Strange Smell/Taste at Flatbush Key Food - Are we crazy?

austink · September 2010

A while back, my wife and I both started noticing a strange taste in some foods (usually unsealed things like bread, but also meats and milk) at the Jo, Brian, Joseph Key Food on Flatbush and Sterling. At first, we thought it was just a fluky thing, but it started to happen consistently, and then we noticed that there was also a smell on the food, and it was exactly the same smell as the store itself has!

It is very hard to describe, beyond saying that it is vaguely chemical and very unpleasant. I am tempted to say that it smells like a cleaning product or insecticide, but really I don't know. I have spent a lot of time searching the web for some clue, but not found anything.

We stopped going there altogether because we were having to throw away a lot of food... Now after more than a year of relying on the 5th Avenue Key Food, and the occasional splurge at Natural Land, we have encountered it in the food at other stores, but far far less frequently, and without the associated smell that Jo, Brian, Etc has. Interestingly, the bad taste/smell has been showing up in the food from one section of another store, and only that section (deli and bread).

Has anybody else encountered this, specifically at the Flatbush Key Food or anywhere else? I admit that I am very sensitive to smells, but my wife isn't, and both of us notice this taste and can't eat anything that has it. Our former housemate who shopped there never knew what we were talking about, and we didn't push the point since it sounds kind of crazy... If one other person knows what we are talking about it would be a big relief. If someone knows what it is so we can at least talk to the store manager, that would be even better!

pitu · September 2010

I think of it as "that grocery store smell", a phenomenon that is not uncommon in NYC. No idea what the unholy mix of causes is...yuck.

bkchickie · September 2010

I haven't noticed this. I don't buy a lot of fresh food at Key Foods (mainly because I question its freshness,) What I do buy are non-perishables (dry pasta, canned goods, etc.), paper products, and cleaning supplies.

It would make sense to me that if the store smells (and I don't think that "grocery store smell" is unique to NYC) that perishable, and/or unsealed foods would pick up that smell as well.

patos blancos · September 2010

Does the smell you talk about remind you of laundry or fabric softener, or the filter of a tumble dryer? If so, we've got the same problem. We've noticed this on things like pitta bread but especially on store-cut and -wrapped cheese. I don't know where the smelly pitta came from but the cheese must have come from the Fatbush Key.

We've come here from Europe and had never noticed this until we came to NYC. Maybe they spray the chillers with some cleaner that is very persistent? Or mould in the aircon? It's vile whatever it is.

count floyd · September 2010

I have noticed an off taste to bread once in a great while, and I'm sure it has happened at that Flatbush Key Food since I used to live around the corner. Oddly enough I have also experienced "off" peanut butter once in a while too.

MOD · September 2010

Sounds like it's more then likely a chemical detergent/insecticide and even rodent poison or repellent. Could originate at the warehouse... Just my guess...

whatchuwant · September 2010

The Key Food on Washington has the same problem, but it's usually the meat. Recently I returned some London Broil that I'd already cooked- we had taken a few bites and couldn't get over the taste- like it was fermented in cleaning solvent. I brought it back to them in the hopes they would eat it and be as disgusted as I was. No such luck- he just told me to toss it and trade it for something else.

rezist · September 2010

I've had similar results with the meat at the Washington Key Foods location. Now I know not to take a chance with the one on Flatbush, thanks.

pitu · September 2010

Whatchuwant wrote: The Key Food on Washington has the same problem, but it's usually the meat. Recently I returned some London Broil that I'd already cooked- we had taken a few bites and couldn't get over the taste- like it was fermented in cleaning solvent. I brought it back to them in the hopes they would eat it and be as disgusted as I was. No such luck- he just told me to toss it and trade it for something else.

ewwww. way to extend shelf life...

inpixels · September 2010

ishtar · September 2010

inpixels wrote:

That's been going on for a very long time and it's unlikely the cause of the chemically taste people are talking about here.

smokin joe · September 2010

anyone notice that the o.p.'s complaint was austink's first post? and then the first person who agreed with it was patos' first post? maybe it's legit and all, but just saying. caveat lector.

inpixels · September 2010

Smokin' Joe wrote: anyone notice that the o.p.'s complaint was austink's first post? and then the first person who agreed with it was patos' first post? maybe it's legit and all, but just saying. caveat lector.

sweet tea · September 2010

for the record: they are posting from different IPs, and are hardly the first people on this board to think that key foods is on the funky side.

nevertheless, it is always wise to think critically about the interblags!

modsquad2.0 · September 2010

I don't know, sorta smells like teen spirit

doublediamond · September 2010

Yeah, I noticed a smell, but I've never bought anything but frozen pizza at that key food so I haven't tasted that smell.

There are a few food places in NYC I've walked into and walked right out because it smells funny.

I shop at the co-op. No weird smells!

tyson · September 2010

I was agreeing with most of what was posted, and don't know what happened to my post... At the risk of repeating myself - yeah, I have smelled this at lots of grocery stores, worst with fresh things like bread, butter, some vegetables. Have to buy those things elsewhere if the smell is too much. But then most grocery stores smelled like this in the 80s, no?

I wish I could buy meat/fish in these stores but just can't do it any more, got the bleach/ammonia taste too often.

bklyn-ite · September 2010

Stopped shopping at Flatbush Key Food on Flatbush along time ago. Chicken, meat, etc always smelled bad after opening pkg. And bags of oranges,j boxes of strawberries, blueberries, etc had rotten items on the bottom.
I have been shopping Fresh Direct now, a bit expensive, but Imy food is fresh, I can request organic (rate #1 farms) and they deliver on time. They carry my groceries up 4 flights of stairs with a smile. Evrything is delicious and my emphasis is on Fresh, like shopping at a butcher.store ... Even the soda can be flat at Key Food, and I once bought ice cream that must have thawed and then refrozen, because it tasted like moldy ice. i never go in that store, and if you do, always check the expiration dates.

berit · September 2010

Yeah, I lose my appetite just by walking into most grocery stores in NY. That smell is gross.

bkchickie · September 2010

Tyson wrote: But then most grocery stores smelled like this in the 80s, no?

Maybe that's why the smell just seems normal to me? I wonder if the smell is from some kind of refrigerant used in older equipment, something that a larger suburban grocery store would have long gotten rid of (or never had in the first place because it was built five years ago), but smaller urban stores haven't yet seen the need.

tyson · September 2010

I think BKC has it right - I used to work in a big kitchen and the huge walk in fridge smelled like this smell that people are describing. Combo of cleaning supplies and old food. Even if a place is pretty clean, over years stuff builds up. Maybe this is part of why the yuppiemarts (disclosure: where I do some shopping!) don't smell as bad... They haven't been around as long/the equipment isn't as old.

nicholas · October 2010

Never noticed a funky smell at Key Foods, but I do think that they have some problems with the refrigeration. I frequently see frozen items that have thawed and the boxes are soggy, Maybe I'll switch to Fresh Direct.

pnlop · October 2010

Haven't shopped there in years. The Met on Vandy isn't quite as bad, but now that we shop mostly at the Food Coop, all stores seem to have that smell. I really think it's the harsh chemicals in detergents and soaps that permiate everything. I can't buy bread from Met without it tasting like soap. The KeyFood on flatbush though is extremely bad, you just walk in and get a wif.

austink · October 2010

Hey, I am chiming in again way late, because I did not get notifications that there had been so many replies.

I won't take the newbie snarks personally since I haven't contributed before, but believe me I posted this not to knock Key Foods but because I have been driven crazy by this problem and was hoping someone else with experience at the same store could confirm (can't do this without mentioning the store). I have lived in the neighborhood for a long time, and I started to experience this problem consistently 3 years ago, so again I don't think I'm being unfair to them. If anyone on the forum is a Key Food supporter, that's just fine but please mention to them that they are literally throwing away customers. I tried to tell them, but all I got was offers to exchange things, no action to fix it.

What Patos Blancos and Watchuwant said sounds like exactly what we were tasting, so I am glad to know it's not my imagination (not to mention grossed out by the implications of all of this.) Yes, it could be described as a laundry softener smell. Definitely chemical.

Like I mentioned in the original post, we have occasionally run into this nasty flavor at other stores, but never to the extent that we did at Jo Brian Joseph, which is why I did not mention the others by name. When I mentioned this to a manager at one of the other stores, he immediately said he knew what I was talking about and that he thinks it is a product used to clean the coolers. He promised to ask his cleaning contractor to be careful to rinse it better in the future. Still gross, but at least some acknowledgment of the problem...

mrlithe · October 2010

Subject: funky smell/taste

I have noticed a horrible freezer burn aftertaste in every cheese I have bought there. The last time I took a chunk back and the manager told me it's because the freezer is right near the door and when it opens it causes the temperature to change in the cooler resulting in freezer burn or stuff just going bad. I don't know if this is the case with other foods there.

I appreciated his honesty but they've made no attempt to fix it.

Strange Smell/Taste at Flatbush Key Food - Are we crazy?

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