Independent grocers claim their produce is fresher and better than the big chains, and that you'll be surprised by how old some of the 'fresh' items in supermarkets really are.

After tests were commissioned on a range of produce bought from supermarkets in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney, it turned out that some of the ‘fresh’ fruit we eat is up to eleven and a half months old.

Our desire to eat foods that are out of season means fruit and vegies can be stored in special units, to keep it from going bad.

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“Unfortunately Australian labelling laws are completely lax, and they don’t give the consumers the opportunities to make their decisions,” nutritionist and chef Zoe Bingley-Pullin said.

“I notice the difference between old and fresh,” Bingley-Pullin said.

“Over time, any nutrients - whether it be enzymes or vitamins - will decrease, so what we’re really trying to get is in fruits and vegetables that are picked and delivered straight to us,” she said.

It sounds obvious, and even straightforward - fresh means fresh. But in fact, fresh can also mean something very different.

Dr Stephen Morris tested the fruits and vegetables in his laboratory at Sydney University’s, Department of Agriculture.

Dr Morris measured the sugar and content of the produce, and the ratio between them.

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“Well for this time of year you can get apples that are eleven and a half months old, or even older than that, because the fresh apples are just about to be picked, and the ones that are available in the shops have been stored,” Dr Morris said.

In Melbourne the apples we purchased at Coles had their age estimated at 10 months. Woolworths' apples were ten a half months old - the same as independent retailer Colonial Fresh.

The oldest apple we found in Sydney was aged eleven and a half months, sourced from Coles. Woolworths had the freshest, at nine months, and independent Harris Farm – ten months.

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Coles had an eleven month old apple in their fresh fruit section at the supermarket we visited in Brisbane. Woolworths - 10 months, Zone Fresh - nine and a half months, and Farmers Direct - ten and a half months.

“The best tasting apple was from Farmers Direct in Brisbane,” Dr Morris said.

“Australian fruit is the best around the world,” CEO of Aussie Farmers Direct Braeden Lord said.

“The thing about Aussie Farmers Direct is that we make sure that we buy the best quality product. The reality is that customers choose quality over age - they love the quality of our product.”

Navel orange are out of season right now, so nearly all of the ones we purchased came from California.

Dr Morris found the oranges at Coles in Melbourne were four months old, at Woolworths three and a half months, and at Colonial Fresh - three months. In Sydney the oldest orange we found was purchased at Woolworths, its estimated age was four and a half months.

In Brisbane Coles sell fresh oranges that tests showed to be about three months old. While oranges from Woolworths and Zone Fresh were three and a half months old, and Farmers Direct - three weeks.

The orange from Farmers Direct was actually a Valencia orange, which is in season in Australia right now.

“I think at Coles the quality is fantastic, and that's why there is no freshness like Coles freshness,” Coles spokesperson Jon Church said.

He says Coles supermarkets are stocked with the freshest produce they can find - their advertising implies that all of it has just been picked and driven there.

“The only items that would generally be that (old) would be apples and pears, that are stored. That's the case for every retailer. When you put them on the shelf you'd struggle find a difference between a fresh apple off the tree and an apples that's been stored,” said Church.

Woolworths declined to be interviewed for this story. They, and Coles, question the accuracy of our results, but Dr Morris stands by his work.

“Some people just like to eat apples, or pears, or bananas, and eat them all year round, so unless we’re going to import our apples and pears from China, we actually have stored fruit. But if it’s actually handled well, sold well, and if the customers know what to do with it, the flavour can be really good,” Dr Morris conceded.

However for retail analyst Barry Urqhuart, “apples are a seasonal product, but freshness isn't.

“It's an absolute measure, there's no ‘partial fresh’. Fresh is a daily proposition, therefore fresh is fresh, and everything else is a compromise,” Urquhart said.

“What we should be doing is saying ‘this fruit was picked on this date, and placed on the shelf on this date, and will be best if used and consumed before that date’,” he said.

One thing everyone in this story agreed on is that we need to eat fruit and vegetables, and it's better that they're old, than left out altogether.

"It goes without saying - I want people eating fruit and vegetables, whether they are old or whether they are picked straight away, it’s really important that we have these foods in our diet. It’s not just the vitamins and minerals, we also have the fibre content, and we have the foods that fill you up, as opposed to the chocolate bar,” Bingley-Pullin concluded.

Contact details

• Nutritional Edge - www.nutritionaledge.com.au