What to Avoid at ALDI

Are you new to shopping at ALDI? Although you can find a ton of great products, here are all the products to avoid at ALDI on your next shopping trip.

Look, I love ALDI. At this point, I have tried just about everything they sell, and most of it is top notch. Especially when you take price into consideration. For most of my weekly grocery needs, ALDI can’t be beat. I buy a lot of my staple ingredients there, quite a bit of my produce, and a boatload of kid-friendly items.

But, although I am a huge fan of most things that ALDI sells, there are some things I don’t buy at ALDI. Some things that I avoid at ALDI aren’t worth the price, some things don’t stay good that long, and some things just aren’t to my taste preferences. If you don’t know where to start in your ALDI shopping journey, start anywhere but with these items. Here are all of the items I suggest you avoid at ALDI.

Trail mix

If you read my best items for kids at ALDI post a while back, you might be confused that I’m starting off my list of things to avoid at ALDI with trail mix. On that kid-friendly ALDI list, I very strongly encouraged you to buy the individual trail mix packs at ALDI. And I stand by that recommendation. The trail mix that I’m suggesting that you avoid at ALDI is the big bag of Mountain Trail Mix.

You see, I was trying to get away from the individually wrapped packaging of my son’s favorite snack, so I bought the big bag of trail mix one day with plans to portion it into smaller, reuseable containers that he could easily take on the go. My son and I both regret that decision. The big bag of Mountain Trail Mix is unbalanced (far too many raisins) and way too salty. My 5-year-old just won’t eat it. Don’t make the same mistake that I did. Stick to the individual packs of trail mix at ALDI.

Bread

I want to love the bread at ALDI, I really do! Unfortunately, even though the bread that I get at ALDI tastes good, it doesn’t last very long at all. I’m talking just a few days. There have been several times that I have bought a loaf of bread at ALDI only to open it three days later to find it riddled with mold. No thank you.

Sometimes I do have to buy bread at ALDI, either because it’s the only place I’m going or because I need a specialty bread and I really don’t want to pay the crazy price at another store. In these instances, I buy the ALDI bread and immediately stick it in my fridge. I have found that refrigerating ALDI bread gets me a few more days of mold-free eating, but not much more than that. It’s just not worth it to me to routinely buy bread there, so bread is something I avoid at ALDI.

Parmesan cheese

This might be a bit niche of an item to avoid at ALDI, but stick with me here. I’m not opposed to all of the Parmesan cheese at ALDI. I’m a big fan of the wrapped wedges of Parmesan cheese. But when I need grated Parmesan cheese for a weeknight meal (which I won’t have time to grate myself), I find pre-grated Parmesan cheese elsewhere. You see, ALDI doesn’t sell grated Parmesan cheese. If you don’t want to buy the wedge, all you can get is shredded Parmesan cheese. And to me, that’s pretty useless when I’m trying to make meatballs and I really need that fine grate.

Shredded cheese

It pains me to tell you to avoid another item from the cheese aisle at ALDI. Overall, I love their cheese selection. On the whole, you can get really high quality cheeses for much less than pretty much anywhere else. But, as much as I don’t want to, I think you should add shredded cheese to things you avoid at ALDI.

Why? Well, it’s just not quite right. I’m not someone who is hugely offended by the addition of a cellulose anti-caking agent to shredded cheese, so that’s not my beef. First of all, it’s fancy shredded, and I much prefer a thicker shred. But more than that, it just doesn’t perform super well. It doesn’t melt that well or incorporate into all of my shredded cheese dishes. Because of these two issues, I buy my shredded cheese elsewhere or buy cheese in a block at ALDI and shred it myself.

Vanilla ice cream

Like many other families, we often have vanilla ice cream in our freezer. It’s good to throw on top of a fruit pie or crisp, it’s a good base for a sundae, and, if you’re my husband, it’s your favorite ice cream to eat plain. Because I like to keep it in my freezer pretty much all the time, we have tried a lot of vanilla ice cream brands. And I mean a lot. Unfortunately, the vanilla bean ice cream from ALDI is at the bottom of the list. This is one product to avoid at ALDI.

You should avoid the vanilla bean ice cream at ALDI because it just doesn’t taste like anything. It’s sweet, sure, but that’s about the only flavor you get from it. It certainly doesn’t taste like vanilla. I also kind of hate the texture of it. It’s more icey than it is creamy, and that’s not what I want from my vanilla ice cream. You can find better vanilla ice cream pretty much anywhere, so don’t waste your dollars and calories on the ALDI vanilla ice cream.

Salad kits

Before we had kids, I made homemade house salads almost every night with dinner. I washed and cut the lettuce, I added fresh veggies and croutons, and even made a homemade dressing more nights than I didn’t. When kids came to the scene, I was forced to abandon this practice and have since relied on salad kits for most of my family’s salad needs.

And, although salad kits have made huge strides in the last few years, they are not all created equal. The salad kits at ALDI have consistently disappointed me, so I no longer buy them. The dressings and mix-ins are fine, but the produce quality in the salad kits at ALDI just haven’t lived up to my expectations. Unless you’re in a pinch I recommend that you avoid buying salad kits at ALDI.

Citrus

Before I discuss my next item to avoid at ALDI, I must acknowledge that I am a citrus snob. I was born and raised in what used to be the epicenter of the citrus world, so I know what citrus fruit is actually supposed to taste like. Because of this, I try not to buy citrus at any grocery store. But, sometimes I need a citrus fruit or my kids want to eat citrus fruits. When those situations arise, I don’t buy citrus at ALDI.

Other than being cold storage fruit that is tasteless (like all grocery store citrus), my beef with citrus at ALDI is that they only come in bags that contain multiple fruits. I don’t often need eight lemons at a time, so buying the bag would only lead to food waste. The bag situation also means that you compromise on quality for at least some of the fruit. I have never bought a bag of any fruit and got all stunners. It’s just never a purchase that works out. If you need citrus, don’t buy it at ALDI.

Bananas

We go through a lot of bananas in my house. My husband eats one every morning, my kids love them, and they are a crucial ingredient in the smoothies that my kids demand for second breakfast every school day. Because I buy bananas multiple times each week, I’ve scoped out all the local places to get them. And all bananas are not created equal.

Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, the bananas at ALDI are weird. I don’t eat bananas, so I can’t comment on their taste, but they ripen weirdly. They seem to go straight from green to brown and mushy in an instant. Bananas are famously finicky, but ALDI bananas seem to be even more so. So bananas are going on my list of items to avoid at ALDI.

Deli meat

My family doesn’t eat copious amounts of deli meat, but when we do, we want it to be high quality. I’ve tried buying deli meat at ALDI a handful of times and have been disappointed each time. My impression of the deli meat is that it tastes mostly of salt and is slimy at best. Do yourself a favor and find somewhere that sells Boar’s Head products and avoid the deli meat at ALDI.

Chicken

When I first started shopping at ALDI, I was skeptical of their meat. Buying meat from a discount grocery store just seemed dicey. After shopping at ALDI for a while, though, I got over that and started trying the meat products. Happily, most of these purchases led to successful meals. Chicken, though, has been a disappointment.

I avoid chicken at ALDI for a few reasons. First, the texture is strange. Stringy might be the best description. Second, it ends up being pretty expensive because I basically have to butcher the meat. There is so much fat and what I like to call pieces parts that I end up discarding much of the “meat” I’m paying for by the pound. It’s just not worth it to me.

What to Avoid at ALDI