I wouldnt praise costco too much. remember the the blueberries they tested with spray levels over the limit from canada then them flogging them off cheap? At least in kaohsiung store. I dont shop there anymore unless with other people as it cant be trusted in my opinion. I still buy cheese sometimes though. Companies with this sort of ethics are a no go in my opinion.
What would you consider then to be companies with better ethics? For purchasing groceries in Taiwan, I mean. Do you reckon Carrefour, PX-Mart, or a random market seller are any better?
I do expect them to be better. I wont be shocked if they dont do better though. I am just going by ones that are known to have cheated and lied. If this happened at PX mart or anywhere else I wouldnt support them either For me, Costco is out. but that’s mostly due to packaging issues. Some of their organic products arent organic either, but that’s not their fault. it’s the suppliers cheating which is common unfortunately everywhere. Taiwan producers get caught all the time for this
Regardless, on berries I trust Costco about as much as I trust a child with a candy bowl.
for better options, I trust farmer coops more than costco. But I am aware of the logistical hurdles of everyone knowing their farmer. I have no answers, only experiences with problems. Talking about the problems is the first step in hopefully solving them Lots of farmers lie too.
Food panda is normally stocked up. However, it is expensive for a small bag. Carrefour, fruit stall place, and PX-mart are inconsistent. I would just walk around and if you stumble upon them stock up.
No, they weren’t last time I went a week ago. I don’t remember when the import ban was until, but I’m skeptical they’ll get them back in in the near future. This must have been a super-expensive thing for them, all in all.
Saw some in PX Mart today - NT$129 or something for 227 grams, so way more expensive.
It’s curious though that they’re still being sold in other markets without issue. Given that the contamination apparently came from the farms or packaging plant in Mexico or wherever it was, you’d have thought that some of the batches going elsewhere would also be affected. It seems like Taiwan is the only place this has really been reported, besides some apparently minor recalls in the U.S. when it was first detected.
I wonder if the other importing countries just haven’t been testing for it as much or don’t really care. It’s difficult to imagine that Costco will be in a rush to import them here again after all the compensation/fines, other costs, and hassle.
They also seem about the same price as they were in Taiwan, maybe a little cheaper even.
Still no frozen berries, just back from Beitou. Found some on Food Panda, ridiculously expensive comparatively. It was cheaper to buy fresh blueberries at Costco and freeze them.
Yeah, none in Costco Zhonghe today either. They did have fresh ones, but they’re like three times more expensive than the frozen ones so decided against it.
Are there any in particular you’ve used before and would recommend? All of the ones I can see at the moment aren’t anywhere close to what I’d consider “pretty good” prices, especially when you factor in NT$150-200 for frozen shipping. They look to just be normal supermarket/Costco prices plus the shipping.
Unless someone wants to order like 30 pounds of them for NT$3,480…
Let me pop into Carrefour later today and compare what they have there to buy in-store compared to what I bought on Shopee with the frozen shipping cost. Will report back.
I wonder if the frozen berries at Costco are coming back. I used to buy a bunch of the frozen wild berries for the antioxidants and they’re so cheap and affordable. Can’t find any wild blueberries anywhere and the remaining blueberries are much more expensive.