1532 Is this common ...???

I always thought that with mussels it was that if they are open when you buy them and don't close when you tap them, then don't eat them - probably dead. Don't know about mussels that don't open when you cook them??

[QUOTE=alex and lyn]A couple of weeks ago , we bought a load of chestnuts from our local supermarket and most of them were bad...had a bit of a moan and chucked them...then yesterday, we bought half a kilo of mussels from the 'fresh fish' counter from a different supermarket (about half hour from here !) and cooked them as soon as we got home and only 3 of them opened when cooked ...so we had to chuck the lot !!!...we were gutted.....dreamt of me mussels all the way home !!! Had to have a ham roll !!!! :o
Can't have been the heat...there isn't any.. :rolleyes: .chucking it down in Puglia and very chilly !!!!! :cool:
Is it common for stuff from supermarkets to be 'off' !!! We eat a lot of fresh fish and seafood..now a bit concerned !!!! :([/QUOTE]

Very unusual to get bad food. The Italian consumers are very fussy. Would suggest if this happens take goods back to your supplier. Think they will be mortified to have supplied you with a bad product.

Since coming to live in Italy I have found that nothing lasts even in the fridge, The best thing to do is eat same day if poss (obviously the mussels were not v good in the first place)
But generally food here is brill.
Meat,fruit and veg will not keep here as they do in England, but ask yourself why?
They havent been sprayed with poisonous preservatives, food is sold in its natural state and the locals tend to shop daily and eat fresh.
Its worth getting used to!

As for the post on nothing last long in the fridge: It because for example if you buy ham or cheese products the Italians do not have their fridges set to a high and correct temp, with no aircon in the stores the cold cuts and cheeses dont have a chance of staying good after being sliced on the machines. That goes also for fruits and veggies. They also are not even stored in fridges so that explains that. If you think you are buying fresh fish-think again as most of the fish are not even found in our water and are bought by the Italians frozen and then thawed so true to the fact-buy your foods and eat them the same day. Thats what ive been doing and have lived in Italy over 20 years.

[QUOTE=herealready]Since coming to live in Italy I have found that nothing lasts even in the fridge, The best thing to do is eat same day if poss (obviously the mussels were not v good in the first place)
But generally food here is brill.
Meat,fruit and veg will not keep here as they do in England, but ask yourself why?
They havent been sprayed with poisonous preservatives, food is sold in its natural state and the locals tend to shop daily and eat fresh.
Its worth getting used to![/QUOTE]

Not true about the spraying part! In Calabria where most of the fruits are grown and most Italian women do for a living, is they are out in the fields picking peaches or Tangs or Oranges and believe me they are sprayed and a bit too much for my taste. And your oil-buy from a local that grows his own as those are sure to be virgined from sprays.

[QUOTE=DavidandLinda]Very unusual to get bad food. The Italian consumers are very fussy. Would suggest if this happens take goods back to your supplier. Think they will be mortified to have supplied you with a bad product.[/QUOTE]

In my experience, mortified as small shopkeepers might be, the money comes out of their pockets and that's where they want to keep it. I will gve you 3 examples: a malfunctioning DVD player returned on the day of purchase, a bottle of expensive Amarone wine that was corked, an HP printer cartridge that did not produce any ink. In all three cases the retailer took back the goods but wouldn't refund me and wouldn't replace until they had cleared it with their supplier. This is in stark contrast to the UK where sales assistants at Dixons, Oddbins or Staples would reverse the transaction immediately because those retailers have the muscle to impose terms on their suppliers. This isn't supposed to sound like a pommie whine and, frustrating as their approach is, I do have sympathy with the small retailers' reluctance to get caught with faulty goods if their suppliers won't do the right thing.

Hi,
Just wanted to say that we never buy fresh food from a supermarket. It`s best to buy fish from a fishmonger (they`ll tell you what has been frozen and what is fresh and what is from the sea and what has been farmed (allevamento)). Also buy fruit and veg from a fruttivendolo stall or shop. We find it`s best to use the same people as they get to know you and won`t give you stuff that`s old. I still get caught out if I have to buy from someone that doesn`t know me!

That is exactly what we have decided to do ...we have numerous butchers and fresh fish mongers and fresh fruit and veg stalls and shops in town ...we were just being lazy buying all our stuff from the supermarket......ask the locals for recommendations.... :)

[QUOTE=alex and lyn]That is exactly what we have decided to do ...we have numerous butchers and fresh fish mongers and fresh fruit and veg stalls and shops in town ...we were just being lazy buying all our stuff from the supermarket......ask the locals for recommendations.... :)[/QUOTE]

Absolutely, great believers in supporting small local traders for quality service and products!

That's fine about small shops but the opening hours in Italy can take some getting used too thats why we have to resort to supermarkets!

As to the poison spayed on food read Adriatica's thread on Puglia and toxic waste as far as I know Italians are pretty trigger happy with the old chemicals as are plenty of older folks on my UK allotments.wash all your fresh stuff as its probably coated in spray!

[QUOTE=bellaepovera]As for the post on nothing last long in the fridge: It because for example if you buy ham or cheese products the Italians do not have their fridges set to a high and correct temp, with no aircon in the stores the cold cuts and cheeses dont have a chance of staying good after being sliced on the machines. That goes also for fruits and veggies. They also are not even stored in fridges so that explains that. If you think you are buying fresh fish-think again as most of the fish are not even found in our water and are bought by the Italians frozen and then thawed so true to the fact-buy your foods and eat them the same day. Thats what ive been doing and have lived in Italy over 20 years.[/QUOTE]
Me too,living all over the place since 1976.Our fish restaurant even closes if there's not sufficient fresh fish ,neither they nor we eat frozen,we don't buy food from supermarkets,we buy either fresh (or frozen if one wants salmon or stuff like) that from fishmongers which in this area often have they're own boats.If we buy cheeses from people with sheep who make them they have special cold stores (to E.U. norms) for conservation.We have only ventilated refrigerators which treble the duration of any fresh produce (including our own) that we put in.We see a lot of foreigners buy and put in enclosed fridges (cucine americane) this is a big mistake as fridges in summer temperatures will not work properly if enclosed,encased etc.Generally round here you can ONLY get fish from the local Adriatic sea, and you have to start to pay quite a lot to have say Maine lobsters (Astice) flown in live from Boston.But generally speaking i don't see abuse or wrong temperatures at places selling cheeses or cured meats salato etc in the area.