There are times when, while discovering the more unusual products on the retail shelves, a decision has to be taken as to whether newcomers fit into the traditional fresh category. As the New Year dawns, one such example is the arrival of edamame beans, attractively packaged at Waitrose.

For the uninitiated, edamame beans are ready-to-eat, slightly salted podded soya beans. At Waitrose, they are £1.99 for 150g and packed in the UK. But while the beans are a source of fibre and vitamin B, there is a caveat on the pack - “don’t eat the pod!”.

In the same store, there was also a very clear-cut definition on shelf barkers concerning the various flavours of salads. A mix of iceberg lettuce, carrots and pepper is designated sweet; cabbage and tango and batavia lettuce are mild; rocket, mustard and watercress are strong; and raddichio, blanched and coarse endive are classified as bitter.

With more and more information to hand every week, I was intrigued by the majority of the products in the Wise Buys mushroom range at Marks & Spencer. With the exception of Portabello mushrooms, produce from Ireland is described as “hand-picked daily from the lush Irish countryside”. It would be interesting to know what proportion of the crop, both across the sea and in the UK, is now automated.

There is no doubt that Pink Lady has already made its mark as one of the most popular apples to have come on the scene for many years, and is now a truly international fruit. Keeping up the apple’s momentum has already meant its use in many forms in the prize-winning category, and The Co-operative is now running a competition to win Hot Pink digital cameras. The US-sourced packs are priced at £2.80 for six apples, but also offer 50p off the next purchase.

The most effective packaging fulfils a range of different purposes, as well as protection, with the most obvious being the requirement to show off the contents to the best advantage.

In particular, black trays do the job very well for orange fruit, which in the main consists of citrus and apricots. Asda has also adopted this practice in its Extra Special range for a Golden Beauty mini plum tomato from Spain, priced at 99p for 220g.

Topics