The Canada Food Guide recommends we eat 4-8 serving of fruits and vegtables everyday. There is no denying the fact that vegetables and fruits are not only nutritious but also an inevitable part of any healthy diet.

Eating these will improve your health besides helping you fight various other health problems. But did you know that your fruits and vegtables could be up to one year old?

This article from the Daily Telegraph bring to light a problem that may effect the quality of your food.

Fruit and vegetables bought from some supermarkets can be up to a year old. Apples up to nine months, pears three months old, grapes three weeks old and cherries two weeks old were found on the shelves of a city Woolworths store, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reports.

The News Limited newspaper said it commissioned research on the fruit which was bought on Thursday. The Sydney Postharvest Laboratory, which tested the fruit, found it was of extremely mixed quality with strawberries, apples and peaches all showing low sugar levels.

Woolworths confirmed it sold apples stored for months at a time but said it tried to get the freshest produce possible. Coles also confirmed its apples may have been stored.

Nutritionists and consumers groups were concerned shoppers were being duped into believing the produce they bought was fresh. “Many consumers will not be aware just how long the fruit and veg they eat has been sitting in the supermarket and on the shelves,” Australian Consumer Association food policy officer Clare Hughes told the newspaper.

The newspaper said fruits that did not grow year long were often treated with chemicals which slowed down their natural ripening agent. Other examples of treating fruit included packing grapes with sulpher dioxide pads to delay the ripening.

But there are suggestions the fruit’s vital nutrient and mineral content can decline. Sydney Postharvest Laboratory director Stephen Morris said: “… Vitamin C and Vitamin E, as well as anti-oxidant levels, which can be cancer preventing can decline.”