However, while Hallowe’en is still several weeks away, Tesco has lost no time in drawing its customers’ attention to the attraction of making Jack-o-Lanterns. Fruit is already appearing in branches priced at £1.99 with a bold label, which also doubles as a template to carve out a masterpiece.

On the fruit front, there is no doubt that before English apples and Mediterranean citrus get under way, grapes are the leading line. Greek Thompson looks very good this year, so I found it difficult to differentiate between 400g punnets of Tesco’s Finest at £1.99 and I suppose what you could call the same weight commodity pack at £1.49.

And talking about added value, while the English carrot season is in full flow with well-graded, young, Norfolk bunches priced at 99p in Sainsbury’s, there were still similar South African mini-packs making £1.79.

Packaging of course is meant to enhance as well as protect, and is now being used to carry some powerful messages. One of the most recent examples has been on mixed maturity packs.

Sainsbury’s, like others, has been applying this to stone fruit. The fact that Portuguese plums, neatly presented in series, carry the instructions on the overwrap must make presentation just that little harder to ensure the fruit is in the right position.

Apart from the packs themselves, outers are also increasingly being used to carry a message which I believe was started with English Bramley several years ago.

At Marks & Spencer, tray cartons carrying Spanish Gala feature the slogan “Bigger Fruit, Better Taste” dual priced at £1.98 a kg or 90p a lb. Particularly appropriate this season.

M&S has also launched a new red mini potato, pictured above. Mimi at £1.99 for 750g is heralded on the pack as another first and ideal for salads. The practice of identifying locations and even growers’ full names on the label is excellent, although I heard one shopper wonder out loud whether the source “Lords Ground A” meant that someone had dug up the sacred cricket pitch!

Meanwhile, more proof that there is always something new, although often I have to be sharp eyed to spot it.

For some time exotic mushrooms have been part of the offer, commercially grown or wild, sourced by harnessing the efforts of specialist pickers in the woods.

So far so good. But it was still a surprise to see that Tesco’s packs of Girolles at £1.79 came from as far afield as Lithuania.

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