What does the word "Fresh" mean in everyday conversation in America / UK / Australia? I am confused?

I am from Asia & English is not my first language.

When I was watching some TV ads in Australia, I often heard that "buy fresh meat in our supermarket" or "try our fresh apples" or "we cook fresh chicken".

Then I feel confused. In my country, the word "Fresh" means "have just harvested" (for vegetables or fruit) & means "have just slaughtered" (for meat). Ex: In my country, if you say "I eat a fresh apple" means that u eat an apple that have just taken from the tree 5 mins ago". if you say "I cook fresh chicken" means that u slaughtered an alive chicken & then immediately (maybe after 1 or 2 hours) u cooked it then it is said that "you are cooking fresh chicken".

That makes sense cos in my developing country, refrigerator is very limited, not many people have equipment to store meat, so they have to cook meat immediately & thus they define "Fresh" ="have just harvested or have just slaughtered".

However, i asked some English people in Australia & in America, they means "Fresh" differently. For them, "Fresh" means "have not spoiled". Ex, the supermarket killed a chicken & then they put it into the fridge for 2-3 days, they then take the chicken out & sell it to you. Then the supermarket is saying that "I am selling a fresh chicken to you". It means "I am selling not-spoiled chicken to you though the chicken was dead for long period of time, it just has not spoiled cos the supermarket stored it in the fridge.

Likewise, the supermarket can use some preservatives to store apple for many months & now they are selling not-spoiled apples to you, then they can say "I am selling fresh apples to customers".

But How English people define "Fresh" in old time when fridge has not invented yet?

Do they mean "Fresh"="have just harvested or slaughtered"?

I think you can define "fresh" best by what it's not. Fresh is:

• not spoilt

And is generally:

• not frozen
• not dried
• not tinned

Often the sense is chilled, but not always (fresh milk is chilled, longlife milk isn't, and wouldn't be described as fresh, fresh meat is always chilled)

Of course, before refrigeration, the only way to get something fresh was to pick it just before consumption (with a few exceptions - apples, onions etc. can be stored cool and dry for some time).

You can think of the condition being (approximately) the same as in the historical case, the technology to achieve that condition not being particularly relevant.

In the sense of bakery products, "fresh" should mean baked recently- for some value of recently appropriate to the product. Generally this would mean on site or nearby, and perhaps not packed in a sealed packet.

However to describe something as "not fresh" would implies that it's past its best - slightly stale bread for example, so it's not quite the opposite.

I've tried to capture the whole range of meanings, but I'm sure I've missed some!

Technically fresh should mean "recently from the source," as you indicate. However (probably as a result of marketing) the meaning has degraded, at least here in America. Since there are no (to my knowledge) legal barriers to using the term however you wish, people have taken to using it to mean anything that hasn't been frozen, previously cooked, or otherwise processed. Most people here understand there are two meanings, one used in general, and other used when someone is trying to sell you something.

You should also note the 80's/90's era slang term fresh (also funky fresh) meaning new and cool.

I can't speak for other parts of the world, but fresh in the United States means "not yet frozen" and "has not yet had a chance to decay"

Of course, if you are marketing something, you want to tell people that what food you are selling is fresh, because fresh food is considered to be better! There are laws that determine the labeling of food. This suggests that you would be better off using your nose and not trusting the label!

I should also mention that there is a reason why grocery stores throw away food. I would guess that part of the reason is that their "fresh" labels are no longer valid after a certain point.

NOTE: Dumpster divers happily eat the thrown away food. It is illegal to do to this in many places. In France, they actually throw poison on the food in dumpsters to prohibit this activity.

'Fresh', in the UK, means all sorts of things (or even not much at all in fanciful terms like 'ocean fresh' and 'oven fresh'). The best advice seems to be 'Look for a date-of-harvesting-etc stamp'. These usages are defined (or left mushy) by authorities higher than the vocab police.