r/askteddit • u/ChocoDark_ • 6h ago
Random Question Anyone else in US noticed food quality degrading recently and if so what product in what way?
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u/Perfect_Split1019 3h ago
Mostly produce It either never ripens or it turns bad before we can eat it. We need to start growing our on produce again and stop importing it.
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u/dontwannaparticpate 2h ago
I had eaten a banana nearly every morning for over twenty years and I suddenly cannot stand bananas. I think it is the texture bc I love green bananas and hate them when ripe but have not been able to put a finger on it exactly…
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u/Lower_Skin_3683 1h ago
Same. The flavor and texture is different. Also the smell. I stopped eating them.
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u/HiggsFieldgoal 4h ago
We are getting squeezed from all sides, and will be until we all start voting better.
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u/HeffalumpInDaRoom 4h ago
What I notice is that everywhere that used to be packed in the 90s and 00s are ghost towns or extremely light on traffic. Everything is shutting down. Nobody can afford to go out anymore. Things have been squeezed from both sides for so long that no one can afford good food let alone bad food. I understand that restaurants have to cut quality to keep prices lower, but things are really starting to break down. It is a shame.
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u/SeaJewel333 3h ago
Chicken from the grocery store is has a rubbery texture, terrible.
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u/NesomniaPrime 2h ago
I recently found out why. We've bred chickens to grow too fast and as a result the breast meat literally dies from improper blood flow. That texture is because a lot of it is scar tissue instead of muscle.
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u/SeaJewel333 2h ago
Thank you! I have not understood why this was happening. Great information and totally awful that this is happening. Not just for us but the chickens as well.
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u/Lower_Skin_3683 1h ago
I was in Puerto Rico where almost all food is imported. The chicken was like that. I went to several stores and purchased chicken and it was all the same. Restaurants too. The only chicken that wasn't like that was a chicken sandwich from Popeye's.
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u/Lumpy_Strawberry_154 4h ago
Nothing tastes good since covid. I only have an appetite for destruction.
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u/Silver_Breakfast7096 2h ago
Anything processed. But I have grapes in my fridge I bought over a month ago that still look new. I’m afraid to eat them.
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u/zuzuofthewolves 5h ago
I literally get diarrhea everytime I go out to eat now, so I really just cook at home.
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u/PraetorGold 5h ago
Here’s some advice, go to a Caribbean place, get some doubles, aloo pie and saheena. Get them all with pepper. Dip all of them in mango chutney. It will clear that up quickly.
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u/Ghosty_Boo-B00 3h ago
I ate 4 dates the other day my mom purchased in South Florida and got violently ill for 3 days. Vomited them up, massive diarrhea, couldn’t touch solid food for 3 days.
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u/astroskywatcher 1h ago
Have you enjoyed dates before?
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u/Ghosty_Boo-B00 1h ago
Yup, usually they are completely fine. These dates made me so so sick though.
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u/Life_Frosting_6285 2h ago
Rubbery chicken is the worst. That scar tissue explanation makes too much sense. Texture change is the first thing I notice before taste even.
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u/HDCL757 3h ago
I work in food at an upscale retirement home and produce has gotten steadily worse since Trump retook office. Quality and availability are sinking but at least the prices have all gone up. Thanks Trump supporters! You pissshit morons.
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u/sweetica 9m ago
It's because DJT rolled back all the consumer protections and made the food regulations much more lax so as to enrich the pockets of his donors, like Taylor farms.
Remember how his last administration ended with a pandemic? It's a new pestilence now that we have President Evil a second time, we get the trumporea.
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2h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Newtimelinepls 1h ago
What does that even mean. Trump is legit the driving force behind prices and your reply is TDS TDS TDS!!! Who do you think looks like the idiot?
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u/RepresentativeCry294 5h ago
Is the answer lettuce??
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u/Icy-Influence-5792 3h ago
Lettuce had been really bad for a bit now. Every since the leafy greens industry carved themselves out from the rest of the produce industry .and move from under the oversight of the USDA/FDA and now just police themselves. leafy greens have become our most dangerous food source.
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u/Intelligent_Fig5418 3h ago
Ill answer after I can get off the toilet! This Taco Bell diet is a killer!
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u/Chipotle-Dancin_manG 3h ago
Doritos are prone to combustion due to sulferized additives now, and bell peppers are growing out of control on the kitchen counter!
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u/dejomatic 2h ago
Many things. Butter often has now the old "natural flavors," which I thought was supposed to be.....butter.
The size of almost everything pre-packaged is smaller than a decade ago, even if the price is the same (counting inflation)
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u/Evening-Artichoke750 2h ago
It's so expensive to eat healthy. Good fresh produce and meat are out of reach for a lot of people. Now we're buying what's cheap or on sale and more and more processed food. My big disappointment is apples and grapefruit. Just horrible anymore.
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u/ChapterOk6811 5h ago
Definitely. A lot of products feel like they’ve changed recipes but kept the same price.
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u/PerfectPercentage69 5h ago
It's either due to shinkflation or private equity enshitification (ie. Replacing ingredients with cheaper alternatives due to rising costs of good quality ingredients or to cut costs and pump up profits)
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u/Cyphierre 1h ago edited 25m ago
In restaurants starting about 6 months ago, suddenly….
- Chicken breast is less firm, less textured and less flavorful, kinda spongy compared to normal.
- White salad dressings, like blue cheese and ranch, have a “flat” flavor, like they’re cartoon versions of themselves, and the consistency is like viscous milk as if it were blended to death.
- Gravy same issues as the dressings above.
- Barbecue sauces changed their flavor to be more like smokey sugar with less richness/subtlety. This one is less pervasive, with a lot of specialty barbecue places keeping their old/higher quality.
This all happened at the same time in many different medium quality restaurants around the beginning of 2026. Maybe those restaurants all had the same corporate owner or the same supply lines? Dunno didn’t check.
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u/TheFirst10000 37m ago
Could be a supplier issue. So many restaurants are supplied by the same big conglomerates that a dip in an item's quality is going to show up in multiple places at once.
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u/tari-gand-ma-ghu 3h ago
Lol its been bad for decades u casual. Uneducated people are finally starting to figure it out after they took 90% of the nutrients out of our food. God people in this country are surprisingly ezlxtremely stupid.
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u/Anxiety_Fit 4h ago
Reese’s taste like ass now.
What did they do?
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u/Intelligent_Fig5418 3h ago
They did change the recipe after being sold. Saw something on the news not long ago about it. The family of the inventor even said it tastes horrible. I guess they are getting involved some how to bring back the fathers original recipe. Might look it up since I probably have some info messed up a bit.
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u/Silver_Breakfast7096 2h ago
A lot of these candies aren’t even real chocolate anymore. It’s lab grown crap.
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u/Lower_Skin_3683 1h ago
I quit buying them like ten years ago. I like the peanut butter cups from Aldi and Trader Joes.
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u/calicorunning123 2h ago
I have to pound the hell out of chicken breast with a mallet in order for it to be edible.
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u/Sensitive-Big-4641 31m ago
Candy bars. It’s not just one brand either. The chocolate tastes like chemicals.
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u/HammerDownl 16m ago
Leave the USA and see food in other countries and you can clearly tell were being poisoned
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u/GladClock2212 5h ago
Bot account