The Consumer’s Association carried out 52 blind tastings between the 15th May and the 30th June with 1,000 consumers. They also recorded prices in large retail stores in 60 towns over 25 departments. ‘’The global results are disappointing, for tomatoes in particular, which are not appreciated by 27% of consumers”. Strawberry results are better with 43% of consumers satisfied by the flavour. 39% considered the strawberries that they tested to be “neither good nor bad”.
It was noted that “cheaper strawberries were not worse rated than the more expensive strawberries”. 34% of consumers loved the €10.40/kilo strawberries whilst 29.4% preferred those at €4.80/kilo. 15.3% did not like them at all. ‘Origine France’ strawberries have an average price of €9.20/kilo whilst those from abroad are around €5.30/kilo. Some varieties are more expensive, such as gariguetttes (€10.70/kilo), ciflorettes (€11.20/kilo) and maras des bois (11.70/kilo).
As for tomatoes, the results were even more surprising because “the tomatoes preferred by consumers are those that are less expensive”. 25.6% of consumers did not like the tomatoes at €2.90/kilo, compared to 22.2% that disliked those at €1.17.
