The big difference between France and many other places is, they still uphold the ideas of "seasonal", "domestic", and "regional"; even in supermarkets. Although you can get the standardized year-round-fare from Dutch factory greenhouses and Spanish plastic tent deserts, you're not limited to that. That makes for tastier produce WHEN it's available. The anticipation of a seasonal food soon to return to the table is a feeling we have almost lost in our instant gratification societies.
The same goes for meat as well. Most everywhere there is cheap "beef", where the poor animals have been carted across half of Europe to find their end in the lowest wage factory slaughterhouse. In France you can choose to buy cuts of Charolais de Bourgogne (the whitish cows, not fluffy ;-) for the best Boeuf Bourguignon you can possibly bring to the table. Or select juicy Fin Gras beef from Haute-Loire; lightly marbled, delicate, intense; from happy cattle that fed on pasture grass and mountain herbs. And there is a bunch of other breeds whose names you often find even on packaged meat in the supermarket.
These people still care about what they eat, which drives the markets, which is the true secret behind the world famous French cuisine.
In hypermarché or huge supermarkets like Auchun, Leclerc, Géant Casino, Carrefour, Intermarché etc, they spray fruit and veggies with disgusting chemicals to keep them longer. They usually get their produce from far away so better to avoid these toxic poisons and stick to what's either local or organic. And I lived in the South😬 Even our primeur...local fruit and veggie shop, started spraying stuff and I could tell as the taste changed😖 Garlic frog legs are delicious😋 The meat sold under cellophane in these supermarkets are the product of industrial farming🤢 And some supermarkets will trick you into buying meat that's past the DLC (delai limite de consommation) by chopping it up and redistributing the pink on the outside then they just put a new label on it😫 I saw several documentaries on this😬 Better to stick to your local butcher's shop🙏
I agree with you 100%. Supermarket food is industrialized to a high degree and fresh food from local markets and your trusted butcher is always preferrable. I'm not saying that French supermarkets are a paragon of virtue, I'm saying elsewhere it is often worse!
I live in Germany. The offerings of our supermarkets can only be called cheap garbage. Tasteless produce, for example peaches that look beautiful and are DRY, tomatoes that taste of nothing but WATER, pork that smells of fish because the animals are fed fish meal, white bread with notes of plastic...
When I hop over the border to France (10 km for me) I can shop CORA and the quality is that much better, like I described in my original comment. The bread, too, when I buy it. There are several boulangeries artisanales on my way, and their bread is heavenly, but CORA's compares to them not too unfavorably.
The crimes of the "DLC" and inferior ingredients is universal accross the packaged food industry; it's greed, pure and simple. Interestingly, when I hear about food scandals in Germany, it seldom concerns French companies. Most often, Dutch manufacturers / suppliers seem to be involved, even if the end product is made in another country, e.g. here. (Sorry Nederlanders, that's the impression I got over the years.)
Personally, I'm against globalization and against the EU. I would like to have my borders back in Europe. Things were better then. Now there is "BIO" (organic) food from as far away as China. Yeah, we can trust them not to use chemicals...
I've never heard of Cora. We don't have in the South. I often went to Ceraprim (a little expensive), Biocoop, and La Suprette Bio. Nothing from China there. But supermarkets often do get some of their bio from China🤢🤮 In France beware of origines non-EU. But our local markets and neighborhood artisanal stores you can get everything and it doesn't really cost that much because you're eating healthier therefore are eating less. And as they say, less is more😉🙏
Yeah most of the produce in the grocery stores are from France with only a few exceptions. But even with the exceptions there is always a France option as well. It also helps that they have a very long growing season. Even in the winter there are crops being grown - usually hearty crops like Kale or something.
Yeah I hate to even think about the conditions that animals that we eat live in. I essentially swore off meat for about two years after first learning about how the animals were raided and all that. But I have since begun to eat meat again. For me it is hard to stay a vegetarian long term. Tbh I'm actually looking forward to when cultured meat becomes economical.
You are right that it is the consumer that drives the markets.