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I don't know if it's just ME or if I'm too picky about food, but it seems as if the quality of food - ALL food - has gone down since the pandemic. Thank goodness the farmers around me have had good crops of tomatoes, squash, green beans and potatoes! The grocery store produce just SUCKS. I got SO tired of returning potatoes because they felt like they were made of rubber and after peeling them for black spots, not much left to cook. Onions appear very hard and hard to peel and dice. In addition, shelf products such as pasta, rice and flour taste OLD to me, as if it's been in storage too long. Being in the south, all the food I've mentioned are pure stables down this way and are what I use all the time. The potatoes seem like they are a couple of years old and maybe stayed somewhere in storage before being brought to the stores. And possibly has some frost bite causing all the black spots. I eat a lot of pasta so I know when it's old. The farmer's markets are starting to shut down due to the heat and I will definitely miss the fresh veggies.

Or maybe it's just ME since I've had trouble with my appetite since I had surgery in June 2020.

I only shop for produce a few places, and no I have not noted quality lacking, but when push comes to shove and I have to pick something up at the place I basically refuse to shop at because their produce has been garbage for years, it still is. I go there because it is convenient.

That said have not noticed it about the premade/dry goods either, but again, I check exp dates on everything before they go into the cart.

Did you have Covid recently since things taste old just has me thinking about it. I had it in Jan and from like March 1st-fMay 1st I was constantly smelling cigarette smoke, unless I consciously stopped to think about what I was smelling, then it would go away. It was horribly annoying. I see patients with all kinds of taste and smell issues post covid daily.

Hey Jeanie:

I'm so glad you brought up this topic, because I've been saying things to my friends about this very thing the past year or so. Restaurants/carry-out food hasn't tasted good to me in a long while. Only one or two small, family-owned particular cuisine places have tasted the same as they did 3 years ago. I asked them about it and they said their suppliers have always been smaller size vendors which makes a big difference.

I've had horrible luck with produce. Things going bad very quickly. Pieces of meat that have smelled or tasted off - and one chuck roast that looked fine was nearly rancid. (Which was quite expensive on top of it - Remember when that was a "cheap" cut?)

I wonder if the way things have been produced has changed in major ways.

I thought for a while that it was the situational blahs of covid years that had my enjoyment of food in the dumps, but I'm starting to think that's not the case. Very rarely (unless it's the farmer's market veggies) have meals knocked it out of the park with my taste buds. And I have not have Covid (that I'm aware of).

Things just flat-out don't taste as good. Don't know why exactly, but it's consistent...much disappointment here as well.

Tush, as far as I know I have not had Covid and I got tested numerous times.

Chilli, thanks for the input. I'm not much of a meat person but I do like a good roast, steak or hamburger occasionally. I'm mainly a veggie, pasta and salad person. Since it's just me, I don't overbuy because things go bad too quickly. I've never been a fast-food person either. Recently on our neighborhood blog site, people were posting pictures of burgers, hot dogs and grilled cheese sandwiches with green MOLD on the bread. Do those cooking in fast food places not SEE that?? I do always check expiration dates on foods. About the only thing that still tastes the same to me is ice cream. What amazes me is the PRICE for wilted lettuce, limp asparagus spears and soft squash in the produce section. I just do not think we have a shortage of fresh vegetables but maybe there are not enough people to pick 'fresh' and keep good produce moving rapidly. The small farmers around me with their road-side produce stands were SO welcome but that's drying up. I've bought and frozen some things like sweet corn and squash that will hopefully be good this coming winter. Hopefully next spring I can plant a small veggie garden for myself. I just wasn't up to doing that this year.

I live in a place that's very agricultural, so I haven't noticed a lot of change in produce. The Kroger here is probably the best for produce, so I'll head there if I'm not at a farm stand. What I have noticed is that sometimes the veggies will go bad sooner, and I think part of it can be worker shortages. They are short-staffed, and aren't checking the produce to get the soft ones out. I go to a different store for meat, because XWH is a meatcutter and I am a little picky when it comes to choosing meat. (Yes, I remember when chuck was a "cheap" cut. No more!)

For food tasting different, I have been eating more quinoa and beans and staying away from pasta and haven't noticed a change.

When I go out to eat, I try to stay with local restaurants to support local businesses. Their food has been fabulous. I did make a run for the border to a national taco chain, and the food tasted differently than it did probably 6 months ago. Strange, because it was refried beans, which can last forever. It tasted more like they changed the recipe rather than the beans being old.

When I buy meat, it has to be top quality or I won't eat it. Like 90/10 ground round for burgers and top quality sirloin steak. With roasts I buy a larger Pike's Peak roast and cut it into two roasts (they don't sell small!) so that works. The only food that tastes nearly the same are the local Tex-Mex places but they use local veggies. I do go there occasionally to eat. The surgeon told me it's not unusual for taste buds to be out of kilter after major surgery but that should improve. I'm still waiting on it to improve.

A friend's son who works at a larger grocery store chain told her they have been warned there will be a huge shortage of potatoes and SUGAR coming up. I don't use a lot of sugar (southerner's gotta' have our sweet tea) so I will stock up on sugar this week. A trick my daughter taught me is to use good quality potato chips for mashed potatoes and it works great. Boiling water, butter and salt -- and dump in the potato chips and then mash it all up. It's really good and great for a one-person meal. Add cheese and you have good potatoes au gratin.

I feel fortunate that we have a state dairy store that supplies good milk and dairy products and great ice cream. I've been eating malts, sundaes - to try to put some weight back on. I also make home-made banana splits with three flavors of ice cream, three different toppings, nuts and whipped cream. De-Licious!

I've had to change where I buy the small amount of meat that I do buy -- because I was told by an employee of that store that food coloring is being added to ground round. Ugh.

For some reason, the vivid descriptions of poor food quality triggered my memory of the first cafeteria scene in the book 1984.

The Victory Gin is perpetually described as "oily." The cafeteria stew is pinkish-grey and is described like this: "a filthy liquid mess that had the appearance of vomit" with "cubes of spongy pinkish stuff which was probably a preparation of meat."

Some of the post-COVID-lockdown shifts are so weird. But if someone starts serving "Victory Gin," I'm out! I like a smooth gin & tonic with a splash of fresh lime

Breaking Bad One of my all-time favorite books. Another is "The Stand" and Stephen King now has an updated unedited version out of that. Just finished it. What people had to eat after that fictional pandemic .....but we don't have it that bad YET.

Yes - definitely noticed changes in meat quality. Ground beef just does not taste good to me anymore (BF agrees). I buy the high-end if I need it for a recipe but even then, it is still sort of off.

I recently stopped by a butcher shop and got a couple things and what a difference. I definitely think I am going to switch to such a place for meat vs the chain grocery store.

We have two local farmers who have little shops that provide meat. I've seen pictures posted of the meat and it really looks good. They are making their meats available to we locals now instead of just sending all of it out to stores. It's slightly cheaper too. Both families are fourth generation people and we all know their families. The only issue is they just have small amounts available (unless one wants to buy half a cow or pig) so Saturday mornings are a RUSH of people with a line to get into their little shops. I haven't made it yet (I have a problem with lines since Covid) but everyone says the meat is delicious. Not being a big meat eater, it's hardly worth me standing in line for. But I'm glad they are doing it. I do use ground beef and buy 90/10 for meat balls, hamburgers and other recipes - but not that often.

i did have covid and lost taste/smell, and although I otherwise recovered (except that stupid lingering cough), my taste is still off.
Everything is slightly blah now… just not vibrant. And I buy from farmers market and directly from a fishmonger (I live near the coast). So is it possible you had covid but didn’t know?

Hope it gets better for you— I am not enjoying this little souvenir.

If I had Covid I certainly didn't know. With the lung cancer surgery in 2020 I rarely left home. Only twice was I exposed and both times I got tested numerous times. Prior to the cancer I had pneumonia and was in the hospital for three days. But tested then too. So I'm leaning to the idea that perhaps the surgery has something to do with my food all tasting different. The surgeon told me that happens sometimes.

So are you saying ALL food tastes less-than-expected, or just certain categories of food?

So much of our food chain has been altered during the last few years that I can easily imagine stores aren't getting the quality they used to, or they are choosing to control costs by buying lower-graded produce, which happens at the wholesale markets.

But your local farmers markets are usually good?

I sold my home-grown flowers at a local farmers' market and learned that - at least in my state- anybody can bring their "locally-produced" items to such a market; quality ranges from way-better-than-store-bought, to "down-home whatever." Funny anecdote: I once bought a package of (not inexpensive) chicken thighs from one of the other vendors at my local market. I was filled with Great Expectations. Cooked it up and it was one tough piece of chicken! Next time I saw the farmer, I told him this. He came right back with: "Yes, he was an old Buff Orpington rooster." I was floored. No commercial chicken supplier would try to sell their customers an old rooster! But it was "organic," you see...he also sold the knobbiest little potatoes I've ever seen. I figured out that not all "local" produce is necessarily superior. But their spinach was the best I've ever tasted.

(Are you possibly just bored with the whole food thing? This can happen!)

Actually the veggies from the local farmers have been excellent and taste wonderful. Especially the green beans, new potatoes, squash and corn. But because of the intense heat we've had, that supply is drying up. To me, supermarket produce all tastes OLD - like it's been in some nasty root cellar - so I have to think the quality of what they are selling is below par. My all-time favorite meal is green beans cooked slowly all day in a cast iron pot - with new potatoes added. Then some corn bread, thick sliced home-grown tomatoes, a green onion -- and a big glass of sweet tea. Now that is great food.

I guess I am pretty lucky that I 3 stores with real butcher counters in house carved and made meats, store made brats, sausages, etc. The ground chuck can be made to your liking on thickness, and level of fat.
I typically avoid buying my meat at the chain groceries in our area due to the fact that it isn't as high quality, and have no clue where it is sourced from. I know for a fact at 2 of the butcher counters I regularly visit they get their meat fresh a couple times a week.

I also have friends that have a sustainable farm, and they pasture raise pork, and brothers and sisters, you ain't never had a pork chop like the ones that come off of these free ranging(truly free ranging) oinkers that also get ground mash from a local brewery and all the left over veggies from a chain of family run vegetable stands.

(Oh Tush!!! Does your local pig farmer ship those pork chops?? Um ummmmm.)

Jeaniegirl, you are a classic Southerner! Sweet tea, aaaakkkk!

But no, it doesn't sound like your taste buds are fading. It sounds like a grocery distribution issue or some other problem.

If you have already figured out what's next, forgive me making the pitch: that you start growin' yer own....you will see how good fresh veggies can be! We started doing this just last year.

I'd never dared to grow veggies on my farm, as the land used to be an orchard for 100 years, so the soil is heavily contaminated with metallic compounds certain plants can absorb. When I learned in 2020 that tomatoes didn't uptake it, I went nuts and planted way too many, with not much else going on and all the restaurants closed. My idea was: food survival! Giving some away during the pandemic, and such.

We canned and canned tomato juice, and froze gallon bags of it. And realized we didn't have to fork out $3.00 for a big slicer tomato at the farmer's market. (I just pay it in labor.) Came 2021, decided to start a real veggie garden on land that had been wooded, so never in productive agriculture that anyone can remember. It was early fall when I got some green bean seeds from our local co-op, a short-season variety called Slenderette, 52 days to maturity. They produced a ton of lovely green beans before first frost on that heavy clay ground! We froze some of them and canned the rest. Over winter, we discovered that those green beans taste much better when canned than when fresh frozen!

Also, I suspect there is a psychological boost to our taste sensation when we have had to work the ground to get the edibles...like, "It's our's, baby!" We are prouder of it, maybe. I don't know if that's part of it but so far, everything we have picked out of this first year garden has beaten the dickens out of store bought.

Now I need to dig the first potatoes we ever grew. Hopefully they aren't all knobby like that other farmer's were. I'll eat 'em anyway!

Superesse, I have plenty of space for a great garden. I had one in the past. My soil is very black and rich and can grow anything. I've already made up my mind to have a garden next spring even if I have to hire someone to plant it and weed it. The only problem is the deer on my property like veggies too. My Grandmother used to always have a Fall garden - but that was before climate change. We now seem to go from a hell-hot summer straight into a freezing cold winter.

Jeannie most farm stores sell electric fences that can even run on solar. That keeps the deer away. My 2 neighbors that have giant gardens have them. It won't necessarily keep the bunnies out, or the snapping turtles when the melons get ripe, but it will keep the damn deer away.

I really love my Deer friends I wouldn't mind sharing veggies with them but I have at least 10-12 deer living at the back of my property by the small lake. With their spotted baby fawns. I have blackberries and mulberries so they have good food here. I rarely see bunnies but that's because we have a coyote population in this area. I'm thinking maybe a smaller garden behind my water well house with fencing. That's where I had a garden before and was lucky with it. Green beans, tomatoes and onions - and maybe watermelon - but keep it smaller.