How to choose the best groceries in the supermarket: tricks from professional shoppers

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

What good meat smells like and why look fish in the eyes - let's talk with Instamart grocery delivery service.

You probably already know that you should not buy expired products, rotten fruits and meat in damaged packaging. We will tell you about non-obvious life hacks that will help you choose the best from just good products.

Vegetables

Smooth, beautiful cucumbers and smooth, shiny tomatoes are not always good.

Vegetables grow imperfect due to temperature fluctuations during the day and night. If the cucumbers are crooked, chances are that they were grown in your area, and not somewhere in Turkey, where it is always hot. This means that they were torn from the garden at the peak of maturity and were not taken unripe for several days.

Color is also important. Which cucumber tastes better?

Whichever cucumbers you prefer, the main thing is not to take soft ones or in packaging where condensation has collected.

Smell is the most important thing in tomatoes. If no characteristic aroma emanates from a beautiful tomato or twig, it will not be juicy and tasty. The tomato should feel soft but firm to the touch. The tomato stalk should not have yellowness.

Choosing an avocado is more difficult. It is clear that it should not be as hard as stone. But there is another secret: to look at the color under the stalk. Which of these avocados will you put in your basket?

When buying mushrooms, make sure that they do not crumble or break. The younger the mushroom, the closer the plates under the cap are to each other. In older specimens, the plates are widely spaced.

The champignon hat must be closed. A fresh mushroom will not show spores, and if they are still noticeable, make sure that they are not gray. The mushroom itself is light in color, without black blotches. Do not buy mushrooms with a damaged or dark film between the stem and the cap.

Frozen products should be poured in a bag, and not lie in one lump. Sticky ice indicates that the contents of the package have been frozen and thawed several times.

Instasmart tip

Remember to take chilled and frozen food at the very end of shopping so that they do not heat up while you walk around the sales area.

Fruits

As with vegetables, smell is very important here. For example, a ripe and juicy pineapple will always have a sweet flavor. If you pick up a hint of something fermented, it is better not to take the fruit: it is overripe. Juicy pineapple feels heavy in weight. It can “squeeze” slightly when pressed, but should recover immediately.

Its sultan will also tell about the maturity of this fruit - this is the name of the leafy crown of a pineapple. In ripe specimens, it sways a little. But there are other tricks as well. Which of these pineapples would you like to buy?

Apricots, peaches and plums should not warp when pressed. And their surfaces are supposed to be absolutely dry. When choosing grapefruits, go for the heaviest ones: they are the juiciest ones.

If you buy packaged fruits, for example a container of apples, take goods from the depths of the shelves - they put the freshest there.

There must be no condensation inside the package. It appears during sudden changes in temperature during transportation and storage. After opening, such a product deteriorates very quickly.

Instasmart tip

You probably know that when choosing a watermelon, it is customary to knock on it with a businesslike air. This is a really useful ritual: ripe melons, when tapped, make a booming sound. Choose the heaviest fruits with a dried stalk - they are the juiciest. Make sure that there are no defects or deformations on the skin of the watermelon.

Color also plays a role. Which of these watermelons do you think will be more ripe?

Meat and fish

Look first at the color of the meat: beef should be evenly red, pork should be pale pink, and chicken should be pinkish white. Poultry may be yellow.

The meat should not have a gray tint, windy edges or strange bloom. Good farm meat can smell like grass and hay. Or smell nothing. But it should not have a pungent odor, especially with admixtures of ammonia.

This also applies to minced meat: it is supposed to smell like meat, not spices or onions. If the product is packaged and you cannot hear the smell, look at the color. The bright red minced meat is made from real meat, not a mixture of skin and cartilage.

When choosing a fish, pay attention to the gills. In fresh fish, they are red. If it lies for a long time, the gills darken. And after freezing, they turn gray - you will immediately notice if they try to sell you thawed fish at the price of fresh.

Another criterion for freshness is the pupils. Look these fish in the eye and tell me: which one has a chance to be on your plate?

The color of the salted red fish should be uniform, and the bones and veins should be thin and light.

Instamart tip

Dairy products and eggs

Always (generally always) check the date on the packaging of any dairy product. If you want to eat the freshest and most natural - see also the date of production: the fewer days the product is stored, the less preservatives it contains.

Feel free to open your container of eggs before buying - you should make sure you don't buy broken ones.

Fresh eggs have a matte shell. If you can, take the category "Superior" or C0. It shows that the eggs are large and that the chickens that laid them were kept in good conditions.

Instamart tip

Curd should not leak or be damaged on the package. Read labels for cheese and butter. When manufacturers replace ingredients with cheaper ones, cheese becomes a “cheese product” and butter becomes a “butter spread”. Stay away from those.

There are a lot of rules. Is there an easier way to always choose the best foods?

Even when you know how to buy the sweetest pineapple and the tastiest avocado, it takes time. If you don't want to, Instamart service specialists will go to the store instead of you.

Instamart is a grocery delivery service from supermarkets. You can order your favorite products from METRO, VkusVilla, Auchan and Lenta, and Instamart employees will carefully select them according to all the rules and bring them to your home.

Pickers go to the store right before delivery to ensure that the products arrive at your place as fresh as possible. They check expiration dates, grab yoghurts from distant shelves, take frozen fish last, and choose all items even more pickily than you would.

There is no mark-up on products - you only pay for shipping. The first delivery will be free.