should be whether a grocery store can be walked to, since a lot of poor people don't have cars, and of course there are a number of health reasons why some people are unable to drive.
I remember reading about obesity in the Pacific Islands, who are the most obese countries in the world. A lot of people put it down to genetic reasons, and cultural reasons that value fatness. But the article I read pointed out that obesity rates coincidentally started rising just after they signed a trade agreement with the USA, and they went from eating local produce and a fish-heavy diet to eating loads of imported, high-calorie processed food, because it was much cheaper.
I read that it started when the US soldiers started trading their rations in the second world war.
I saw documentaries and this a real problem in island nation, I think the top one is Nauru.
Canned SPAM is a disease of itself. Yet, it became a cherished product. I heard there is a SPAM festival in Hawaii...
Not just islands either, North Africa, parts of South America and the middle east saw similar increases in obesity rates as their markets opened up to (mostly American) international food corporations. Granted, culture no doubt plays a role as well, but the addictive nature with many of these products (quite literally designed to be addictive) and their relative cheapness along with standardisation further encourages it
They arent the most obese. The usa Is they just say that because the Pacific Islands have a smaller population.
Re: the comment about food spoiling on shelves and people not having access to produce, it would definitely be worth reading up on food deserts in the US. There are absolutely places where people don’t have easy access to groceries. I’m sure you didn’t mean it, but there’s a certain amount of privilege to say ‘that can’t be, take a video and there will be public outrage’ when there is regularly not public outrage or visibility on these communities.
This is so true. The rest of the world and it seems Evan has taken on the belief that the states are so privileged. Produce rotting on the shelf is a real thing in some areas of the USA. Just look at history... what about the water situation in Flint, Michigan. It's still a problem even with the public outcry. Don't buy into the myths. Don't be so narrow minded.
I worked in one of the best Walmarts in my area, in fact it's where they had people from other stores come to recive management training. I most commonly saw moldy strawberries, because I was the one picking out online grocery orders, but I deffintly saw my share of food that was going back or about to go bad. I have also helped up in the produce section a couple times, and the amount of food I saw that had to be taken out and the amount of food that was thrown away was astonishing.
And the lack of public transport infrastructure makes those people’s situations even worse. The one documentary I watched a woman had to get 3 buses to get to one supermarket and it would have been a 5 hour round trip- that is absolutely insane. I’m in the UK and we have TOO many supermarkets! Sometimes two of the same a 5 minute drive from each other.
Yeah 100%. There is a lot more of this that goes on in the US than the average person seems to realize. Even when it does get featured in the news (which it doesn't always) people just seem to forget about it without internalizing that it really is other people's everyday reality and not just a news story.
@@xLightningboltI actually lived in a food desert in the UK 1990s as a student as the 2 local supermarkets closed down. The corner shops were extremely expensive and if you didn't have access to a car then you needed to take 2/3 buses to the nearest supermarket. I relied on friends to drive me to a supermarket once a month or so. Anyway a supermarket opened up 5 years after I left.
I can vouch for the rotten produce one. I live in a small town in Washington State. Oftentimes there are tomatoes on the shelf that are molding at the tip where the stems were. And things like green potatoes get put in the markdown section even though you absolutely should not eat green potatoes. And I've bought cheese on clearance without thinking I had to check it only to get home to find out it was moldy. But because it was marked down it wasn't worth returning. And just recently I bought a whole chicken (full price even though there were others in the vicinity marked down presumably because they were nearing the sell by date) only to open it and be assaulted with rotten egg smell. I've never encountered chicken that smelled like rotten eggs. It was so disgusting it went straight in the outside trash. There is no reason for this especially when the chicken processing plant is literally on the edge of town.
I've given up on local produce. Whenever I can, I will drive 45 minutes to the nearest big city to do grocery shopping. It's just not worth it locally.
I used to do that east new york. Took the bus to and from the grocery an hour each way and extra vitamin pills
I get your point. However, you can eat green potatoes. They should be peeled. Just cut off the mold on bricks of cheese. It is perfectly fine. After all, that is how great cheese is aged. Shredded cheese is another story. The whole chicken thing is gross. A lot of mom and poop stores don't train their employees to put new products in the back and products closer to their sell or use by date in front. It's not acceptable at all.
It's only the very young, the old or the sick who shouldn't eat green potatoes. Everyone else is fine.
Even is an issue in larger cities, also in Washington state, though I'm only thinking of one specific store in particular.
I live in Sacramento and sometimes the produce we buy is rotten the same day or with the next few days
Not American but I saw a documentary on food deserts in the USA and they definitely showed shelves full of rotting produce so I’m pretty sure that’s a real thing.
It isn’t just people not buying produce it’s also produce spoiling before people can even buy it & stores in poor neighborhoods not removing the bad produce
Agree it’s a thing. My American relatives talked about it when working in areas that were hard hit with limited resources 😢
I'm american, I've seen it, mostly in the winter and in smaller supermarkets away from population centers. I'm surprised at Evan's surprise.
@@grahamparks1645 No it's not , not removing it's expressly being shipped worse product because wealthy neighborhoods pay more for better produce. Basic profit driven decisions you send the shit to poor places because they pay less and send the good stuff to wealthy places who will pay a premium for non blemished food.
I was about to post here about food deserts. a lot of people do not have grocery store access and have to rely on gas stations and convenience stores which generally will not stock produce in the first place
When I lived in Detroit, almost all of the locally owned grocery stores (i.e. almost every grocery store) were selling meat they got from the chain grocery stores that was past its sell-by date. Produce was also often on the edge of spoiling. Food deserts are a real problem in the US, where the only available safe food to eat is prepackaged junk food. I absolutely believe that the same thing happens in rural areas.
Those local grocers were the worst… then try to cover up the rotten meat smell with bleach.
Evan, food spoiling is real. I’m a flight attendant and depending on where I end up tells me how bad my diet is going to be each month. Food deserts and spoilage happens whenever I end up in smaller towns versus whole foods and healthy options when I am in other countries or bigger cities. Heck, I’m lactose intolerant in the US versus everywhere else. So in smaller places, the crews tend to bring homemade food when we can or order fast food.
I think you also have to look at history in Britain to understand things. In World War II food was severely rationed so the Government had to do studies into nutrition to ensure that the population received a good balanced diet to stay healthy. This care for the population continues till today even though some people kick back against the "nanny state" I believe it is a good thing. I much prefer a Government that cares enough to ban dangerous chemicals in our food.
Exactly, otherwise what am I paying them for.
Only I think it's a bit worrying (so I try not to think about it) that if they brought in a sort of food rationing again (to save the planet) I think it might be not like in WW2 but might be predicated toward less healthy options.
Also, one of the reasons I voted against Brexit was that most of the legislation to do with food production, farming practices, pesticide regulation etc seemed to me progressive, precautionary and, to me, sensible. I hate red tape too, but to fight agianst unrestrained capitalism, it seemed like the good fight to me.
The truth is that Britain is not very much healthier than America. I once found an obesity map for both Europe and the U. S. side by side, and the best states were comparable to Britain (most nations on the Continent were lower, some by quite a lot), and the worst of the worst surpassed Turkey. Turkey represented the average in most states. Did I mention that Britain was the second fattest nation on the European map?
@@ladymacbethofmtensk896 it's true, the UK is fast catching up the USA in terms of obesity levels. It's a combination of a lot of the same factors that cause it in the US, people on lower incomes eating a diet of overprocessed, nutritionally poor food, not being able to afford fresh food, fast food being increasingly readily available and cheap, and people working sedentary jobs and driving everywhere because of poor public transport. I hope these issues can be addressed better in the future.
Fun fact: artificial food colourings nearly killed me.
In the UK, I was 4 when I received a bright blue birthday cake at nursery. It was delicious. That night I had an anaphylactic reaction and went to hospital, I've had to carry an epipen ever since. I have also had minor reactions to sweets with a range of artificial colours that were like Hives. Artificial food colourings can literally be lethal if you're allergic, it's not just an inconvenience.
As an adult, it's no biggy to avoid artificial food dyes, although they are still in number of foods in the UK (sunset yellow in cough sweets, a popular Scottish drink, brilliant blue in a number of sweets etc). However, as a 90s kid, everywhere you looked, food was multicoloured and i literally couldn't have anything apart from chocolate. First World problems lol
That sounds like it sucked. First world problems or not, kids don't like feeling left out. ❤️ I'm glad you have more options now.
I have so much empathy for your parents. I have kids and if they had allergies like that I'd be so worried all the time. I'm glad you made it 😂❤️❤️😂🤣
I had a very purple butter-iced birthday cake when I was 6 in the 90's and IDK if it was the icing or too much cake but I spent the whole night vomiting it up and have never been a fan of cake since.
@@KoriC4077 hahaha thank you, on a school trip once when everyone was having ice cream, all I could eat was fruit salad 😬. You're right, while it's not the end of the world, it does affect how you interact with your peers.
I have sever asthma and am allergic to many things in commercial foods, also preservatives, flavorings, sulfites to prolong foods stability.
My friend also has this. It's mainly tango ice blasts (bright blue foods as you were saying)she has to avoids but I think it's brought on by her asthma
Regarding rotting food: I lived in Chicago, IL, USA for 7 years on the border of an expensive neighborhood and a low-income one. Two of the same types of grocery store were somewhat nearby; one served a much lower income community than the other. One store definitely had spoiling veggies, and the other didn't and even had a large selection of fresh-squeezed juices.
It is pretty easy to guess which is which, and it really shouldn't be.
5:39 I live in a fairly large city in the US (in the top 40 by population), and yes, the fruits and vegetables really are spoiling on the shelves. We have to be very careful when getting produce to ensure that it isn't rotten, or worse, moldy. The bulk produce (2 lb bags of onions, apples, or oranges) are especially bad. This is also not limited to one store, or one chain of grocery stores. If I don't immediately rinse berries in vinegar when I get home, they wont last a day in the fridge. It seems like such a common thing across all the supermarkets that unless the produce had maggots or flies swarming it, it wouldn't even be worthy of a news blurb. Honestly, the most surprising thing I've noticed is that Walmart has consistently had fresher produce than Fry's , Safeway, or even Trader Joes though I still need to look over the produce carefully.
Is this Tucson? When I lived there i didn't usually have too many issues with the bagged produce, but any time my husband bought berries they had to be washed or eaten immediately. Sometimes even a vinegar/produce spray wash didn't save them and they went moldy in a couple days anyhow.
@@PrimroseFrost Yep. It has gotten really bad over the last decade.
Why is that happening? Isn't the produce being bought fast enough? Are they stocking up too rarely?
Because here, most vegetables can last at least a week in the fridge, yes they might get a little dry/flappy but perfectly fine for cooking.
@@sashkad9246 Maybe it's a feedback loop. People buy less produce because it lasts less long after purchase (or risks already being off) so the produce sits longer on the shelf, so it gets restocked less often, so people buy it even less
The food spoiling thing is real unfortunately. and food deserts are such a pain too. dollar stores are putting grocery stores out of business in small towns because they undercut the prices of the local mom and pop grocery store. and then the dollar store wont carry a bunch of good products because it's a dollar store.
Where I live in the US (NJ) fresh fruit/veg absolutely spoils extremely fast, and there is often wilted/rotten stuff on the shelves. If I want fresh stuff everyday, I go to the store every 2 days. It's really hard to keep fresh produce in the house.
Edit: I also think nobody takes photos or does anything about it because it's just so normal to everyone where I live. I've never really considered that it was not normal? I was always told "It's fresh food, of course it's gonna go bad on the shelf if nobody buys it fast enough!"
Shopping every two days isn't hard.. At least not if you have gotten rid of stupid zoning laws, and groceries are only a few minutes walk away from anywhere.
@@Carewolf My closest grocery store is a 30 minute drive away lol It's not easy, especially with gas prices now.
I've lived in relatively okay areas with access to food in my adult life, and I can say even then that there have been instances of rotten fruit on store shelves. I stopped buying strawberries for a good while because of one too many instances of noticing that they were already molded after I put my food in the cart. I don't live in food deserts where this issue is magnetized, this is just unfortunately normal.
that said, nothing will beat the time I bought a bag of peaches only to find a dead roach clinging to one.
Omdg!😬
To be fair, I'm German, and I've stopped buying fresh berries too because most times, at least one was moldy, and so I had to throw away the whole pack. I only buy frozen (but organic) berries now, and the only fresh ones I consume are from our garden.
@@jessali_ yeah beeries really turn bad fast. Worked for a while in a grocery store and you could throw out like half of the strawberries at the same day you got them. And the next day you could throw all of them out. They really don't last that long, because the beeries are washed before they're packaged.
@@leahegeloh8929 Ohh, so that's the reason! I always wondered why the berries from our garden last many days and then just turn soft instead of moldy. I didn't know they were already washed in the store!
I find blueberries are usually OK. Strawberries? Never. There is a 100% chance of finding mold on at least one berry, usually many. I will also never buy nectarines again. They look great on the outside and are rotting from the inside out. We have local peaches here, so I get those instead.
I thought I was allergic to gummies/jello/fruit juices for years, after having gone back to my home country (not USA, was there from kindergarten to fifth grade) I was given jello at a hospital and had no reaction (I was really out of it, I would have said something otherwise). I had assumed I'd grown out of it and was free to eat all the gummy snacks I wanted. Which I did.
At 20 I went back to the US to work and saw those scooby doo gummies I'd always seen kids in elementary eating that I always wanted to try. I bought a box, the culture shock that I couldn't go to a family owned corner store and just buy a single baggie was weird. They were great... until about five minutes later when my mouth felt like it was burning and my lips looked like Fungus from monsters inc. I can only be glad that the swelling went down with an ice pack, because despite being paid 15$ an hour (which compared to the 11.50$ of the next highest paid person I knew, really was high) there would have been no way I would have been able to pay for meds, let alone any medical bill.
I went back home 2 weeks later because the fear of possibly dying from anaphylactic shock and having to decide whether the bill would be worth it made me want to cry.
Once home, I got allergy tests done (for free) and the preservative concoction used in the US, in many different things but for some reason a lot of fruit flavor stuff for kids, was what had set it off. Also got emergency pills and an oral safe allergy cream for free.
In the US if you want gummies, go to natural food stores. Some specifically avoid allergens and only use natural juices for color.
Or you can choose not to eat processed sugar. Eat fruits and drink water
Stop saying is FREE. You're paying it with your taxes and probably other people paid for your medical bills. There's no free breakfast
@@ugo7233allergies aren't because of processed foods. They're because of specific allergens including ones found in natural foods. Get educated.
Which country are u from?
In rural, small town America the spoiled produce on shelves is definitely a thing. We have tried drawing attention to this issue, but as a town with a population of under 2,000 in a county with a population of under 30k, nobody cares. The same reason Flint, Michigan doesn’t/didn’t have clean drinking water.
I live in Ohio in the US and have moved from a larger town to a village.
Food actually rotting on the shelves isn't uncommon in the poorer areas of the large town and during the off season in the village. Produce really can't be bought more than a day or two in advance because it's so close to molding or rotting, if it isn't already going bad on the shelves.
Because of this frozen fruits and vegetables are much safer choices but also way more popular meaning they're often sold out... leaving canned fruits and veg which are normally heavily sugared or heavily salted respectively.
At least the salted food you can treat, you can rinse them, get most of salt. And there some things I do prefer canned.
Is there an option for food deliveries, or a scheme that will deliver a box of fresh veggies regularly there?
This might just be in larger cities and their suburbs, but I buy "No Salt Added" canned vegetables at my local grocery (store brand). It's scary to read the labels and actually see too much sodium in LOTS of the foods we eat!
@@bsteven885 the local stores don't have those options. I'm fortunate enough to be able to regularly drive to the next big town which does though. At least for some products
I also live in Ohio, but I live in a suburban area. Moldy and expired food isn't a huge issue in my area, but it still does happen pretty often. Just this past weekend I was looking at some yogurt cups and the first two I looked at were over 10 days past their expiration date. I've also come across so much moldy and/or rotting fruits over the years (mainly the strawberries, tomatoes, peaches, and plums). I've also seen moldy bread on the shelves before, but it's pretty rare compared to the rest. There's also been times where a good majority of the fresh chicken is starting to go bad.
My boys are both autistic and have a limited diet and my youngest briefly went through a phase of eating hotdogs 3 times a week. This coincided with weight gain, upset stomach, mood swings and a spotty rash after 3 weeks of this. All of these went or were much reduced when he stopped and he's never asked for them again. The thought that someone might live like this and think they have a chronic condition makes me shudder.
The spoiled produce can be a big issue by me. Cheaper stores like Walmart always have moldy fruit. Somewhere nicer like Trader Joe’s will have good quality produce, just at a higher price
Wow!
I'm from Canada and i notice this as well. Our expensive high end store is pricy, but it lasts more than twice as long than when I buy the same produce from our budget No Frills Grocery store. So we buy our produce at Sobeys and occasionally fresh meat and everything else is bought at No Frills.
This, the local grocery is horrible for fresh food, we have to drive 45 minutes to the next nearest store to do any shopping, and it’s expensive. Reasonable prices are 2hrs away
How interesting. I've had the exact opposite experience. Walmart has been surprisingly better than Trader Joes in my area. I'm not sure if our Walmart restocks produce more regularly because it has more shoppers, or if we simply have a sub-par Trader Joes.
@@Taleri you have a bad Trader Joe’s, if it’s a state with few of them they could be coasting on reputation
It's absolutely true. I'm in a small town and the wilted vegetables were often the only choice. And that was in the good old days. Our food store closed down. Now we can only get things at the convenience store. And we're in a town with a population of 5,000. Have to drive to a different town to buy food.
Seems like if someone in the area started a small hobby farm, or got into indoor hydroponics, they would serve a need and do very well. I love to garden, but I'm surrounded by farms, so no one will buy my stuff. Lol
I was gonna say, blimey, open a shop!
Evan, as you can tell from your comments here, I think you have found a good topic for yourself for a future video or videos regarding food deserts and quality of food in parts of the U.S. I think starting from the place of disbelief you are at to a place of understanding (mean the multiple definitions of understanding here; bit of privilege there, mate, saying you just don't believe that is possible and therefore it must be untrue) would be a good journey to proceed on and we'd love to come with you.
Definitely true about the food spoiling the day after buying it. I live in the UK but visited home-- Missouri-- last summer. Not only was I blown away by the price difference in the rual areas (more expensive in rural MO than in Dallas, TX), but the fruit and veg were all on the verge of bad already.
I'll add my own testimonial about the food spoilage. I live in a small town and I only buy produce from the local grocery store if I intend to use that day or the day after. I usually go for flash frozen veggies or pick up produce from Walmart or other larger grocery store.
That’s depressing wtf
@@evan It works out in the end. I stay busy. Frozen veggies can last weeks and are nearly as fresh as produce.
I’m in Canada and produce spoils on the shelves… if you point it out they will remove it, but it’s not at all uncommon to find spoiling food. Some stores even make special sections and offer reduced prices for near spoiling food
As you were saying, yeah paprika has an E-number, but I think the manufacturer will just write 'paprika extract' because there's nothing to be ashamed of in it, in fact it is good for you - full of caratenoids. They are only going to use the E-number when they'd rather you didn't know.
As someone with anaphylaxis to all things capsicum that rather alarms me. Scrutinising ingredients is hard enough without having to be alert for an e number too
@@countrylass5637 Yeah, watch out for E-160c.
I've definitely hear about the expired produce one. A friend was once telling me about how her hometown in rural Texas was like that - pretty much, you drive over an hour to a real grocery store, or take a risk with nearby convenience stores with produce that's sometimes outright expired. It's apparently not uncommon in a lot of parts of the States
Define 'expired'. 'Best By' dates are the result of corporate lobbying to increase profit by increasing waste and reducing package quality :(
'Sell By' dates are for public safety and had to be lobbied for by the public...
Food spoiling on shelves is a real thing. In the small town my father lives in (Missouri), it's common to see fruits with mold on it when you're shopping. You really are in a mine field in the produce section!
I've always found it crazy when watching American tiktoks or yt content about food and diets, sensationalising the fact they had yoghurt for breakfast or rice and veg for dinner (as if that's super unusual) but after watching this I get that that's somehow not normal?! and that's why there's so much content just promoting baseline healthy meals, eyes opened jheez
Yuuuuuuppppppppp
We prioritize shelf stable food because it doesn't spoil. I love making fermented foods, I'll leave ketchup, hot sauce, and soy sauce on the counter. I had a roommate who threw out my food because it wasn't refrigerated because it's dangerous while drinking soda and wine everyday.
My boyfriend works for Walmart in the fresh department, they literally insist on leaving rotting food on the shelves because it makes it look like they have more. They also claim that people will buy it regardless so what does it matter if it’s bad or not. Taking pictures and sending it to the news actually isn’t a bad idea, except that we live in a town of about 7000 and the local news is a small paper and no one reads. But worth a shot none the less.
Or post it to Walmart corporate homepage.
@@msmaria5039 corporate is the one’s telling them they have to do this sadly. It is “ Company policy to make sure the food is completely gone bad before it is removed from the shelves, so it has the greatest opportunity to be bought”
That comment about food prices is absolutely true. I lived in both Florida and the Midwest growing up and the quality of food was amazing. But due to being in poverty in both states, our access to healthy food was terrible. The unhealthy ones were the cheapest and still are, but thankfully my mom cooked until we were nearly adults so we had somewhat healthy meals at home.
5:58 It sounds like they're referencing Food Deserts, which are a serious problem across the USA. Even in NYC, where certain neighborhoods depend on bodegas. I think Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt touched on this topic
I just remembered in elementary school in the US, the dental hygienist would come into our classroom once per year and do a dental education lesson. She would give us a toothbrush and bubblegum flavored toothpaste! I also remember she would give out these red fluoride tablets and always said we needed to ask our parents before using them in case we were allergic to the red dye. Why would a school employee give us something we might be allergic to??
Anyone can be allergic to basically anything. "Why would they give us things we could be allergic to" you wouldn't have food, art supplies or soap at school if they tried to prevent every single possible allergy
I highly recommend getting a hydro garden and planting lettuce and spinach, that way you know it's fresh and clean. It takes maybe a month for the leaves to grow to a decent size. I love mine!
Especially lettuce and herbs. You can grow it in such small containers (with or without a hydro setup) that you don't really need any outdoor space if you have the windowsill to put a small container on.
I live in middle class surbubia here in US and I have definitely soon moldy/rotten produce on the shelves at places like Kroger and Walmart...so it's really not unbelievable.
In the U.S. we have a monopoly problem. Walmart moved into many of the small towns decimating family business that had been there for decades. Then, where those stores haven't made enough profit over 200 have closed, leaving nothing. In cities independent grocery stores have been bought up by a few big chains, and then in poorer neighborhoods, they are closed because they aren't profitable.
I swear moving to the states again terrifies me like I’m excited to go to college but the food terrifies me. Everytime I go back to the states to see family I feel like I gain like 15 pounds just being there and eating the horrid food there and that is probably one of my biggest fears of moving back.. the food. (And the guns..)
If you have access to a kitchen and you're not in a dirt poor small town in the middle of nowhere, you can get healthy food here. I eat healthier here than most of my friends in France and the UK do, and I do it on a tight budget. Only downside is you'll probably need to drive for a good grocery store.
I Grew up in Africa and summers we'd visit family in countryside who raised cattle and we'd have raw cow or goat milk and never had any issues. Moved to the USA in my teens and for the first time ever had allergies to MILK, the red meat made me get bad constipation, i thought i caught something. My friend who had lived here a while told me that everything here has additives. So I am now lactose intolerant to AMerican milk. NOTE: When i go back to Africa on vacations i am able to drink raw milk without getting the Indigestion and diarrhea.
@Evan 6:05 They have filmed it. They have don't documentaries about it. The average American does not care. "Those poor people should just move." "They should get better jobs." It really happening and people don't care. Government doesn't care. Those are poor, mostly brown, people. They don't give a crap. It's institutionalized racism and zoning laws. I have a degree in Sociology by the way. The first thing my professor said was, "Meritocracy is a lie." And that's true. 8:04 I'm allergic to pink dye. (red 40) found that out taking bubblegum flavored amoxicillin as a baby. We thought I was allergic to the med. Nope. just the dye.
RUclips recommendations actually doing their job today, and it's already a better daaaaay. Love the sweater!
To chime in about the rural stores having rotting produce, I can actually confirm from our side on the west coast. Lived all over here, and many are rotting or have fruit flies endlessly buzzing about. You can find most berries improperly stores too so they are often mushy/molding by the next day when you buy them, even picking out the good few to eat. It's almost $12 for strawberries where I live, and $5.40 for an apple.
Adding to thrle discission: It's difficult to eat healthy in the US. Honestly easier to just skip meals (eating one a day) when trying to eat a normal amount of calories to keep from blowing up in weight. The calories are allowed to be so wildly incorrect, it's hard to know how much is actually in the packages of food you buy. It's hard to know if you're eating enough or over eating daily.
Genuine question, if the berries go bad after one day, it makes sense that nobody would really buy them? So how/why does the store keep selling them? As presumably they’d just have to throw them out daily?
When the houses and gardens are so much bigger in USA why don't people grow their own produce?
I live in northern europe, and food spoilage is VERY common, but only on imported fruit.
Strawberries out of season, blueberries, grapes, melons, ginger, onions, peppers, apples, pears, oranges, mangoes, kiwis... There's always at least 1 moldy one in the crate/pack.
You have to dump the berries out on the table and take out the moldy ones before putting the good ones in the fridge, or make sure not to pick a moldy bell pepper from the crate at the store.
I thought it was like that everywhere. Like, they have to ship the fruit from other countries and the might have been picked weeks ago, even months ago for some fruit, so I assumed it was just a normal thing
You wouldn't have to live in Germany? I have only ever had that problem in Germany.
With the exception of strawberries, but I would saw especially local strawberries do that everywhere, but real strawberries are a seasonal fruit with a lifespan of 8-12 hours after picking where they have to be consumed or they will rot, no other common fruit is like that, and imported mutant strawberries aren't either, they are much hardier and as a result smells and taste of nothing.
I live in northern europe (almost lapland north), and the problem here is imported fruit that hasn't been ripened. Then you have to leave the fruit for a few days before eating.
I’m pretty sure it is. Berries spoil quickly.
I think that's a big indicator of why so much produce spoils in the US. We grow most of our produce in a small section of the country, and it has to be trucked thousands of miles and sit in storage for god knows how long until it gets put on a shelf. Locally grown produce won't spoil as quickly. I've had cherry tomatoes that I harvest from my backyard that I was able to keep for a month without any spoilage whatsoever. We were eating fresh tomatoes in December from my last October harvest. If I buy cherry tomatoes at the store? They start shriveling in a week.
I can confirm the food spoilage issue. Even in NYC Metro, we can have issues with produce and meat spoiling on the shelves (which is why farmers markets and local butchers have become much more prominent in my area).
But when I lived in rural New York, I would never buy produce or fresh meat as it would be spoiled before it even left the store. It was so normalized that no one ever gave it a second thought.
I have a strong feeling with the heightened awareness of mast cell disorders (especially MCAS that is estimated that 18% of the US population has this condition to some severity) that the whole food additives issue, lack of supplement regulation, and ingredient labeling on everything is going to have to be readdressed by the FDA.
Mast cell disorders??? 👀
Mast cell is an immune disorder that causes your immune system to over react in the most simple terms. The mast cell which is an important part of your immune system and is found literally everywhere in your body freaks out and starts dumping histamine into your bloodstream in large amounts which triggers an allergic reaction that can be to absolutely anything even a change in air temperature. Not just a medication you’ve taken or something you’ve eaten or drank. It can be difficult to manage because of this. There’s more than one form of mast cell dysfunction so it’s important when it’s suspected to find an immunologist/allergist that’s familiar with it to figure out which type it is in order to find the right treatment plan to manage it.
@@kidanoroga Interesting! I will read up on this. An allergic reaction with no obvious cause. Most days, at some point during the day, I'll sneeze, and again and again, eight to ten times in a row. Then my nose is full of gunk so I blow my nose. A few minutes later, I'm back to normal. Winter and summer, afternoon, maybe evening. About changes in temperature - I often have a minor nosebleed, brief, resolves by itself pretty much, not daily but every few days. Always seems to be related to changes in weather, from warm to cold to warm, from dry cold to wet cold, any changes in temperature or humidity when it's been one way for several days then shifts to something else. Could just be me not having accurate data, seeing coincidences, since weather is always changing. I've always tried eating clean, making occasional exceptions, but now making an effort to be cleaner with fewer exceptions. No artificial anything any more!
That's the thing. When you stamp out the competition you can afford to have food rotting on the shelves because there is nowhere else to go.
I grew up in Nampa, Idaho(a medium sized town) and Walmart was where my family shopped. It was a regular occurrence to see rotten fruit and vegetables, so IF you had the money to buy fresh you had to be very discerning.
From the area myself and I can second this. Even worse in the smaller towns.
2:08 Except no other government pays more than the USA for healthcare. Not even just the people, the government, too. Because under US laws, emergency healthcare must be provided and the US government usually pays the bill. So if someone develops serious health complications that require emergency medicine, including emergency surgeries, the US government pays. It would be cheaper for the US government and people (in terms of taxes) in the long run to have a nationalised healthcare system that makes it cheap or free for people to go to a GP, for example, and get their issues checked out before it becomes serious.
Oh, you'd be surprised on the rotten produced thing. My mom got a bag of Cuties and not even a week later they looked like they had been sitting there for months, same thing happened with other food at different times. It's always super weird but sometimes produce looks fine on the outside but it's not on the inside. And this is from a nice town 2 hours from a big city.
Similar things happen where I live, which is 30 minutes away from a large city. Buying fresh produce sometimes results in finding some pretty nasty expired food (usually fruit).
I live in a Utah suburb, and I always check my oranges and other soft produce for mold, because that does happen. I imagine if a rural store is poorly managed and/or gets produce speed infrequently, it could go rotten on the shelves, and they don't throw it away because empty shelves look really bad to customers.
Grew up I'm Escalante the fruit was always moldy.
I live in one of the largest suburban areas in Virginia, surrounded by neighborhoods. Last week at the grocery store I generally shop in, I looked at the blueberries and gave up after three or four packages in a row had a couple moldy berries at the bottom. I always figured that's just one of the downsides to shopping for off-season fruit or something, but maybe not?
3:06 good news, full fat milk is actually healthier than skimmed or semi skimmed. The fat contains more fat soluable vitamins, which the skimmed varieties have less of.
Thank you!
The rotting food on shelves is 100% true. My local Walmart, it's generally advised to not buy produce from them because it's it's common place to find thick mold on the product. If there's no mold it'll rot in in 3 days time. I'm not even in a small town, I live in a city. The only exceptions I've seen is bananas, broccoli, carrots and sometimes apples, those are a hit or miss.
Eta I have decided to not buy anything other than pet items from Walmart because the eggs I bought are rotten too. 🙃
I live in northern Quebec in Canada. I often see rotting food on the shelves since we live so remotely that the shipping takes a long time or the food gets stuck somewhere along the way.
for the spoiling food, apparently in some US stores they spray the produce with water to give it that freshly picked washed look. which naturally makes them rot even faster which must definetely make it worse. plus as someone from the UK, i will say that I have found produce going moldy in our stores, mostly the types of food that dont have a long shelf life to begin with. i always thought part of the problem is that chain stores tend to overstock, buy more than they know they can sell as if its the last one there people are less likely to buy it as they think theres something wrong with it to be left there. this means the food cant get sold as there isnt a big enough demand for it and it goes off
Can confirm the spraying thing, in many grocery stores in my area the fresh produce on the wall shelves gets misted for like ten or twenty seconds from time to time by an automatic system. I've seen it happen.
Vegetables with high water content like lettuce and celery really do need higher humidity to stay fresh, otherwise they wilt. If they're spraying things like potatoes, that's a problem.
@@parallelpinkparakeet huh I did not know that thanks for letting me know ^.^
Working a small town grocery store in the Midwest USA. The produce section was always disgusting. We had fly tape everywhere hidden to try to catch all the flies that weee literally eating all the rotten food. This was half because the produce was overstacked and never emptied and half because no one ever bought any to cycle out the food. It also rarely got emptied and cleaned as it would look gross to the shoppers, but if you looked close enough, you could definitely see the underlying rotted food. Place closed down as it couldnt compete with the super Walmart in town.
I don't live rurally, and it is quite common to find spoiled produce in the supermarkets honestly.
Food deserts are very definitely a thing in the US. It's very hard to even find a grocery store not owned by a huge corporation. If you do, those stores seem to get produce that's not quite as fresh as the others.
So happy your channel is doing better!
Bread being the bottom of the food pyramid with the most recommended servings messed whole generations up
So i was talking to a guy from New York once and asked him what the biggest surprise about our area was, He said it was how long the milk lasted. Said in New York it often turned before the date whereas in our area it could last over a week past date. Lot of dairy in my area so that one comment really checks out to me. Depends on how difficult it is to ship.
It’s actually quite interesting. My local stop and shops and other grocery stores that aren’t considered “expensive health food stores” have produce that is absolutely terrifying. Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s in the next city over (a city with more wealthy population) is loaded with fruits and vegetables that look appetizing. These grocery stores are inaccessible to most people in my city. However, the stop and shop closest to me (the only full grocery store in my city) has produce of bruised apples, and squishy, wilting vegetables with barely anything in stock. Cheaper, more accessible produce like potatoes and onions are plentiful and in tact. But I can’t get a package of strawberries without half the package being squishy and beginning to mold. You would be surprised how common of an issue this is. And I am not from an area that was or ever considered to be a food desert. I live right outside of a fairly large city and it is still ridiculous the amount of low income areas and stores that do not get supplied with safe and fresh foods, even for large companies with reputations to upkeep like target and stop and shop. Please try not to doubt people detailing their real experiences. Thank you for such an informative and interesting video that touches on very important topics. I always love to hear what you have to say!
I remember some Americans being shocked that there is a maximum allowed temperature for the hot water supply in U.K. houses as they saw it as unnecessary government interference. What they forgot is that if hot water is so hot it scalds people, that costs the NHS a lot of money.
Oooh. I wish there was a top temp for water here since in my apartment I’ll randomly be burned when my neighbors decide to shower as well and I suddenly get all the hot water for a few seconds. I got a burn so bad I thought I’d have to go to the hospital once. I wouldn’t have had to pay anything so I’m still not sure why I didn’t just go.
I have the issue of the only stores having rotten produce. There are some fresh options but they are only at expensive places like Whole Foods. So my solution is only buying frozen fruits and veggies
I like the point about the problem of choice. Choice is a buzzword corporations use to justify things that harm consumers, knowing full well that it's not fully a choice: 95% of people will stick with the default option even when given a choice, and too much choice creates an economy where a consumer cannot possibly keep up with the torrent of research that is needed to know which products pose an unnecessary risk.
It's like you have 5 choices of olive oil but two of them will secretly poison you, and you need to go research every ingredient to know which. And now expand that to apply to every product you buy.
OMG! Gut health! My US daughter did her undergrad and grad school in the UK and every time I visited, my gut was always SOOOO happy! I’m gluten and dairy intolerant, not only was I easily accommodated, but I didn’t get sick to my stomach ONCE in the 5 times I visited!!!! Here at home it’s a different story!
Rotten food on US grocery shelves is a real issue in rural, suburb and urban markets. The worst culprits are onions, potatoes, whole head lettuce (and some processed bag salad), and tomatoes. The onions and potatoes will have mold, the lettuce will turn slimy in less than a day or have layers of rotted leaves on the inside and the tomatoes will look picture perfect but are actually picked green and gassed to turn red but rot very quickly from the inside out. I too buy my produce either frozen or the day of use. US produce is more about looking good than being nutritional or edible.
I'm very much not in a food desert and we still have spoiled produce on the shelves where I am. They're better at clearing out some things, like cucumbers, but potatoes, tomatoes, and onions are a crapshoot.
I didn't even know how different the quality could be for a long time. The one that hit home was when I picked up some oyster mushrooms near thanskgiving that were the freshest, most perfect mushrooms I'd ever seen. They cooked up like a dream. It really highlighted how not-fresh the produce is most of the time.
On the red dyes, back in the very early 80s I remember getting very violent headaches shortly after drinking red Kool-Aids. I had to be about 6 or 7 years old, and saw the connection between my headaches and the red Kool-Aids.
I then made a conscious decision to stop drinking them and ask my parents to get something different.
It wouldn’t be until I was in my early twenties, I read in a news article that many of the red food dyes back then were responsible for many bad reactions including cancer.
My store (in a small, non-farming town USA) doesn’t stock too many healthy options that are affordable. SAME as the one person who cannot purchase good quality produce, my stores stock crap produce that is sometimes spoiled on the shelf. I have a friend in prison and they talk about the lack of fresh produce and options and I was like… same bro. Same. 😅 to get fresh produce for a reasonable price I would have to go to a store almost 2 hours away.
I think the big difference between Europe and America over food is, it's not that our food is necessarily healthier - we still absolutely have the unhealthy decadent options. But it's a lot harder to get away with pretending that unhealthy food isn't unhealthy here.
Still, we can be very imaginative with our unhealthy food. I think what's always struck me with American food is that it seems to just be the same 4-5 things that people enjoyed as kids, smooshed together in different combinations.
This comment needs to be higher. Generally speaking (not accounting for food deserts and individual economic situation), Americans have access to some pretty dang healthy foods. And Europeans have access to some total garbage foods too. But the difference is education and perception on which ones are healthy.
@@kathrynbryant5732 - I think *some* of it is down to education, but I think some of it is also down to us just accepting as a result of centuries of Catholicism that anything fun is either a crime, a sin, or in some way killing us. So we've learned to do those things when we can get away with it, rather than all the time.
I’m about to visit America for the first time this summer, and I can’t wait to see how much their grocery stores and diets differ to the ones we have in Denmark 🇩🇰
The first thing you'll notice is how sweet everything is, sometimes too sickly sweet to swallow :(
Thanks to this video, I learned the meaning of "TMI". Non English native speaker here.
Where I live in Utah, we have a lot of stores where I’ve not been able to but any of the berries because all the containers were moldy.
Fun fact: Food additive E175 is actual gold. Since it can be legitimately added to food and drink it has an E number.
Regarding E-numbers (I'm Norwegian)... First only the names were used... and then people became too cautious of such... and so we switched to E-numbers...after a while people became skeptical of that too (like ¨'if there's more than three E numbers find something else' type skeptical)... and now we use a mix of the two. ... And I can't really see that changing anytime soon.
The biggest culture shock in USA for me was definately the big gulp. 12 years later I still can not wrap my head around it. Isn't it terribly impractical to carry around? Why spend money on it if you have endless refills? How can there be any fizz left in it by the end? How can a person drink that much soda on one go? So many questions.
The idea of "food deserts" United States is somewhat overblown and it's a much more complicated topic than most people realize. In most of the areas they legitimately do exist, they exist because no business really wants to get Indus only fresh produce in those areas, because most of the residents don't want to buy that product for the amount of money it will cost to ship into those areas and maintain stock, and because (and this is a big reason) there are so many cases of theft in those areas it will not be worth the money to bring a bunch of produce and sell it on the large-scale that companies like Wal-Mart used, because not only will very few people actually purchase it, but a lot more people will just steal it right off the tray. This is a major concern for most businesses.
I have a poor sense of smell and have to bring my sister when shopping for produce so she can sniff-test it in the store; otherwise, the items I bring home are visibly moldy/spoiled at home the next day. This is separate from when we search for fruits - you must look very carefully to avoid the visible mold hidden in the middle of, or under the label of, the plastic package of berries or clementines. You may find it hard to believe, but this is our weekly reality
Does your area get frozen produce shipped in? Even in an area with decent produce, the frozen berries taste so much freshener. I know not everything holds up to freezing, but for the products that do its wonderful.
Yes, I have resorted to buying frozen berries instead. They're frequently cheaper, too
Evan If your sarcasm game is so strong that Americans can no longer recognise it, It's time to give up that American citizenship, You are now truly British! 😆
This.
Also applies to Germans living in the UK. We get infected with this thing called humour. It cracks our set-in-stone faces. 😋😂
Evan should do a video on Sarcasm.
@@RustyDust101 I was always under the impression that the Germans had a great sense of humour! It is my understanding that Germany was at one time the biggest importers of old British sitcoms such as "'Allo 'Allo", "Dad's Army", "Faulty Towers" etc.
Evidently you do not watch all of Evans video as he announced he took and passed his British Citizenship test and turned in his American passport to the US Government.
@@marydavis5234 And you clearly haven't been paying attention to what Evan has said in his videos because he has stated on a number of occasions that he has duel nationality as he has yet to renounce his American citizenship.
NYC here, absolutely you can find rotting apples etc on the shelves of many supermarkets. Just look for the "organic" section.
i seriously had never thought of that. the idea that other governments may have some sort of incentive to encourage the health of their citizens. its so strange that governments not giving a sh*t about their people is so normalized here.
My only experience of American food was in the disney bubble in Orlando. I found the idea that the veg portion of a meal was a side to be paid for separately strange
I think another often over-looked issue, is how many just don't know how to cook even basic meals. This leads many to just get food delivered or even when they are at the store they are buying pre-made sauces or instant meals that are incredibly unhealthy.
If you think processed food is cheaper than home cooking, read the label. Then you will realize why its so cheap.
Yes to food spoiling on the shelves. We are in Puerto Rico. We were at the supermarket the other day, witnessed the employees trying to convince the supplier to stop stocking the shelves with the produce he was delivering since it was clearly rotting. Because of the Jones Act, all our stuff has to come from the US, even things that are grown closer like in South America.
My small town grocery store often had expired food now we do not have one.
This video is very funny and entertaining, but awfully sad as well. Thank you for the video!
I noticed, when I was on holiday in the US how salty all the fast food was. I was super stoked to go to in&out while in Cali expecting to be blown away and I just could not finish the double double. 😟
Sometimes too much freedom leads to the exact opposite of freedom.
I used to reprimand my friends when they started smoking.
And their answers were also "I am not addicted" or "Its my freedom".
Sure.... until this very freedom becomes your chains....
I maintain a garden to supplement my food budget. people really need to stop relying on other people for their food. go to farms and buy in bulks. pool money to support a co-op. grow your own food. harvest fruits and nuts from your neighborhood trees.
Red velvet cake was once colored with beets, I think people thought "weird cooking a cake with beets" so they started doing red dye (mostly 40, there may be another one now). I've heard it uses up to 2 tablespoons of red dye. Crazy. I imagine some food-like substances have even more red dye.
It absolutely blows my mind that over processed convenience products are cheaper than veggies and store cupboard ingredients. When I started living on my own, I mostly bought potatoes, flour, pasta, oats, Veggies and fruits because it was so much cheaper than the fast food meals. It depends on what you're cooking but one fast food meal equals about 3 home cooked meals here in Austria. But I have to say, it is a whole lot cheaper to live as a vegetarian. Meat is fricking expensive
Rotten produce being sold is a thing. You've been out of the US to long.
This is the biggest issue Evan, not trying to put him down just an opinion, has in regards on the recent content is that he's been out of the US long enough that what's normal now a days in to the US isn't as it use to be when he lived in the States. There is also a huge disregard for the fact that the US, being as large as it, is actually has regionally specific things like average income numbers, easy access to things, and local government bodies that will and has influenced people in specific areas of the US. Painting the broad strokes as he has been lately stating them as supreme fact is a bit disingenuous to those that don't live in the US regarding the weird regional things that come with living in such a big country.
Good points.
It is always fun and entertaining to watch your videos.
Interestingly enough, my wife and I are carnivore and don't eat anything pre-made or with ingredients. I do all of the cooking, my mother and grandfather were chefs, and I used to run restaurants. She still consumes spices but I only do salt. I dropped over 180 lbs and she dropped over 150. Eating real food reversed my pre-diabetes, fixed my BP and liver enzymes etc.
I'm not claiming everyone should eliminate plants, but everyone would do better without the processed food and chemicals.
After eliminating all of the chemicals and such, I even was able to stop my ADHD meds that I'd been on for around 20 years too.
wow
Good to you but please next time you're talking about processed food mention the UPF(UltraProcessedFood) that bad for you and I,and usualy mean food wrapped in plastic with all the E-numbers
Processed food it actually good(the meat you're eating most likely is a processed food,a food that go through a process).
@@alinbejinaru1755 almost all the meat I eat is from whole cuts such as chuck roast or lamb etc. with a very occasional ground beef.
8-)
It doesn't matter as long as you cook,season,etc is still a processed food(a food that goes through a process of cutting,boiling,etc)which by the way is healthy if you are not putting any weird substance's😢😊😊
@@alinbejinaru1755 Yeah, I get that I do cook and then salt it. I haven't used any spices myself for 3 years even but I cook the outside of the meat to kill any pathogens but leave it blue rare since I use whole cuts.
I used to work in pickup at Meijer (local grocery store, kinda like Walmart but more expensive). The amount of healthy food we would get straight off the truck that was molded was ridiculous. It would get put out on the shelves too, because that’s all there was.
Every single day I had to pick through it to find strawberries without mold, grapes that weren’t borderline melting, melons that weren’t rotting, etc…
It’s extremely common. Especially during the off seasons.
I wanted to clarify something - actually the American government does have an interest in the health of Americans - but in a negative way. Unhealthy people in America end up expending a lot of their resources on healthcare. If they have any sort of retirement funds it is very likely a lot of those funds will get syphoned off to pay for healthcare expenses not covered by Medicare as they age. The money being used to pay healthcare costs goes back into circulation in the economy. In addition, people dying earlier means they won't use up as much of the social security benefits and Medicare benefits that the government wants to call "entitlements". Death is also a profitable business, which adds to the GDP. Old people sitting at home aging aren't particularly beneficial to the economy. So, you could say that the broken nature of the U.S. healthcare system is a feature not a bug. Those in congress are rich enough of course to be able to purchase additional healthcare coverage so they don't really have to worry about the poor state of our healthcare system - they will always get the best care.
5:42 Produce spoils in the less "fancy" grocery stores spoils on display all the time. Totally believable.
I think coloring should be banned globally. There's no reason to add color to things other than to make them "look appealing". If it tastes good and is healthy, no one cares what it looks like. I was raised "If it tastes good and doesn't kill you, don't ask questions, shut up and eat". They were talking more about questionable ingredients, but the principle is solid
Artificial colors are not inherently bad, yes some people have reaction to them but you're going to deal with allergies, regardless should we ban peanut butter bc a lot of people are allergic? Did you know that when you're least exposed to peanuts as child your more like to develop allergie to peanuts.
Blue dye in food has been found help heal spinal injuries in rats. However don't understand why red 3 is still used.
Evan, I had almost the same type of experience with FD&C Red #40 -- though I was an adult. I drank a bottle of Sunny Delight Tropical Style "Juice Drink," then had what looked like a sunburn all over. The ONLY way my doctor figured it out was the fact that I was NOT allergic to Mountain Dew -- that soda had Yellow #5 AND #6, which also causes reactions.
Interesting comparison with Australia. We waste thousands of tons of fresh food every year if it doesn't look perfect. You can buy "Odd Bunch" food in one of the major supermarkets which isn't the perfect shape/size/colour. On the other hand, it is difficult to get fresh produce to very remote communities for example, in the desert. And that can be extremely expensive. The floods recently have had an impact on particular items, so lettuce got ridiculously expensive (KFC was using cabbage on burgers), and there is now a shortage of the right potatoes for fries, so there are limits on how big a serve of chips we can get.
6:00 ish, about food spoilage on the shelves....I live about halfway between two major New England cities, and the produce absolutely rots on the shelves. We don't even bother with berries
I laughed far too much at 'giving me a nice rim on my side' and I can only apologise
I should apologise to him as well for that.
I work at Walmart and found bread that had a Best Before date of December 7th. I found this bread in mid April, with no mold, and when I opened it, the smell was completely normal.