What Does Wegmans Sell for $999 Per Pound?
One pricey item in the produce section is kept under lock and key.
The produce section in a supermarket isn't typically a place to find high-end luxuries. But in the corner of the Malvern Wegmans produce section, black truffles, imported from Italy, are kept under lock and key (see photo at right).
Located next to other, less expensive mushrooms, the rare, renowned fungi sell for $999.99 per pound.
A CBS news segment (video) July 2012 called truffles "the most expensive food in the world."
The price of truffles has risen sharply as global supply plummets, possibly due to climate change, according a December 2012 article in the New York Times:
There are various reasons for what has been a decline over decades in the harvest of black truffles from southern France, Spain and Italy, including shrinking forests and changes in land use. In France alone, the annual black truffle harvest has fallen from about 1,000 tons in the 1930s to about 50 tons now.
Regina DiLabbio Klugh King
7:32 am on Monday, January 28, 2013
We've come a long way baby from the penny candy at Mary Wilson's and Roland Ewing's establishment to trendy fungi! (Trendy Fungi is my fifth cousin on the Italian side of my family). :-)
Cassie Jamison
8:35 am on Monday, January 28, 2013
Saw that the other day...a friend dared me to ask for $5 worth...
tooraa
11:30 am on Monday, January 28, 2013
They are very light and you don't need that many to make a huge effect on a meal. Most people would probably only end up with $20 or so worth of truffles (they are light and strong). Anyway I wonder if Wegmans would sell that rice that they let the truffles rest in.
Jim McVeigh
7:03 pm on Monday, January 28, 2013
I wonder what the shelf life is on the truffles?
I would suspect that Wegmans has to throw them out after so long, unless they use them in other foods that they prepare.
Assaggiatore
12:49 pm on Saturday, February 2, 2013
Per pound, remember. They are really small and lightweight. Probably less that $75 per piece.