Retail marketing - particularly in the form of product descriptions - has reached new heights, writes David Shapley.

Perhaps it is because potatoes are not the most attractive items on the shelf that leads Marks & Spencer to add its own brand of magic.

The text on new packs of speciality potatoes, priced at £1.49 for 500g, bears repeating. I quote: “Mimi has been selected and lovingly grown for its smooth, creamy, melt-in-the mouth texture. Grown by true potato experts with generations of experience in the heart of the Norfolk countryside, they are only available for a limited period - so enjoy them while you can!”

The named grower John Adams Williams can obviously feel very proud, but I hope such glowing terms will not give other suppliers an inferiority complex.

Staying with vegetables, at a time when autumn shades are now creeping in, something made me wonder if Tesco is expecting an Indian summer. It has launched a highly colourful pack of summer roasting vegetables at £2.39 for 550g.

For the cooks among our readers who want to replicate the experience, the proportions are 24 per cent red onions; 24 per cent courgettes; nine per cent cherry tomatoes; eight per cent each of red and yellow peppers and an Italian style herb dressing (three per cent).

Moving on to salads it seems that what is accurately described as living lettuce is making a comeback. If I remember rightly it first started to appear on retail shelves about a decade ago and suddenly disappeared. Now it is back at Sainsbury’s, at £1.09 each.

There is no denying that it must be one of the freshest products available, although it must take some store discipline to keep it in prime condition.

There may still be plenty of cheap southern hemisphere apples about, but there are signs that the European stone-fruit season is coming to a close.

With the South African season still some months away it seems to be proving more-and-more of a niche foothold for the US, with several varieties of lesser known peaches, nectarines and plums.

One product that caught my eye was the Dino Egg in M&S, in its Flavour Collection Series at £2.49 for a 4-tray pack. I remember spotting it before, when some enterprising retailer (and I hope they will write in and claim credit) introduced them at the time when the film Jurassic Park was busting box office records.

Certainly it is still an excellent way to convince consumers that the naturally mottled skin does not mean the fruit is over mature. Perhaps this is just another example of the value of descriptive text.

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