Packaging design seems to advance daily, and more and more retailers are turning towards photo-enhanced packaging to attract consumer interest, writes David Shapley.

It all looks very nice, but I am tempted to sound a word of warning based on what I have seen this week, which is that, inevitably, the real product does not always stand up to the same scrutiny.

That said, there appears to be no end to the inventiveness being used to draw the customers’ eyes to the shelf.

Freshness has always been a key element and while I have been told that M&S has already had success with its new Suffolk-grown baby Maris Peer, the 750g polybag, priced at £1.99, now carries the slogan “harvested daily”. It is a catchy phrase and one which I expect will turn up on other products, particularly soft fruit, where time is of the essence.

That brings me neatly on to berry fruit, and while the season has peaked there is still an excellent selection on offer. It is one area where I would have thought greater opportunities would have arisen with dairy products, but somehow, unless I am mistaken, ice cream has never featured strongly.

At least Tesco has come up with something new, but more unusually has selected US Bing cherries, at £2.99 for 450g, to carry a 50p off coupon for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Meanwhile the southern hemisphere apple season is still going strong and crowding out our first English Discovery. Fruit quality looks good although there are some mega-sizes around - particularly Pink Lady and Jazz.

There is plenty of activity going on in the salad and vegetable sections too. There was a time when it was almost impossible to buy squashes, but the range, colour and shape just keeps growing and again I hear sales are booming.

As autumn draws nearer Asda is educating shoppers by showing the UK can play its part, as shown by a lesser-known type called Harlequin, priced at £1.77 a kg, and proudly bearing the Union Jack. In the same store, 250g mushroom punnets at 58p, have added interest with an illustrated recipe on the label.

M&S weanie beans, or baby runners, have already won a great deal of media attention over the last few weeks, although it seems that even novelties have to pay the price. Originally £1.49, the price has dropped to just 99p.

Also, what must be something of a novelty more usually associated with Brittany, is new season English-grown globe artichokes. Priced at £1.39 in Sainsbury’s for a single head, the pack gives every appearance of being too large for the product.

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