Everyone knows the saying “an apple a day” - probably the first and best commendation regarding the health-giving properties of eating fresh produce. It proved to be a starting point in a movement to give fresh fruit and vegetables a unique selling point in the public psyche; discounting probably a similar awareness raised by the British Navy that limes combated scurvy.

Nevertheless, this ancient decision may have been the link that led to citrus being recognised as good for you. Blackcurrants and kiwifruit also have a similar vitamin C message, but so far have never quite reached the same level of ascendancy.

En route, there have been both dubious and fanciful claims, although some, in fairness, have later been shown to contain more than a modicum of truth. Spinach has never had a better US ambassador than the muscular cartoon character Popeye. At the height of World War II, the ministry of food - with the help of the RAF hero ‘Cats’ Eyes Cunningham’ - raised public awareness that eating carrots helped improve vision.

Subsequently, in more recent times, bananas received an undoubted benefit when international tennis players and golfers were seen to snack on the fruit as an instant way to boost their energy levels.

The potato industry has battled bravely to ensure the tuber has been recognised as being able to play its part in a healthy diet without putting on weight - a marketing slot that at one point in the 1970s was dominated by grapefruit.

In the last decade, medical science has also begun to add its weight, providing beneficial information that has been translated into good news by both the tomato and mushroom industries.

Then there has been the arrival of superfruits, an exclusive club where the members have to be high in antioxidants, even if the findings still seem to stop slightly short of total confirmation.

And the product range is still growing. Only this week, I hear from AgriLife Research that plums exceed the levels of antioxidants - that magic word again - of blueberries, a fruit that is passing through a planting boom worldwide and is often regarded as being top of the berry category.

Long may these health messages continue, for they all contribute to a strong subliminal but often unrecognised bonus that fresh fruit and vegetables receive. Fresh produce gets very little bad press in comparison with other foodstuffs and avoids the often conflicting reports that come out over other products.

And apart from being readily accessible 52 weeks of the year, fruit and vegetables are mainly very convenient, with the most important element for most people being that they are highly enjoyable at the same time.

The only time I ever came across a warning was in a true story about a prisoner-of-war escape in Malaya, where the heroes lived solely on pineapples for a week, and their teeth fell out.

But that is miles away from even the most optimistic of consumption forecasts!

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