How To Buy Fresh Food at the Market

The benefits of eating fresh food bought from the market far outweigh those shopped from the grocery.  Any meal made of the freshest ingredients can retain its natural flavors unless it is prepared in ways where tends to lose its natural taste such as salting or overcooking.  On the other hand, food bought from the grocery, especially those packed in plastics and have been stored long enough, certainly has lost its freshness and are usually bland in taste.  Cooking these would require the help of flavor enhancers. 

The market can provide you more possibilities of buying fresh natural food items.  However, once you get there, you will realize that finding what is fresh is not as easy as you expect it to be.  True, the vegetables and the fruits are piled unpackaged and may, definitely look fresh for the unaware.  The fish and the meat may all look fresh under some lighting that make these appear so.  The dairy products, with the help of refrigeration, can also be mistaken for being fresh. 

Do not be taken for a ride.  Below are some tips in buying fresh food at the market:

• Most fruits and vegetables are seasonal.  If these just come from within the state you are in, you will know if these are in season or not.  If they are not in season, then it is most probable that they came from a farther source and have higher chance of not being fresh.
• If you live in a city where there are dairy farms nearby, there is a possibility that the market has fresh dairy products for sale.  However, if you live in a big metropolitan city hundreds of miles away from any farming county, then you may not be able to find one that is genuinely fresh.
• Use your senses.  No, it does not mean you have to taste it.  Smell it and touch it. If you have been an experienced buyer of ingredients to prepare fresh meals, you will be quite good at using your senses to detect an item’s freshness.
• For many vegetables, the simplest way to find out its freshness is to sense its crispness.  If it has become soft and drooping, particularly for leafy vegetables, then it is certainly no longer fresh.
• Fruits have that natural sheen on their peel if they are fresh same as with some vegetables.  For example, you can easily tell a fresh tomato from those that are not from gleam it has on its skin.
• In checking if a fish is fresh, try looking at the eyes.  If it still has sparkle, it is probably fresh.  Otherwise, if its eyes are reddish and the fish itself has that strong ‘fishy’ smell, then it may no longer be fresh.

The more often you experience buying fresh food from the market, the more you learn the science of distinguishing it from those that sellers claim as fresh.  A little more practice and you will be guaranteed of fresh healthy diet.