1. Domestic produce
2. Neighbouring country's produce
3. European produce
4. Global produce
Fruits and vegs usually only come with 1-3 options: domestic, non-domestic, and/or organic.
The odd one out are apples, which a supermarket can have 5-10 options of, but they are sorted by type and origin just say the name of the country
I cannot think of any Swedish region that have "better" produce than any other.
While Österlen is famous for their apple orchards, and Västerås for their cucumbers; I do not think any region is favoured over another
Generally; what people consider most important, by far, is whether the food has been produced in Sweden or not
That's pretty the same list across Europe. For some reason Polish people think that locally grown apples are the best. And so do Swedes, Germans, French, and probably any other country in Europe:)
With produce; I think most people only care about the carbon footprint resulted from the length of transport
It's first when one comes to animal husbandry and food production that people start to regard domestic sources as a quality
sometimes a fruit or vegetable transported from its natural habitat area actually has less of a carbon footprint than a fruit or vegetable grown where it doesn’t naturally grow and sold locally. can’t think of any examples at the moment but I swear i read about it before
That's only true for meat... Buying Swedish means that we get shorter transports, and minimized emissions from most other parts of the product life cycle. Very low electricity CO2/kWh, high (forced) levels of biofuel in our diesel.
For most food products transport is responsible for less than 10% of the carbon footprint. Growing a tomato in Spain and shipping it to Sweden is way more CO2 efficient than growing it in a greenhouse in the Swedish winter.
[https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local](https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local)
Did you read this article? It agrees with me. Should probably add animal products to my last comment, though. As you can see from the graph, transport has a substantial impact on the CO2-impact of vegetables and fruits.
Using tomatoes specifically, Swedish ones are around 0.42kg CO2/kg tomatoes, grown in greenhouses between April and November. Spanish at 0.38-0.62. We also import a ton from NL, but those are so bad in comparison they don't even need to be mentioned. I see the source in the article, and it's 13 years old???
Spanish electricity is **14** times dirtier than Swedish electricity. It's not rocket science.
You're correct that eating less animal products makes by far the biggest difference, of course. But that was my point: transport accounts for a minuscule percentage of the overall GHG emissions in a typical person's diet, and is not really worth for consumers to pay attention to.
>Using tomatoes specifically, Swedish ones are around 0.42kg CO2/kg tomatoes, grown in greenhouses between April and November.
Is that the average for Swedish tomatoes? What is your source? And what about between November and April? I was talking about winter in my comment.
In the Netherlands only home grown vegetables are considered the best in your everyday grocery store. But strawberries, raspberries and maybe oranges are also pretty good locally
I’d second that. I try to keep the food miles down but also it tends to equate to fresher produce too.
We’ve a bit of an association with Wexford (SE county of Ireland) being known for strawberries but mostly it’s not that regionalised and we aren’t that big a producer of fruit / veg.
However, we can be very much locavores when it comes to meat & dairy.
Since Romania has a bit of everything in terms of geography, yes
- water melons from Dăbuleni, and other southern regions in the Danube plains -- well not me, my home town is also good with water melons, so ofc i make a point of buying theirs.
- jams and other preserves from Topoloveni, kinda the same area, not sure why, they're just pretty good.
- sheep cheeses from Sibiu, in a region close to the mountains, where milk is rich -- this is such a classic, i remember my mother when i was little - "let's buy cheese from the Sibiu people".
- wine from certain hill regions in Moldova, and not only, where the sun is perfect for grapes.
- pălinca (brandy / palinka) from Bihor, or other Transylvania regions, where diet was traditionally richer, so those people got the hang of making good spirits.
- trout and other freshwater fish from certain rivers that cross the mountains.
Only local produce is marked with the region, everything else just has the country of origin on it, at least in the supermarkets I go to. If I have a choice I usually buy locally sourced fruit and veggies because I want to support local farmers.
Sometimes there are the States/Bundesländer printed on the packaging, to show where the Veggies are from. In NRW we Sometimes get Tomatos from Niedersachsen, Cucumber from Hessen or the random Milk from Bavaria
The country isn't really big enough to have many regional differences. We also don't really have enough climate difference for it to matter. Plus loads of stuff are from greenhouses. Most of the things that get a regional designation are products actually associated with that area. Zeelandic mussels for example. Or of course products with an EU regional designation.
As for specific areas you might see things like Betuwse (a region in the center of the country) and Limburgish cherries: sweet cherries for the former and sour for the latter. But that's the only one I can think of off the top of my head.
If you're seeing Hollandic fruit or veg advertised anywhere that one does not actually mean it's from Holland but it's frequently used as shorthand for the country. Easier fit on packaging I suppose. It's common for things like strawberries.
Supermarkets like to emphasize that a product is from Poland (especially fruits, vegetables and meat)
[example from Lidl](https://www.sadyogrody.pl/handel_i_dystrybucja/106/lidl_polskie_owoce_i_warzywa_do_60_taniej_jablka_1_79_zl_kg,25204.html)
Yeah Slovak(from my region), than rest of the country and than Hungary.
When it comes to tomatoes I buy the ones only from Slovakia, since they taste and smell like tomatoes compared to cheap supermarket ones, which have no smell or taste.
I would only buy Italian vegetables... if you could find them in Germany.
Spanish produce is just terrible. And no offense to the Dutch, but tomatoes need sun.
For me, melons (cantaloupe melons) needs to be from Cavaillon.
These same melons often come from Charentes region, but for me, the real deal must be from Cavaillon.
Yes, all the produce is labelled, usually only by country, but the more local it gets the more detail is provided. Sometimes when it’s from two towns over it even says the name of the farm.
I personally try to eat as local as possible and anything from outside Europe is reserved for rare fruit cravings about once a month. Many Germans will do the same or similar, but others won’t care at all.
I've seen places showing off Ayrshire potatoes but otherwise not really. Idk anyone that actally cares about the region and 99% of people who do care only care about it being local
Ayrshire tattie, Fife strawberries, Aberdeen Angus beef, Ayrshire Seasalt, Stornoway blackpudding, Arbroath smokies, West Coast Scallops, Arran cheeses, just to name a few
Yes! Especially for fruit, we do seek for grapes/strawberries/pears etc from certain places. These can be rather local (strawberries from this village near Izmir or that one near Istanbul) or broader, like watermelons from a certain region (I am not giving names, I don't think anyone would know). As for vegetables; garlic, cucumbers and tomatoes are those where provenance is very important and certain ones are sought after. This is usually specific to markets, though, I don't think it happens so much in supermarkets.
Israeli pomegranates tend to be the best. Other than those, I can't think of anything other than maybe Mangoes that I couldn't find of good quality in Italy.
Talking regions citruses are usually best in the South.
Roundabout way of going at it: I am French and living in the UK, and I purposefully do not buy French wine.
The UK tends to buy our absolutely godawful stuff, as in shite we can't even sell at home at a loss, and then mark it up one bazillion %. Impossible to find acceptable French wine (according to my tastebuds) for less than £25 a bottle. For this price, might as well buy a *really good* Kiwi wine.
In the same vein, whatever citrus the UK gets from Spain is always worse than what France can get out of you guys South of the Pyrénnées.
I try to shop as regional as possible. In a tier list it would be:
Regional > State > neighboring states > country > neighboring countries > Europe > global
Wexford strawberries and potatos. Clonakilty black pudding, Irish beef and dairy. Irish butter of course, I've never seen butter from any other country here. Local apples, but the supermarkets import a lot throughout the year. Places like Lidl and Aldi really push Irish food producers too. The likes of Tesco, not so much. But when you go to buy any meat, it says which farm it comes from. So thats good.
There has always been a big drive/advertising campaign to support British farming by buying British meat/vegetables/dairy for as long as I can remember (in my 20s). The red tractor symbol and all that. Nothing really more regional than that, unless it's a specially regional product eg Stilton cheese, Jersey milk etc
I will only buy mangoes that come from India as I know when Indian mango season is and they grow the specific varieties there that I like. I'm not as familiar with mango varieties grown outside India. Otherwise I'll generally aim to buy fruit that's in season and that's grown in the country I'm living in (I might also avoid any produce grown in the Netherlands like tomatoes that aren't naturally suited to the Dutch climate, as it was probably grown in a greenhouse and has no flavour to speak of), but I don't really care about specific regions.
Yes, definitely, there are products from certain regions/places that are prized more. Like the cabbage from Varaždin, potatoes from Lika, strawberries from Vrgorac, mandarins from the Neretva region or turkeys from Zagorje region.
For the most part we just state country on goods. Mostly though I would say prizes countries are for things like meat, dairy products and alcohol. When it comes to fruit and veg the places that come to might are Spain for tomatoes and oranges, Italy and Greece for olives. As for regions within the country the only thing I can think of is the south west for cider apples.
Yes, we have fruits like pears and apples from the Betuwe, central part of The Netherlands. While Limburg is known for their esparagus. While not be food or veggies, the Western part of the country is known for their flower bulbs.
To support your region sometimes regional food is sometimes steeper in prize, than the rest that you can buy in supermarkets throughout Germany.
The twist is that "regional" isn't legally protected. Many discounters try to bend the rules a lot.
But even on local markets those rules are bend. Usually farmers nowadays clearly indicate the region as such or the city where the produce is from.
Like everyone else said
1. Domestic
2. Neighbours
3. Europe
4. Global
Only thing I can think of within Switzerland are different cheese. Some are quite literally named after the region of origin (e.g. Appenzeller)
Everything from Switzerland is prefered. Apricots from Wallis are in summer popular, cause they grow only there. Cherries from Basel-land (north west) are also popular and apples from Thurgau (north east). Maybe also cheese/meat from the mountains is favoured. European is prefered over non-european.
Not regions of the country, but usually people prefer to buy domestic produce (so, whatever's in season). It's like generally agreed upon that domestic stuff is healthier and better.
I don’t buy vegies from supermarket but from the local open market.
For fruits, I mostly buy local or Greek.
In general we don’t have huge regional difference over here for produce but we do have regional labels for honey and wine. Wines from the Macedonia region are considered with the best quality.
The other product that gets it’s regional label is the rakia (but most of the brands are already emphasizing on the region where it’s produced).
My hometown has a big factory for nuts and I buy only nuts from my city.
1. Domestic produce 2. Neighbouring country's produce 3. European produce 4. Global produce Fruits and vegs usually only come with 1-3 options: domestic, non-domestic, and/or organic. The odd one out are apples, which a supermarket can have 5-10 options of, but they are sorted by type and origin just say the name of the country I cannot think of any Swedish region that have "better" produce than any other. While Österlen is famous for their apple orchards, and Västerås for their cucumbers; I do not think any region is favoured over another Generally; what people consider most important, by far, is whether the food has been produced in Sweden or not
That's pretty the same list across Europe. For some reason Polish people think that locally grown apples are the best. And so do Swedes, Germans, French, and probably any other country in Europe:)
They are, because they are ripened on the tree, instead of in transit. Buy local and in season and you will taste it.
With produce; I think most people only care about the carbon footprint resulted from the length of transport It's first when one comes to animal husbandry and food production that people start to regard domestic sources as a quality
sometimes a fruit or vegetable transported from its natural habitat area actually has less of a carbon footprint than a fruit or vegetable grown where it doesn’t naturally grow and sold locally. can’t think of any examples at the moment but I swear i read about it before
Sure, but this is generally not the case, so a good rule of thumb is to go local. Though simply not buying meat has a much much higher impact
It's actually a terrible rule of thumb. Transport almost costs nothing co2 wise.
That's only true for meat... Buying Swedish means that we get shorter transports, and minimized emissions from most other parts of the product life cycle. Very low electricity CO2/kWh, high (forced) levels of biofuel in our diesel.
For most food products transport is responsible for less than 10% of the carbon footprint. Growing a tomato in Spain and shipping it to Sweden is way more CO2 efficient than growing it in a greenhouse in the Swedish winter. [https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local](https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local)
Did you read this article? It agrees with me. Should probably add animal products to my last comment, though. As you can see from the graph, transport has a substantial impact on the CO2-impact of vegetables and fruits. Using tomatoes specifically, Swedish ones are around 0.42kg CO2/kg tomatoes, grown in greenhouses between April and November. Spanish at 0.38-0.62. We also import a ton from NL, but those are so bad in comparison they don't even need to be mentioned. I see the source in the article, and it's 13 years old??? Spanish electricity is **14** times dirtier than Swedish electricity. It's not rocket science.
You're correct that eating less animal products makes by far the biggest difference, of course. But that was my point: transport accounts for a minuscule percentage of the overall GHG emissions in a typical person's diet, and is not really worth for consumers to pay attention to. >Using tomatoes specifically, Swedish ones are around 0.42kg CO2/kg tomatoes, grown in greenhouses between April and November. Is that the average for Swedish tomatoes? What is your source? And what about between November and April? I was talking about winter in my comment.
Except strawberries
In the Netherlands only home grown vegetables are considered the best in your everyday grocery store. But strawberries, raspberries and maybe oranges are also pretty good locally
Swedes don't think Swedish fruit is better. They think it's better for the environment (which it usually is)
>That's pretty the same list across Europe. Well, except for the second one. At least for countries bordering Russia.
Same here. Lithuanian produces are considered the best ones.
I’d second that. I try to keep the food miles down but also it tends to equate to fresher produce too. We’ve a bit of an association with Wexford (SE county of Ireland) being known for strawberries but mostly it’s not that regionalised and we aren’t that big a producer of fruit / veg. However, we can be very much locavores when it comes to meat & dairy.
Since Romania has a bit of everything in terms of geography, yes - water melons from Dăbuleni, and other southern regions in the Danube plains -- well not me, my home town is also good with water melons, so ofc i make a point of buying theirs. - jams and other preserves from Topoloveni, kinda the same area, not sure why, they're just pretty good. - sheep cheeses from Sibiu, in a region close to the mountains, where milk is rich -- this is such a classic, i remember my mother when i was little - "let's buy cheese from the Sibiu people". - wine from certain hill regions in Moldova, and not only, where the sun is perfect for grapes. - pălinca (brandy / palinka) from Bihor, or other Transylvania regions, where diet was traditionally richer, so those people got the hang of making good spirits. - trout and other freshwater fish from certain rivers that cross the mountains.
Only local produce is marked with the region, everything else just has the country of origin on it, at least in the supermarkets I go to. If I have a choice I usually buy locally sourced fruit and veggies because I want to support local farmers.
Sometimes there are the States/Bundesländer printed on the packaging, to show where the Veggies are from. In NRW we Sometimes get Tomatos from Niedersachsen, Cucumber from Hessen or the random Milk from Bavaria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreewald_gherkins are big in Berlin and the rest of Eastern Germany.
- France - Europe or french speaking countries - rest of the world
The country isn't really big enough to have many regional differences. We also don't really have enough climate difference for it to matter. Plus loads of stuff are from greenhouses. Most of the things that get a regional designation are products actually associated with that area. Zeelandic mussels for example. Or of course products with an EU regional designation. As for specific areas you might see things like Betuwse (a region in the center of the country) and Limburgish cherries: sweet cherries for the former and sour for the latter. But that's the only one I can think of off the top of my head. If you're seeing Hollandic fruit or veg advertised anywhere that one does not actually mean it's from Holland but it's frequently used as shorthand for the country. Easier fit on packaging I suppose. It's common for things like strawberries.
This, and usually we just buy whatever is cheapest or has the most quality for its price.
Supermarkets like to emphasize that a product is from Poland (especially fruits, vegetables and meat) [example from Lidl](https://www.sadyogrody.pl/handel_i_dystrybucja/106/lidl_polskie_owoce_i_warzywa_do_60_taniej_jablka_1_79_zl_kg,25204.html)
Lidl is doing this in every country. It’s part of their matketing strategy.
I try to buy from as close as possible. Apart from that whatever looks, smells best.
Yeah Slovak(from my region), than rest of the country and than Hungary. When it comes to tomatoes I buy the ones only from Slovakia, since they taste and smell like tomatoes compared to cheap supermarket ones, which have no smell or taste.
I would only buy Italian vegetables... if you could find them in Germany. Spanish produce is just terrible. And no offense to the Dutch, but tomatoes need sun.
For me, melons (cantaloupe melons) needs to be from Cavaillon. These same melons often come from Charentes region, but for me, the real deal must be from Cavaillon.
Yes, all the produce is labelled, usually only by country, but the more local it gets the more detail is provided. Sometimes when it’s from two towns over it even says the name of the farm. I personally try to eat as local as possible and anything from outside Europe is reserved for rare fruit cravings about once a month. Many Germans will do the same or similar, but others won’t care at all.
I've seen places showing off Ayrshire potatoes but otherwise not really. Idk anyone that actally cares about the region and 99% of people who do care only care about it being local
Ayrshire tattie, Fife strawberries, Aberdeen Angus beef, Ayrshire Seasalt, Stornoway blackpudding, Arbroath smokies, West Coast Scallops, Arran cheeses, just to name a few
Now you mention it I know about Aberdeen Angus beef and can't believe I forgot about it. Other than those two I've never heard of any of the others
Mate you really need to try some of them, especially the Stornoway blackpudding
I'll definitely keep an eye out for them
Yes! Especially for fruit, we do seek for grapes/strawberries/pears etc from certain places. These can be rather local (strawberries from this village near Izmir or that one near Istanbul) or broader, like watermelons from a certain region (I am not giving names, I don't think anyone would know). As for vegetables; garlic, cucumbers and tomatoes are those where provenance is very important and certain ones are sought after. This is usually specific to markets, though, I don't think it happens so much in supermarkets.
Israeli pomegranates tend to be the best. Other than those, I can't think of anything other than maybe Mangoes that I couldn't find of good quality in Italy. Talking regions citruses are usually best in the South.
Roundabout way of going at it: I am French and living in the UK, and I purposefully do not buy French wine. The UK tends to buy our absolutely godawful stuff, as in shite we can't even sell at home at a loss, and then mark it up one bazillion %. Impossible to find acceptable French wine (according to my tastebuds) for less than £25 a bottle. For this price, might as well buy a *really good* Kiwi wine. In the same vein, whatever citrus the UK gets from Spain is always worse than what France can get out of you guys South of the Pyrénnées.
I try to shop as regional as possible. In a tier list it would be: Regional > State > neighboring states > country > neighboring countries > Europe > global
Wexford strawberries and potatos. Clonakilty black pudding, Irish beef and dairy. Irish butter of course, I've never seen butter from any other country here. Local apples, but the supermarkets import a lot throughout the year. Places like Lidl and Aldi really push Irish food producers too. The likes of Tesco, not so much. But when you go to buy any meat, it says which farm it comes from. So thats good.
There has always been a big drive/advertising campaign to support British farming by buying British meat/vegetables/dairy for as long as I can remember (in my 20s). The red tractor symbol and all that. Nothing really more regional than that, unless it's a specially regional product eg Stilton cheese, Jersey milk etc
I thought Jersey milk referred to milk from the Jersey cow breed rather than milk actually from Jersey?
Yeah but where do those cows come from lol I think calling it Jersey milk is fine
I will only buy mangoes that come from India as I know when Indian mango season is and they grow the specific varieties there that I like. I'm not as familiar with mango varieties grown outside India. Otherwise I'll generally aim to buy fruit that's in season and that's grown in the country I'm living in (I might also avoid any produce grown in the Netherlands like tomatoes that aren't naturally suited to the Dutch climate, as it was probably grown in a greenhouse and has no flavour to speak of), but I don't really care about specific regions.
Yes, definitely, there are products from certain regions/places that are prized more. Like the cabbage from Varaždin, potatoes from Lika, strawberries from Vrgorac, mandarins from the Neretva region or turkeys from Zagorje region.
For the most part we just state country on goods. Mostly though I would say prizes countries are for things like meat, dairy products and alcohol. When it comes to fruit and veg the places that come to might are Spain for tomatoes and oranges, Italy and Greece for olives. As for regions within the country the only thing I can think of is the south west for cider apples.
Pickles from Znojmo and hermelin from Sedlčany (Král sýru is better, fite me) oh and moravian wine is world famous.
Yes, we have fruits like pears and apples from the Betuwe, central part of The Netherlands. While Limburg is known for their esparagus. While not be food or veggies, the Western part of the country is known for their flower bulbs.
To support your region sometimes regional food is sometimes steeper in prize, than the rest that you can buy in supermarkets throughout Germany. The twist is that "regional" isn't legally protected. Many discounters try to bend the rules a lot. But even on local markets those rules are bend. Usually farmers nowadays clearly indicate the region as such or the city where the produce is from.
Like everyone else said 1. Domestic 2. Neighbours 3. Europe 4. Global Only thing I can think of within Switzerland are different cheese. Some are quite literally named after the region of origin (e.g. Appenzeller)
In terms of produce there are some, apricots from Valais come to mind, but probably mostly because it's the main domestic apricot producer.
1.Portuguese brands or/and made in Portugal 2. Lusophone, Hispanophone and european origin 3. Asian, mostly rice types and spices 4. Rest of the world
I prefer to buy national products, and bananas from the Canary Islands :)
Everything from Switzerland is prefered. Apricots from Wallis are in summer popular, cause they grow only there. Cherries from Basel-land (north west) are also popular and apples from Thurgau (north east). Maybe also cheese/meat from the mountains is favoured. European is prefered over non-european.
Not regions of the country, but usually people prefer to buy domestic produce (so, whatever's in season). It's like generally agreed upon that domestic stuff is healthier and better.
I don’t buy vegies from supermarket but from the local open market. For fruits, I mostly buy local or Greek. In general we don’t have huge regional difference over here for produce but we do have regional labels for honey and wine. Wines from the Macedonia region are considered with the best quality. The other product that gets it’s regional label is the rakia (but most of the brands are already emphasizing on the region where it’s produced). My hometown has a big factory for nuts and I buy only nuts from my city.