4 Items to Avoid at the Grocery Store

There's nothing like one-stop shopping and there's nothing like some of the convenience products that are available to us today. I'll give you a prime example: those pre-cut, premixed salads. I mean, what could be easier? You take it out of the package and it's instant salad. they are convenient, but, as it turns out, you probably shouldn't buy them.

I found a great article on a site called "Thrillist" and I thought I'd share it with you. According to that article, here are 4 items you just shouldn't buy.

1. Pre-Packaged Cold Cuts - Yeah, I know a ton of those are sold everyday. It's always easy to take on the package, slap the meat between two loaves of bread, add your favorite condiment and you're done, right? Well, while it's easy, it may not be the freshest. A lot of stores will wait until their deli meats are near their expiration dates before the cut and package them. It doesn't take all that much longer to have them cut the meat while you wait. It's fresher, it has better flavor and it taste better.

2. Pre-Shreded Cheese - The problem with this one is not as much a matter of freshness as it the problem of all the additives that go along with it. Did you know they add things like wood pulp to keep the cheese from melting in the package. It's much better to spend a couple of minutes shredding cheese yourself. You can use only the amount you need and it's going to be much fresher.

3. Pre-Made Salads - A lot of stores will cut veggies for salad just before the veggies turn bad. You might also notice that the pre-bagged salads also contain things like olives. That's not just a bonus flavor. It's to hide the fact that the lettuce or whatever is not all that fresh. Yeah, salads take a while to make, but by making it yourself, you know it's fresh and (one hopes) bacteria free.

4. Soup at the Deli - There's a common theme with all these products and that is the matter of freshness. It's very common for stores to salvage items that are turning bad and one way they do that is to use them to make soup with them. Not a pleasant thought. It's better just to buy a can of soup and heat it up!

You can read the complete article about this subject at Thrillist