When did the UK stop selling grapes with seeds in them?

Posted by LondonCycling@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 286 comments

I was in Italy last year and bought some grapes. I bit into the first one and said, "Oh, there's seeds in this." My Italian friend looked at me like I'd just said I did not know what a potato is. She said of course they do, why wouldn't they? It dawned on me that it's years since I had grapes with seeds in from a UK supermarket. As a child I remember them, because my picky friend would only ever eat the seedless variety. But what I can't work out is exactly when seeded grapes disappeared from supermarket shelves. Can anyone shed any light on this?

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286 Comments

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Ready-Significance31@reddit

The bigger question should be, WHY did the UK stop selling grapes with seeds in them?

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Jazzlike-Roll2270@reddit

Coz it got compounds to heal cancer

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LadyNicholls@reddit

Grape seeds are Antioxidants, and contain insoluble fibre that helps you eliminate waste. There are also anti cancer and help with a variety of other health issues. There's an agenda at play trust me

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ParticularPost6483@reddit

I think they stopped selling them and phased them out because the seeds in grapes contain antioxidants and other beneficial compounds,They don't want us to be healthy so all of the healthy food is being stripped of its goodness. They do this by genetically modifying our fruit and veg. Although pesticides do help to give greater yield crops it also reduces the vitamins so it's a win win for them.

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BBC2001uk@reddit

You guys all know the answer but your acting stupid it’s whoever controls our food specs also controls our health and healing down not want seeded grapes available to the masses ask your self WHY ?

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ArtistEngineer@reddit

Sorry, I can't shed light on the seedless grapes but I have a similar story. In 1997, I came over from Australia to the UK on a holiday working visa. At one I job, I asked my workmates why I couldn't buy seedless watermelons anywhere. I knew that watermelons had seeds, but Australian supermarkets mostly sold the seedless variety. My workmates thought I was pulling their leg, and making it up. They wouldn't believe that such a thing exists!

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LondonCycling@reddit (OP)

Well TIL there are seedless watermelons!

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terryjuicelawson@reddit

Even ones with seeds are dying out. I remember thick, black seeds you needed to spit out as a kid. Now they are softer and a yellowish colour almost like a cucumber. I am not 100% sure but they seem to be a lot more watery and bland too.

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Freudinatress@reddit

I always assumed those seeds means the melons were picked before they were ripe. But honestly, I have no clue.

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UpgradingLight@reddit

Most of the fruit in the UK is terrible for this reason, it’s all picked unripe across Europe and sent to ripen on the planes/boats which affects the flavour massively. If you get the chance go to Spain and go to a local market your mind will be blown!

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MajorHubbub@reddit

Not if you eat food that is in season. British strawberries taste great in summer. Asparagus tastes great in spring

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SimpleAirline179@reddit

Perthshire strawberries are without doubt the tastiest strawberries in the UK.... I told my granddaughter ( who loved the white of an egg but could not bring herself to eat the yolk . I told her to ask her mum to get yokeless eggs the next time they went to the supermarket . 🤔🙄

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Queasy_Difference_96@reddit

You may joke but you can buy cartons of egg whites in the milk/butter aisle. I buy it for when I make royal icing 🙌🏼

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SimpleAirline179@reddit

Yep, I have used them myself but I have never saw an egg without a yolk. We used to. Buy a dozen eggs from the local farm, the farmer guanteed that at least half them would be a double yorkers. I never see a double yoker these days ( we get out mild and eggs delivered to our door once a week about 3 am) no dearer than buying from a supermarket.

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eleanor_dashwood@reddit

Yes, _british_ food will taste wonderful in season. Food grown elsewhere the difference will definitely be noticeable but it’s still less pronounced because even in season, the food has to get here without going over.

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davesy69@reddit

It depends on the variety. I bought some iceland that looked like they were properly ripened and edible in a plastic container, but they tasted disgusting. I bought some oddly shaped large pinkish strawberries from a market stall that tasted delicious. 🍓

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OkCaterpillar8941@reddit

Smell them first. If they smell of strawberries then they're probably going to be okay. If they don't smell of anything they tend to be inedible.

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khbb@reddit

Yes!! I thought I was the only one going around smelling the strawberries 🎄. I live in the summer when you can smell them without getting up close haha.

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OkCaterpillar8941@reddit

An old lady asked what I was doing once as I rejected several cartons of strawberries. When I explained and showed her the difference in smell between good and bad ones she did the old 'In all my years I never knew this'.

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dietdoug@reddit

Iceland you say. No shit.

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VerbalVerbosity@reddit

I remember being in spain and buying a variety of melons from a random stall on the side of the road. To this day I don't think I've had a better, more fuller flavoured melon! Also, off topic, their Orangina tastes way better too!

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kwyjibo1988@reddit

You're right. Ripe watermelons have black seeds. If they're white/yellow the melon was picked early.

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Super-Bath148@reddit

Nah it means the seeds did not develop. They grow variaties where the offspring has an uneven amount of chromosomes. The seeds are not able to form. The seed husk is female material so that still forms. Watermelons can not ripen after they are picked. If you pick unripe watermelon it will never become red.

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kwyjibo1988@reddit

Don't they spray it with something that makes it ripen on the way to the shops or something? Or did I just totally make that up? I remember reading somewhere that fruit and vegetables are picked early and sprayed with something to make them ripen.

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Super-Bath148@reddit

It only works on some crops. For example bananas, tomatoes or apples can ripen afterwards when you put them in presence of ethylene. But watermelon needs to be picked ripe.

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kwyjibo1988@reddit

Today I learned...more. 👍🏻😊

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sympathetic_earlobe@reddit

I assumed they were being bred like that, although I'm not sure how that would work lol. When I was in Mexico a few years ago I was surprised by how many big black seeds the watermelons had, it took me back what they used to be like in the UK too. The oranges over there were also full of seeds.

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justabean27@reddit

Seedless varieties are hybrids, the seeds aren't viable and that's why they don't develop at all, making them virtually seedless

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AdamantEve@reddit

A dash of salt on watermelon can improve the sweetness if nothing else

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Standard_Pack_1076@reddit

I like a dash of lime juice too

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AdamantEve@reddit

That sounds nice. Just a blend shy of agua fresca

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justabean27@reddit

You didn't need to spit them out, they're perfectly edible

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terryjuicelawson@reddit

They don't taste of a lot and they get all stuck in your teeth, I'd rather not. Banana peel is also edible but that is a bit nasty too.

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Regular_Actuator408@reddit

I remember bananas often having traces of where the seed would have been a long time ago before breeding programs removed it. What I mean is that I remember bananas having dark specks around the centre of them. I also remember them often being almost separate pieces around the centre. Like three or four long segments that form the whole banana. I’m sounding like a crazy person now. But I haven’t seen a banana like that in years.

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Away-Activity-469@reddit

Yeah man, that's true. There were black bits. I watched a thing about bananas that explained how they are so geneticially engineered that they don't have seeds. Nobody grows a new banana plant. They are propagated from root stock, the same root stock essentially, so they lack any kind of diversity and disease resistance. The next blight will wipe out every Cavendish on the planet. But when I was a kid there were seeds, and segments like you say. Azores bananas and the red ones do still have that.

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IPbanEvasionKing@reddit

>The next blight will wipe out every Cavendish on the planet. It wont, just most of the large farms. You can still get gros michels in a few countries

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HobsHere@reddit

The cultivar used for commercial bananas changed in, I think, the 1960s, due to a blight.

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AdamantEve@reddit

I don't know the when the banana variety changed, but the current one is the Cavendish which replaced the Gros Michel. Bananas are cloned and not disease resistant. The Gros Michels were pretty much wiped out by Panama Disease and the Cavendish will almost certainly will too.

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IPbanEvasionKing@reddit

gros michel bananas are still produced under a variety of different names depending on the location, the first that come to mind are the "johnson" banana from Cuba and the "bluefield" from Hawaii

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everythingscatter@reddit

This. TR4 Panama Disease is already in Australia, East Asia, Pakistan, India and Mozambique. Monocropping and the huge contraction in the genetic diversity of our food is a huge, huge problem.

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SimpleAirline179@reddit

I saw something move under the skin of a banana I bought ( in a bunch , the " thing " burrowed out the banana skin , I nearly died when I saw it was a spide....i hate spiders , small ones , red ones, black ones, hairy ones...it popped out from under the skin.....God knows it had been under the skin of a lovey yellow banana since before shipment. I put the five bananas in a bowl , covered the bananas.....full blast b microwave for the bananas

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MullyNex@reddit

Not crazy that’s how they were

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Wipedout89@reddit

You're not crazy I remember the four or five black dots running through the middle like a stick of rock. Do they not have those any more?

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terryjuicelawson@reddit

I don't remember them having so many strings either.

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-You_Cant_Stop_Me-@reddit

>they seem to be a lot more watery and bland too. It's the same with a lot of fruit that needs to be transported long distance or grown out of season; gets harvested before full ripeness so lacks flavour and it fed loads of water just before harvest to increase the weight which dilutes what flavour it does have.

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Eve-76@reddit

Watermelon seeds have magnesium in them so I’m always happy to crunch them down

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Strong_Insurance_183@reddit

I get watermelons from the Turkish shop, they all have big black seeds. They're also ginormous so they sell them in qtrs wrapped in cling film

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iknighty@reddit

Probably means they're harvesting it before it's really ready.

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kash_if@reddit

> bland too. Like bananas...

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terryjuicelawson@reddit

Part of that is the main variety now is bred also to be large and transport well. I am used to it though, I am not sure I would be really into the very banana-y flavour that more closely matched banana flavouring from older varieties.

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kash_if@reddit

Yeah I was reading an article about how the tasty varieties are dying out because of this. When I visit India sometimes I get to eat some bananas which are so damn good... But even there most of the are the bland-ish variety you get here.

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blozzerg@reddit

I didn’t know grapes with seeds existed. Someone bought some grapes round once, grabbed one and started munching, spat it out because it had gristle in it. Tried another. Same problem. Said ergh there’s something wrong with these grapes, like there’s bugs living in them! Person said wtf they’re just the seeds…? I’m stood there equally as wtf…what seeds?

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sympathetic_earlobe@reddit

This is crazy to me haha! You must be quite young. I suppose it makes sense because I also haven't seen grapes with seeds in ages!

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blozzerg@reddit

Mid 30s, genuinely never seen them before or since either!

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Think-Stretch-2709@reddit

They do the seedless ones here now but they taste like watery garbage for some reason.

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madpiano@reddit

Omg I'd love to get seedless watermelons!!! No more waste!!

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sympathetic_earlobe@reddit

I haven't seen a watermelon in the UK with seeds in years. Where are you buying them from? Seeded watermelons have big black seeds btw (sorry if that's patronising but I think some younger people might not be aware) those withered yellow seeds _are_ the "seeds" that are found in seedless watermelon.

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madpiano@reddit

I usually grab them when the local corner shop has them and they are full of black seeds, may have to try a supermarket

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sympathetic_earlobe@reddit

Ah okay. There are no smaller places selling much fruit near where I am , not really anything substantial anyway. But yeah the big supermarket watermelons never have proper seeds.

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SadieBelle85@reddit

There's a stall at my local market that sells seedless watermelons in the summer, best thing since seedless grapes!!

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686d6d@reddit

If this is the future then the future is exciting

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Draig_Na_Dun@reddit

Exseedingly so.

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HwanMartyr@reddit

If there's no seeds how do you grow more?

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Tanjom@reddit

I can't say anything about fruit and veg, but cloning is very normal in the weed growing scene

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BritshFartFoundation@reddit

Yeah most fruit is grown from grafted trees. Iirc there's one fruit that it's impossible *not* to grow from grafting, apples maybe?

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sacredgeometry@reddit

Yeah apples but its not that its impossible its that getting the same type of apple without it is

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eccedoge@reddit

There was a great docu on apple rootstock on BBC4, apparently Brits played a big role finding the strongest to produce good apples [(also available on yt)](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h29uBlqSrgQ)

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kirkum2020@reddit

Many apple varieties we're used to only grow the way they do because of their specific graft. Technically you'd get the same apple if you planted the seed but without the thirsty rootstock it could be tiny and sour.

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insomnimax_99@reddit

Yeah, it’s quite common in agriculture. Eg, Cavendish Bananas (by far the most common variety of banana sold as food) are all clones of each other and are propagated asexually.

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North-Childhood4268@reddit

They’re a crossbreed, like mules. This makes them sterile, like mules, which have no seeds. (You’ve never cut open a mule and found seeds, I’ll bet)

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sacredgeometry@reddit

I mean wasnt there a vice video about this?

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Bellsar_Ringing@reddit

Exactly.

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Digitupandspread@reddit

Monsanto don't want you to

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Appropriate_Mud1629@reddit

They are cloned...which means all the fruit bearing plants are genetically identical... Any disease or pest that is fatal to one...will kill the whole crop. This is what happened to banana in the 60's and why we have only the Cavandish variety

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Woffingshire@reddit

Take cuttings of the vine and plant it. It will grow into a new vine. The farmer who made the original seedless grapes must be making bank off it.

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strawberry1248@reddit

That's the point! The companies selling the seeds make money _every year_.

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feetflatontheground@reddit

The vine would still be there, and will produce more, after you pick the melons. You don't need to buy seeds every year.

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FreerangeWitch@reddit

But watermelons are annuals?

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feetflatontheground@reddit

I've only ever grown them in tropical areas.

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_whopper_@reddit

They just need to be propagated by other means. Bananas also can’t reproduce so growers need to use suckers or via tissue cultures.

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feetflatontheground@reddit

Bananas put out shoots/pups. So another plant grows next to the old one.

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RoyalCultural@reddit

By taking cuttings. You can take a small branch from an existing specimin and plant it to create a whole new plant. It's a heck of a lot faster than planting from seed and the plant is a genetic clone of the parent so it's useful for maintaining the genetic properties as well.

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_whopper_@reddit

Useful but also dangerous. The bananas we have today were bred because its predecessor died out. Now the Cavendish could also die out because all the plants are genetically the same and Panama disease has adapted to it now.

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cette-minette@reddit

The grapevine fruits every year, and to make more vibes you take a cutting or graft of the plant.

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BeatificBanana@reddit

You graft them

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corobo@reddit

Keep the seeds from the pre-seedless plant that produces seedless grape plants would be my guess, but I'm no horticulturist

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Scipiovardum@reddit

Don't let the Catholics see this

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Edemummy@reddit

I’ll do you one more. I love lemons. I hate seeds with a passion. They’re one of the worst things about cooking for me. I went into a grocery store the other day and they had seedless lemons. My mind is blown.

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Sinister_Grape@reddit

The seeds are the best part of watermelons 😤

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strawberry1248@reddit

I used to eat them all the time.

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YesIAmRightWing@reddit

god damn id prefer seedless by miles.

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Cyborg_Ninja_Cat@reddit

Must've been since last week. I happened to notice (did not buy) seeded grapes in Sainsbury's when I was shopping on Thursday. They caught my eye because they were labelled "seeded grapes" and not just "grapes" - I would assume that any grapes not labelled seedless would be seeded, and was curious what the attraction of nasty little hard bitter bits could be, to prompt that advertising decision.

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ThrowawayIJeanThief@reddit

A lot of nutters have started pushing buying seeded items (grapes, watermelon etc) because it then means the plant haven't been manipulated (GMO etc). Even though the ones with seeds probably still have been..

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beoffendedyoulllive@reddit

Because you don’t want to eat genetically modified food, you’re a nutter? Odd way of looking at things.

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ThrowawayIJeanThief@reddit

If you can explain why it's a bad thing you might seem like less of a nutter. But there's no evidence that gmo food is dangerous in any way, and a lot of evidence of all the great benefits it's given. You can modify rice to produce pre cursors to vitamin A so they don't get rickets. Actively arguing against that purely on being anti-gmo feels aggressively selfish

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sympathetic_earlobe@reddit

To be fair we have been modifying our crops and influencing the development of certain traits since humans started to farm crops. I do find it disturbing though to see that some fruits and vegetables seem to be going in the direction of heavily processed food; being bred to be hyper palatable (super sweet varieties) and soft (seedless).

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North_Dog_5748@reddit

I would say something disparaging about us Brits to answer to this, but I am afraid I might be down voted :)

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sympathetic_earlobe@reddit

A bunch of lazy people who care more about convenience than flavour and nutrition, and don't think about where or how their food arrives in front of them?

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North_Dog_5748@reddit

Haha, that's about it, yes ;)

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semicombobulated@reddit

I can remember as a kid in the 90s always avoiding black grapes because they had seeds in them, whereas green grapes didn’t. And for some reason, green grapes were always labelled “Thompson’s Seedless”.

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Aconite_Eagle@reddit

People dont like them so they dont sell them. I love real grapes with actual seeds in them - crunching up the bitter seeds first is the best part. But I also like a massive piece of fat on my steak and it seems like the rest of UK consumers dont so I dont get what I like unfortunately because people generally have shit taste.

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NibblyPig@reddit

Just wait till people find out that in some countries people peel their grapes before eating them...

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PersonalityGloomy337@reddit

"I am a massive outlier and everyone disagrees with me on this.... they must all just have shit taste" Bro, if everywhere you go smells like shit, maybe you yourself are the source.

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Aconite_Eagle@reddit

Its not everywhere though its just in this country.

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useredditiwill@reddit

The fat in the steak is where the flavour and fat soluble vitamins are, and grape seeds also have beneficial compounds in the seeds. Ignore the downvotes you are clearly correct that these things are superior.

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sympathetic_earlobe@reddit

Removing the seeds is just one of the many ways we are messing with our food supply without knowing the full extent of the consequences down the line. Whether we eat the seeds or not, there could be a benefit to having the seeds intact in our fruit but the quicker we can gobble down our food the better apparently.

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GRAWRGER@reddit

i pity people who eat steak without the fat. they know not what they do.

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Metori@reddit

I agree with the fat on steak. One of the best parts of nice juicy steak. But not the grape seeds. Seeds are horrible.

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OdinForce22@reddit

The fat on steak is the best bit!

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Aconite_Eagle@reddit

It is I agree but I find so many supermarkets in the UK just trim it all off. Risk-averse UK consumer doesn't like it they think. Morrisons, Lidl and now Sainsbury's do a thick-cut ribeye which sometimes has quite a bit left on.

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OdinForce22@reddit

I'll take Ribeye over any other cut because of the fat marble running through it. People don't seem to realise that it's where the flavour is.

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PoJenkins@reddit

There's a difference between intermuscular fat and big globs of fat. Well marbled steak is great but I don't like chewing through big blobs of fat.

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OdinForce22@reddit

I love both.

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Vehlin@reddit

Generally it’s because they don’t want to pay steak price per weight for the fat.

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Aconite_Eagle@reddit

But that is the best bit.

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one-man-circlejerk@reddit

You eat the seeds? Whenever I ate seeded grapes (haven't seen them for years) I would spit those out...

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thebrainitaches@reddit

Yeah good vitamins and protein and extra fibre!

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Aconite_Eagle@reddit

Its a weird one; someone once told me it was really helpful for your digestion to chew the seeds up - they contain lots of good phytonutrients or something (I dont know sort of bro science) but you need to chew them up to help you digest them so I started doing it. Got used to doing it and kind of chewed and ground these seeds down like people do to sunflower seeds etc as a habit and just got used to it. Now I miss eating the seeds.

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madpiano@reddit

That's why Grappa was invented ..I prefer the skin and seeds that way 😂

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IanM50@reddit

We should all be eating a teaspoons of seeds each day. Great for gut bacteria.

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Equal_Chemistry_3049@reddit

I do half bite, squeeze seed, eat second half. I feel like big fat juicy seeded grapes are the first thing I look for when I go to a supermarket in a foreign country

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Atrixia@reddit

My parents: "A tree will grow out of your bum if you eat the seeds" Guessing your parents didn't do this one!

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Aconite_Eagle@reddit

No I didn't get that. I got the "apple tree will grow out of your stomach" one though. I had just watched Alien too on VHS some kid's dad had a copy we went and watched it and scared ourselves shitless and I'd swallowed a seed a few days before. Did not sleep very well for a while.

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AnUdderDay@reddit

>crunching up the bitter seeds first is the best part. Please seek psychiatric help

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AshamedAd242@reddit

Right, because someone doesn't like them means they have shit tastes...

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Aconite_Eagle@reddit

People dont like what I like means shit taste for me yeh.

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Shifty377@reddit

That's incredibly closed minded.

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AshamedAd242@reddit

What a backwards way of looking at something.

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strawberry1248@reddit

Not a fan of seeds in grapes, but I usually eat them. Same for pears, they are generally OK to eat.

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dendrocalamidicus@reddit

The grapes I grow have seeds but you can't bite through them, they are way too solid.

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Rolifant@reddit

I love this too. The crunchy bitterness inside a soft, sugary grape ... mmmmm.

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BrisJB@reddit

Forget grapes, why the hell don’t they make seedless lemons?

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CarpeCyprinidae@reddit

ah, yes,the problem after you've taken a big bite of a fresh lemon.. thats clearly the seeds that are the issue...

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Maximum-Text9634@reddit

It's a problem when using the liquid for cooking, which I assume OP was referring too. Don't be so pedantic.

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NibblyPig@reddit

Is it though, you just juice the lemon and pick out or filter the seeds. You can't do that with a punnet of grapes that you're eating though

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Spadders87@reddit

They where being sarcastic. Yet you, unironically apparently, are being pedantic.

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Maximum-Text9634@reddit

Doesn't really warrant a sarcastic comment though does it?

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CarpeCyprinidae@reddit

this is AskUK. They are de rigeur

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straightupp12@reddit

The last part didn't come off as sarcastic, especially with all the ...

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IcySetting2024@reddit

It’s annoying when you want some slices for tea and have to take the seeds out :)

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-myeyeshaveseenyou-@reddit

My 10 year old loves to eat whole lemons, so did I as a kid. I still like really sour fruit but lemon is a step too far for me now. But his half sister also loves whole lemon. I also put lemon juice on his apple for school to stop it going brown and he loves to drink the lemon juice. You’d be surprised how many lemon loving weirdos there are around. Also as a firmer chef I can say juicing a lemon riddled with pips is a pain in the hole.

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CaradocX@reddit

There's a scene in the movie Reds, where the actor playing Trotsky tucks into a meal of raw lemon and raw onion bulb and manages to do it without turning a hair.

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-myeyeshaveseenyou-@reddit

Oh yeh my son eats them like they are oranges, no faces pulled at all. My kids are a bit weird though. Both like frozen peas straight from the freezer and would sneak into the freezer when they were little to pinch them. My daughter used to eat whole peppers like apples. We were the number three purchaser of mango in Sainsbury’s in Yorkshire last year, but get this my kids like them hard!! Like rock hard.

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RainbowDissent@reddit

My son is 2 and if he's unattended for a minute, often the first thing he'll do is open the fridge and start eating a head of raw broccoli.

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-myeyeshaveseenyou-@reddit

Oh that’s wonderful, my kids eat weird but like yours at least it’s healthy food

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ilManto@reddit

Sicilian lemons my friend.

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CarpeCyprinidae@reddit

they make you a soufflé you can't refuse

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LondonCycling@reddit (OP)

My 5 year old niece loves munching on melons tbf. Lemons, green olives, and the stinkiest blue cheese you can find are her favourite foods.

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r_compton@reddit

I thought this recently and lo and behold, they had seedless lemons in Asda.

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The-Otters-Pocket@reddit

Agree. And alot of the Supermarket lemons have so many more seeds than some of the varieties which used to be on sale

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Protaras2@reddit

Umm.. There are...

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feetflatontheground@reddit

They do... and oranges.

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grayscalemamba@reddit

I've definitely used seedless lemons, but they weren't marketed as such - more of a happy accident maybe. I don't know how to get them reliably.

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SolidTake2291@reddit

They're all seeded, but they're softer and more palatable.

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Antidextrous_Potato@reddit

I have nothing meaningful to contribute, but the potato reference brought me great joy.

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LondonCycling@reddit (OP)

Well let me tell you, it is a great memory.

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SquidgeSquadge@reddit

Core memory, up there with the poop knife

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Adam-West@reddit

Meh. Im more of a cum shoebox kind of guy.

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SquidgeSquadge@reddit

I do not know this story *Googles cum shoebox story* I wish I didn't know this story, and the fact he does/ did it on my birthday for years. Thanks internet stranger

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DeadDeathrocker@reddit

Wait until you hear about the coconut story.

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SquidgeSquadge@reddit

Is this the awful one about the grandmother using coconut oil on her grandchilds hair despite being told they were allergic and killing her granddaughter? Really heartbreaking story but shows how important boundaries are with difficult relatives.

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DeadDeathrocker@reddit

…no. This one involves a horny male and the price you pay for using a coconut.

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MsFliss01@reddit

I bought seeded grapes from Sainsbury's last year, during grape season. I seek them out because our pet parrot loves them - the seeds are apparently the tastiest part. I'm hoping they are back this year or he will be sadly disappointed.

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Sea-Beginning3949@reddit

I'm not from the UK and stumbled upon this by chance.. and whaaat? You have seedless grapes?

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spookmew@reddit

You can buy seedless and grapes with seeds at the supermarket. Usually they have seeds unless stated otherwise. I suppose it depends where you buy your grapes though. My example probably relates to Sainsbury's

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genericusername123@reddit

My family owned/ran a vineyard in Aus since the late 80s, with lots of varieties, nearly all seeded. Every few years some new variety would become available (always seedless and claiming more yield per vine), they'd pull up the variety with the worst economic perfomance, and plant the new variety. By like 2010, everything was seedless. Shame because some of my fav varieties had seeds, but you can't argue with economics

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Drunken_Begger88@reddit

If all the grapes are seedless how do we get new grapes? And if all the grapes had seeds in them to begin with how did they breed them out? If that's even the right term here.

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petethepete2000@reddit

They expose the seeds to radiation and when the plant grows its fruit has no seeds

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wOlfLisK@reddit

It depends on the fruit but one way it's done is somebody has a plant that produces seeds and then those seeds make seedless fruit. The seedless varieties are sold to farmers which makes them a bunch of money but also means that they can't just bury some grapes and have a brand new vine growing, they *have* to go back to the company that sold it to them in the first place. GMOs are a big example of something that works that way. The other main way it's done is via grafting, you take an apple tree branch and put it onto an orange tree and now you have an orange tree that makes apples. That branch grows and then you cut a bit off and graft it to your plum tree and now you have two trees that make seedless apples.

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ThrowawayIJeanThief@reddit

A pretty good example of why GMOs aren't a bad thing, but can lead to bad outcomes

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Kaiisim@reddit

They use grafting and clones. For grape vines you get whats called "root stock" which are varieties of grape that grow strong vines. Then they will graft on other varieties of grape. Because they're all the same species, vinis vinifera the plant doesn't know. It just grows grapes. Bananas are all clones of the same plant, which is a problem as there is a disease that is killing them. If you plant a seed from an apple, that tree will have different flavour apples so the only way to grow them is via cloning and grafting. Its a whoooole science.

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AnthropomorphicKitch@reddit

Most European vibes are American roots, with the varieties grafted on top as the Americans are disease resistant

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Imperial_Squid@reddit

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A4Fxj-8kXwg

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OutlawDan86@reddit

Some still do. I bought grapes with seeds in from Lidl not so long ago.

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IHasBrains51@reddit

The UK market prefers seedless grapes and so that’s what the supermarkets sell. If you go to a green grocer or fruitier you can still find seeded grapes there.

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LondonCycling@reddit (OP)

Yes but my question was when did that transition occur?

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IHasBrains51@reddit

This article may answer your question. 🍇🙂 https://www.producebusinessuk.com/produce-pioneer-the-man-who-brought-seedless-grapes-to-the-uk/

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KeyLog256@reddit

No appetite for it. Same reason you can't buy beef on the bone in any UK supermarket - the ban on beef bones lasted all of two years, 25 years ago, but because it was BSE related everyone was just put off it. Supermarkets operate on incredibly thin margins to maximise profits, so you won't get anything that won't sell well.

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Fyonella@reddit

Probably about the same time you stopped being able to find Gooseberries in a normal supermarket. It appears the ‘Great’ British Public do not like their fruit ‘au naturel’. I have grape vines in the garden which produce a ridiculous amount of grapes that nobody will eat because they have seeds.

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feetflatontheground@reddit

I still see gooseberries in the supermarket from time to time. I think the shift away from gooseberries and such fruit is because more people are eating fruit 'Au naturel'. Fruits like gooseberries tended to be used for preserves or desserts. Most fruit was used like that in the 'old days'.

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madpiano@reddit

Gooseberries don't store well. You'll find them when they are in season, but not at other times. Also likely because they probably only grow in our climate and are not in season elsewhere at a different time. Just plant some?

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Fyonella@reddit

And this is exactly my plan! I love gooseberries and can eat them just as they are. I have ordered a couple of bushes, one green and one red, dessert gooseberry.

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AutomaticInitiative@reddit

Love a red gooseberry, my nan used to have a bush of each and she'd have a mare getting all the red ones before 10 year old me ate them all. She could keep the green ones for her crumbles which were amazing too :)

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feetflatontheground@reddit

Even if they were in season in the southern hemisphere there's probably no great demand. If they don't store well, they probably don't travel well either.

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when_this_was_fields@reddit

You need to start growing red gooseberries. They're almost like grapes, not sour and eaten straight from the plant. They also make great jam.

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feetflatontheground@reddit

Sounds interesting.

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Fyonella@reddit

This is an extremely good point and not one I’d thought of! The push away from added sugar makes complete sense as to why the traditionally sour fruit that was used in desserts (pies, crumbles, fools etc) is less popular and therefore not as readily available, even in season. The demand is no longer there in the way it once was.

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LondonCycling@reddit (OP)

Back when we used to eat seasonal produce. You wanted blackberries in January, you made blackberry jam.

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MinniJummbo@reddit

Bruh, seeded grapes been phased out for ages. UK supermarkets switched to seedless like forever ago!

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PutTheKettleOn20@reddit

They still sell the grapes with seeds in UK supermarkets... They just also sell the seedless kind.

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PruneSolid2816@reddit

Idk I know I used to be able to buy bags of seeded grapes in Asda and I think that was like 2012 or so

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Undeniable-Quitter@reddit

Almost all of the grapes I’ve bought from Tesco in the last couple of years have had seeds in them, despite being labelled as “seedless”.

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norrisollie@reddit

I bought some in Sainsbury’s… by accident

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KarenJoanneO@reddit

They are genetically modified to remove seeds because seeds are annoying.

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HatmanSmith@reddit

Would say became more common place in the 90s for seedless grapes in supermarkets, with outright replacement of seeded grapes in 00s. Article makes a good point that the seeded grapes were bigger though.

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Indigo-Waterfall@reddit

No idea but I’m glad they did becuase the seeds RUIN them.

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Accomplished-Act-178@reddit

I find seedless grapes at market stalls and ethnic (Turkish, Asian) supermarkets

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clamtunashiny@reddit

I accidentally bought seeded grapes from a UK lidl last year (was fucking fuming too)

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ultratic@reddit

I hope your potato comment is in reference to this https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/s/EXo4RF9Tc2

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birdistheword1988@reddit

I bought seedless grapes last week and they did in fact have seeds in them, I feel scammed!

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InterestingPie1592@reddit

Sainsburys still sell seeded grapes. I bit into one very surprised. I don’t even know what to do with seeded grapes…are you supposed to eat the seeds? Reseed them? It just seems messy

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throwaway_ArBe@reddit

Might want to tell the shops they were meant to stop selling grapes with seeds in them, think they missed the memo

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fidel-doggy@reddit

The seeds are good for you. They're rich in zinc.

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MattyFTM@reddit

I don't remember getting anything other than seedless grapes in supermarkets in the UK, and I'm 34. But when I was just becoming an adult and starting to do my own food shopping, I remember visiting a local fruit and veg market stall and being very impressed by the massive grapes that were so much bigger than the ones in the supermarket. Then when I got them home and bit into them, there was a large seed inside. Tbh these days I do nearly all my shopping in the supermarket for convenience, so I have no idea if that market stall still sells seeded grapes, but 10+ years ago they definitely did.

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Dave8917@reddit

Sainsbury sell them , but the reason many don't is because many vineyard grow crapes from the cutting rather than the sees , I belive I'm correct

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Folkwitch_@reddit

I (accidentally) bought seeded grapes from Sainsbury’s the other day. I didn’t realise it was rare to come across them?

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Mavericks7@reddit

Whilst we're on topic. Why do UK supermarkets sell fruit that's not sweet and flavourless Grapes, oranges, strawberry they're just meh. Got to the point where I buy my fruit from the Asian shop. It's cheaper and sweeter.

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luala@reddit

They still sell seeded grapes in local grocers near me (Cypriot part of London). To be fair I do know a lot of people that are massive babies about grapes with seeds in so it doesn’t surprise me that they aren’t as common now.

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DAMPF1NG3R@reddit

Seeded grapes are available in LIDL

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karennotkaren1891@reddit

I don't know where you are but EVERYTIME I buy "seedless" grapes they always have seeds and I hate seeds. I'm in Central Scotland

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dragonlady_11@reddit

Erm.... you can still get grapes with seeds in in supermarkets i do all the time because they taste way better, there usually there the fancier type ones though and not the cheaper own brand ones.

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NotDavid-Jatt@reddit

They haven't disappeared because my girlfriend bought some by mistake from Sainsbury's the other week.

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UnchartedAssasinate@reddit

My local store still does seed grape i never knew they stopped them.

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gernb1@reddit

I worked for many years selling produce. In the 80’s we seemed to sell a mix of seedless and seeded grapes. People just wanted less work, so eating seeded grapes was undesirable, even if they tasted better. Then sometime in the 90’s mostly seedless grapes were available. In the fall you can find seeded grapes for winemaking, but you usually need to special order them by the case.i would rather eat a grape with seeds and flavor. Some of the seedless varieties are tasteless. Same thing happened with watermelons. It’s harder to find a seeded watermelon….no one wants to spit out seeds….especially if they have children.

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Hyrules_Saviour@reddit

Kooky pseudoscience health nuts claim that any genetically modified fruits or veg such as seedless grapes or watermelon are bad for you and make you infertile. So there's still a market for seeded stuff you just have to go to weird places or foreign imports and pay mad prices. Usually pretty tasty though

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LondonCycling@reddit (OP)

I don't think a lot of the seedless grape varieties are actually GM though. It's just that they're cultivated differently and don't need seeds for reproduction. At a push they may be selectively grown. It's just picky consumers I suspect.

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Particular_Tune7990@reddit

Correct, I've been reading this thread and so far it's bereft of anyone who actually knows how seedless grapes are produced. it's a plant hormone that is added to their feed to suppress seed production. A natural hormone that's produced by the plants themselves on occasion. Source, I work with someone who used to run the national UK crop research facility of the BBSRC (UK biological science research funding body). Also an academic chemist and occasional crop research chemist by trade. Still don't believe me? Google gibberellin.

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Hyrules_Saviour@reddit

Yeah the people I'm talking about think selective breeding is essentially genetic modification. Look up Dr Sebi for more info

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just_a_girl_23@reddit

I can't help with this but just wanted to say I actually laughed at "looked at me like I'd just said I did not know what a potato is." I needed that, so thank you! :) I've heard variants on it but never potato and it just tickled me :)

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LondonCycling@reddit (OP)

It's actually a reference to this (which I'm still not sure is real or made up): https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/s/rH5c9CWBQi

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ThrowawayIJeanThief@reddit

fucking hell I forgot about that

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New-Conversation-88@reddit

You've not lived until you are camping with friends and have a juicy watermelon or two filled with seeds. You then have a watermelon pip spitting contest. To everyone's surprise, you a small woman and win over the big boys. Ps we did rake up the seeds and dispose of them.

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Sugmanuts001@reddit

I mean, if you are camping and spit seeds on the ground, it's not like the seeds are not biodegradable.

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New-Conversation-88@reddit

No but they dont need to grow in an area that is not natural for them.

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ThrowawayIJeanThief@reddit

I think you'd struggle to grow them if you actually wanted to, let alone just spitting the pips randomly

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LondonCycling@reddit (OP)

Indeed. Same reason to carry orange and banana peelings out instead of tucking them under rocks etc.

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ThrowawayIJeanThief@reddit

why? why not just chuck them in a hedge?

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dendrocalamidicus@reddit

Orange and banana peel do not grow my dude.

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warriorscot@reddit

No but they won't properly degrade in Northern climates, which is why you shouldn't throw them away outside.

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LondonCycling@reddit (OP)

Well done Sherlock.

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paulmclaughlin@reddit

You're not going to get watermelons growing wild in the UK

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lewilewi411@reddit

Never

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Digitupandspread@reddit

Monsanto

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Formal-Cucumber-1138@reddit

Good point

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Digitupandspread@reddit

Genuinly the seeds are the most nutritious part. People now buy grape seed extract

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Natural_Bit_1756@reddit

If interested, you should Google what fruit looked like before we started genetically modifying them . Needless to say, very very different

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brabrabra222@reddit

I moved to the UK in 2014. Back then, it was half half, I think. I remember liking the seedless type. I knew them from my home country but they were less common there. A couple of years later, everything was seedless.

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SCATOL92@reddit

I once told a teacher that grape seeds taste like tobacco. Apparently my mum got quite an interesting phone call...

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LondonCycling@reddit (OP)

Hah how old were you at the time?

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SCATOL92@reddit

About 7 I think. I remember hiding in the airing cupboard trying to roll cigarettes because all the grown ups in my life smoked them. I didn't know that the papers were only sticky on one part though, i thought it would just stick together if you licked it. I got tobacco in my mouth and it was gross!

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LondonCycling@reddit (OP)

Brilliant. I had a similar thing when I was about 10. I was on holiday in Spain, and I saw cigarettes in an ash tray, and knew people put them in their mouth... So I ate one. I felt sick quite quickly, then asked my mum what happens if you eat cigarettes. I think she was more confused by the question than anything else!

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SCATOL92@reddit

That is hilarious! God, that must have been awful!!

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Ruddington9@reddit

Sainsbury’s sell them

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CaradocX@reddit

You can still find seeded grapes in good fruiterers.

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jonschaff@reddit

I know a guy who knows a guy whose cousin used to work in city maintenance and he said that there are underground vineyards growing on the city sewer system cuz of all the pooper grape seeds.

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azkeel-smart@reddit

They never stopped. Still there to this day. https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/296187193

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LondonCycling@reddit (OP)

Out of stock in my local Tesco according to the app. When I've been in they don't even have space on the shelves for it. Same with both local Asdas.

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LondonCycling@reddit (OP)

Out of stock in my local Tesco according to the app. When I've been in they don't even have space on the shelves for it. Same with both local Asdas.

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ingenuous64@reddit

I have a grape vine in my greenhouse, bought it years ago so it's established. The grapes have seeds. They are very very sour so I barely touch them!

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imperialtrooper88@reddit

I miss grapes with seeds... These gen z blokes need to eat some seeded grapes and man up.

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sirusndyrus@reddit

But why do you need seeds in them? Planning to grow grapes at home and going to turn it into wine.

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LondonCycling@reddit (OP)

I didn't actually say I did need them; merely asking when we stopped stocking them in the major supermarkets. That said, I prefer the texture, so I'd happily buy them if they were available.

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Tacticoolhouseplant@reddit

Last Tuesday

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LondonCycling@reddit (OP)

Before or after the watershed?

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Tacticoolhouseplant@reddit

After

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Actual_Specific_476@reddit

I was born in the early 90s. I had never even heard of seeded grapes until recently. Never ate them and don't know anyone who has.

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2geeks@reddit

You can still find grapes with seed in some UK stores. They’re not particularly rare in the bigger supermarkets, or at decent size greengrocers, but smaller supermarkets tend to only have one or two varieties of grape and they’re usually all seedless in those stores.

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AerodynamicHandshake@reddit

Almost died because of this. Was living in Spain, and when it hits midnight the tradition is eating 12 grapes while the bells chime for good luck in the coming year. Piece of piss I thought, 12 grapes straight in the mush, only to find out they've got seeds in them. Much choking and spluttering later, decided that I'd passed test as I wasn't dead, and swore a curse on seeded grapes ever since. Had never had them before and never considered them.

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Crayons42@reddit

I had completely forgotten about seeded grapes! I now remember these from my 80s/90s childhood.

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Flippantfarmer@reddit

You can still buy seeded grapes in sainsburys, I always get them because the seeded varieties are always larger .

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pullingteeths@reddit

I had the same thought recently but I went in Sainsbury's yesterday and they did have some seeded ones along with seedless.

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brokenlogic18@reddit

I last managed to get some in 2018. I was eating them regularly in my lunch because I liked the crunch of the seeds and the grapes were huge like the size of plums. Then one day I couldn't add them to my Tesco order. Since then I haven't been able to find them anywhere.

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LondonCycling@reddit (OP)

If it helps, a few people in the comments are suggesting Sainsbury's sell them!

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Zacs-Dad295@reddit

I don’t know when but using my own experience I only buy seedless grapes so if other people are the same as me then shops will stop stocking them as no one will buy them

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AshamedAd242@reddit

I was born in 96 and have only ever had seedless grapes. On a side note I'm guessing sometime between 1985 and 1996. I watched Only fools growing up and the episode "Sleeping Dogs Lie" was released in 85 and they ate grapes with seeds in, in that episode.

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feetflatontheground@reddit

Your family only bought seedless, perhaps. Seeded grapes were sold well past 1996. And they still exist now.

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anonbush234@reddit

I was born in 93 and I can just about remember seeds in grapes if that helps narrow it down

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LondonCycling@reddit (OP)

Uncle Albert's been on the Doc Martens!

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brookepro@reddit

I wish seeded grapes were the norm rather than the exception. They taste better and are far more healthy. Waitrose often sells them but I have yet to see them elsewhere

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Commander_Sock66@reddit

Maybe try buying the "red seedless" grapes from Asda. All i get is bloody seeds in them! lol

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amazon999@reddit

when did they disappear? They didn't. I buy seeded grapes a lot by mistake, I prefer seedless just like your picky friend, but sometimes they're near each other and I grab the first box I see without checking they're seedless [https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-seeded-grapes-700g](https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-seeded-grapes-700g) [https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/296187193](https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/296187193) [https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-sweet-jubilee-seeded-grapes/879431-590459-590460](https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/waitrose-sweet-jubilee-seeded-grapes/879431-590459-590460)

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KleioChronicles@reddit

The market probably demands seedless grapes more. I certainly prefer seedless.

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Fun_Level_7787@reddit

You can still buy seeded grapes from supermarkets, but more likely from a local market. I see them more frequently during summer and indulge on them all summer long!

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Wickedbitchoftheuk@reddit

I noticed this a long time ago.

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Anguskerfluffle@reddit

It's a big grape conspiracy.

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LondonCycling@reddit (OP)

We should stamp it out. Mind you, last time I stood on a grape, it let out a little wine.

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Anguskerfluffle@reddit

That sounds like an absolute "must"

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anonbush234@reddit

The last grapes i had were seeded but the when you lulls the grape off the stem the seeds stayed attached to the stem with a little pith

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Ok-Mixture3994@reddit

It hasn't stopped, it's still possible to buy grapes with seeds.

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Cold_Power_7217@reddit

You can get them, but they’re not as popular and don’t sell as well, Sainsbury’s sell seeded grapes

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AbdulPullMaTool@reddit

Lidl sell them on occasion.

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DameKumquat@reddit

The grapes sold as TtD or actual varieties generally have seeds. Just the generic ones are seedless.

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lostrandomdude@reddit

You can still get them from the fruit market. Or ethnic stores

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NortonBurns@reddit

They've not vanished entirely. My local Turkish 'mini-mart' sources some really good fruit & veg. Some of their grapes still have seeds.

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WhaleMeatFantasy@reddit

I don’t know but the ones with seeds taste better.

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