Fruits and vegetables are rich in nutrients and vitamins. They’re healthy and make part of the human diet. Therefore, they often make part of healthy meals and diets.

For this reason, choosing the right fruits and veggies is important. It ensures you get optimal nutrient content.

Adopt savvy storage and shopping strategies to help you save money, avoid bacteria-infected fruits and veggies, and choose food with a longer lifespan.

Whether you want to buy watermelon or broccoli, you’ll find these tips handy when shopping for your groceries. Here’re the things to consider before buying fruits and vegetables:

Top 3 Factors to Consider When Shopping for Fruits and Veggies

1. Squeeze lightly

Ripe fruits feel soft under pressure. When buying bananas, pears, and avocados, lightly squeeze them to determine if they’re ripe. You can still buy hard ones to continue ripening or softening.

But…

Some fruits such as apples are naturally hard under pressure, meaning soft ones could already be spoiling.

2. Buy in-season fruits and veggies

Fruits and vegetables grow at different points of the year depending on type and variety. Foods sold out of season tend to be expensive.

The increased expense of shipping the fruits and vegetables is passed down to you, the buyer.

Buy in-season fruits and vegetables to enjoy low prices and better quality produce.

3. Consider chilled or canned food options

Buy frozen fruits and vegetables if you’re looking for pre-cut produce. This ensures that they don’t go bad faster.

Alternatively, opt for canned foods. Despite their high sodium content, canned fruits and vegetables are highly nutritional just like their fresh and frozen counterparts.

Canned foods come in handy if you can’t find fresh produce.

Other factors

• Rinse all your fruits and vegetables before consumption to eliminate all forms of harmful microorganisms. It also rids your fruits and vegetables of stubborn pesticides and chemicals.
• Keep your fruits and veggies separate from your raw poultry, meat, and seafood.
• Select colorful and vibrant fruits and veggies.
• Opt for small fruits and vegetables with better taste.
• Smell your fruits and veggies for sweet fragrance indicating ripeness.
• Buy unbruised produce that’s nutritious, tasty, and good-looking.
• Compare prices to get high-quality produce and value for your money

Use these tips the next time you go grocery shopping to save on money and nutrients. It also ensures you get tasty fruits and vegetables.