[Brad Lockyer]

A shopper has uncovered the answer to a question you may not have known the answer to, but have probably wondered – why are cucumbers individually wrapped at the supermarket?

James Massola, who is also Nine Newspapers national affairs editor, asked the question on Twitter after commenting on the ACT government’s recent decision to ban plastic shopping bags.

He was supported by some, but many other pointed out that the individual shrink-wrapping is actually necessary to protect the cucumber during transport.

Due to the vegetable’s thin skin, cucumbers dehydrate quickly, become limp, and are vulnerable to damage during the journey from the greenhouse to your fridge.

The plastic film acts as a second skin and can extend a cucumber’s shelf-life by almost a full week.

Did you know cucumbers need to be shrink-wrapped?

[Cosmo]

I think it’s just the supermarkets’ obsession with plastic wrap on nearly every food item they sell. So what did we do before plastic wrap was available? The biggest problem now is end rot which is disguised by the plastic until you get the cucumber home.

[Allen Gilchrist]

Cosmo it is only the continental cucumbers that wrapped in plastic and it has nothing to do with the supermarkets, like what said in the article it is done by the suppliers to give them the extra protection, As a matter of fact it the same with all the other products the supplier is the one that does the packaging take meat for example it all comes from an outside supplier now that the two major supermarkets closed their butcher shop, now that’s the thing you should be complaining about because you don’t really know how long it has been packaged for, you can’t really believe the dates they put on the product.

[Claire Halliday]

I buy Lebanese cucumbers at the market – fresh and not a shrink-wrapped plastic sleeve anywhere to be seen. And cheaper, I think too…

[Author]

Posts